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The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a
significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some
of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the
hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100
now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a
Manchester hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place
in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 500 visitors each week. What better place to
hold regular exhibitions of art? Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the out-patients
waiting area of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist,
Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates.
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of
fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering
from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number
of strong pain killers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at.
1. According to the passage, "to soften the hard edges of modern buildings" means ___________.
A. to pull down hospital buildings
B. to decorate hospitals with art collections
C. to improve the quality of treatment in hospitals
D. to make the corners of hospital buildings round
2. According to Peter Senior, _______.
A. art is losing its audience in modern society
B. art galleries should be changed into hospitals
C. patients should be encouraged to learn painting
D. art should be encouraged in British hospitals
3. After the improvement of the hospital environment, patients may _______.
A. no longer need drugs in their recovery
B. no longer depend wholly on expensive drugs
C. need good-quality drugs in their recovery
D. use more pain killers in their recovery
4. The fact that six young art school graduates joined Peter shows that_______.
A. Peter's enterprise is developing greatly
B. Peter Senior enjoys great popularity
C. they are talented hospital artists
D. the role of hospital environment is being recognized