【推荐1】Everyone knows that walking is one of the best means of exercise for health, so physicians often recommend 150 minutes a week. But that’s a measure of volume (量). What about the walking speed? Does that make a difference? A recent paper indicates the answer may be yes.

Previous research had only focused on total amounts of exercise in minutes or steps. A team of experts in Sydney looked at whether people who walked similar distances but at different speeds gained more or less health benefits

The researchers studied 11 English and Scottish population-wide reports that included more than 50,000 regular walkers with an average age of late 40s. The walkers were grouped according to four walking speeds: slow, average, brisk(轻快的) and fast. Lastly, the researchers figured out the death( from heart disease and cancer) rate during an average follow-up period of 9.2years.

New researchers showed marathoners had less arthritis(关节炎) than non-runners.

Participants who walked at an “average” speed, as opposed to ” slow ” , had a 20 percent lower risk of death. Those walking at a “ brisk ” or “ fast ” pace enjoyed an additional 4 percent lower death rate. While the best speeds vary with one’s own age and fitness, a pace below 20 minutes per mile is considered average, and below 18 minutes per mile is considered brisk. All the benefits came from lower heart-related deaths. Walking pace had no effect on cancer rates.

“Our paper is the first paper to keep apart walking pace from the physical activity volume ,”

Explained Emmanuel Stamatakis , a professor of the Charles Perkins Center. “We also took steps to role out ( 排除 ) the possibility that the slow walkers were in poor health to begin with.”

“Walking more is better than walking less. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that any walk improve health. Keep out of the ‘ slow ’ zone. Make sure you’re putting some effort into your walk”, Stamatakis noted. “ An appropriate effort for those in a comfortable walking routine might be slightly out of breath.”

When you’re short of time, simply walk faster to increase the pay-off. “ A faster pace means you are challenging yourself to make adaptations for better health and fitness,” said Stamatakis.

1. What’s the finding of the recent paper?

A．Slow walkers are in poor health at first.

B．Walking speed influences one’s health.

C．Walking pace has some effect on cancer rates.

D．Walking 150 minutes a week is good for health.

2. How were the walkers sorted in the research?

A．They were divided into groups by walking pace.

B．They were put into different age group.

C．They were groups by health condition.

D．They were organized by nationality.

3. What can we know about the research?

A．Participants are from eleven countries.

B．Participants include people of all ages.

C．It collected data during an average of 9.2 years.

D．It focused on total amounts of exercise in minutes.

4. What’s Stamatakis’s advice for those in a comfortable walking routine?

A．Working more.	B．Walking a little faster.
C．Trying other exercise.	D．Changing the present lifestyle.

【推荐2】Is It Bad to Cross Your Legs When You Sit?

Crossing your legs is an extremely common habit; most people don’t even notice that they’re doing it when they sit down. While you may find it comfortable to sit with one knee crossed over the other. it might be causing health problems that you are not aware of.

A study published in Blood Pressure Monitoring stated that sitting with your legs crossed can increase your blood pressure. This happens because the blood in your legs has to work against gravity to be pumped back to your heart, crossing one leg over the other Increases resistance (阻力), making it even harder for the blood to circulate. This causes your body to increase your blood pressure to push the blood back to the heart. You won’t feel any immediate effects, but if you sit for long periods of time it’s important that you take note of how long you have your legs crossed for. You shouldn’t have your legs crossed for more than 15 minutes. and it’s important that you get up and walk around at least once every hour.

Crossing your legs can also lead to neck and back pain. Ideally, it’s best for our bodies to sit with our feet planted flat, hip width apart, on the floor, but it’s not easy to maintain perfect posture all day at the office. When you sit with your legs crossed your hips are in a twisted position, which can cause one of your pelvic bones (骨盆) to rotate. Since your pelvic bone supports your neck and spine, this can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck.

You also might notice that when you sit with your legs crossed for long periods of time your feet and legs get tingly or have the feeling of being asleep. This is because when one leg sits on top of the other it causes pressure on the veins and nerves in your legs and feet. It can cause pumbness and/or temporary paralysis in the legs, ankles, or feet While the feeling of discomfort may only last a minute or two, repeatedly crossing your legs until they feel numb can cause permanent nerve damage.

So next time you sit down, try to get yourself in the habit of sitting with both of your feet on the floor. Not only will it help your posture and stability, but it will also save your health in the long run.

1. According to paragraph 2. we can infer that ________.

A．it’s no big deal to cross our legs for less than 15 minutes

B．we will feel uncomfortable at the moment we cross the legs

C．we should take a walk every hour after sitting still

D．crossing legs while sitting-makes it harder to ciroulate our blood

2. According to paragraph 4. repeatedly crossing your legs may

A．paralyze all of your muscles	B．preventing you from standing up
C．damage your nerve in the leg in the end	D．reduce the pressure on the major nerve

3. Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐3】Evaluating Sources of health Information

Making good choices about your own health requires reasonable evaluation. A key first step in bettering your evaluation ability is to look carefully at your sources of healthy information. Reasonable evaluation includes knowing where and how to fins relevant information, how to separate fact from opinions, how to recognize poor reasoning, and how to analyze information and the reliability of sources.     1    

Go to the original source. Media reports often simplify the results of medical research. Find out for yourself what a study really reported, and determine whether it was based on good science. Think about the type of study.     2    

Watch for misleading language. Some studies will find that a behaviour ＂contributes to＂ or is ＂associated with＂ an outcome; this does not mean that a certain course must lead to a certain result.     3     Carefully read or listen to information in order to fully understand it.

Use your common sense. If a report seems too good to be true, probably it is. Be especially careful of information contained in advertisements.     4     Evaluate ＂scientific＂ statements carefully, and be aware of quackery (江湖骗术).

    5     Friends and family members can be a great source of ideas and inspiration, but each of us needs to find a healthy lifestyle that works for us.

Developing the ability to evaluate reasonably and independently about the health problems will serve you well throughout your life.

A．Make choices that are right for you.

B．The goal of an ad is to sell you something.

C．Be sure to work through the critical questions.

D．And examine the findings of the original research.

E．Distinguish between research reports and public health advice.

F．Be aware that information may also be incorrectly explained by an author’s point of view.

G．The following suggestions can help you sort through the health information you receive from common sources.

【推荐1】Move Over, Selfish Gene

Evolution traditionally has a problem with nice people. If only the fittest individuals survive, then those who are nice to others at their own expense will surely be weeded out. Yet cooperation is widespread in nature, from plants alerting each other to danger to dolphins cooperating to round up fish.

A decades-old idea called kin selection can explain some of this: if organisms (生物) have enough DNA in common, then they can further their own selfish genes by helping one another. Bees and ants have a system of reproduction which leaves colony members so closely related that they act almost as a single super-organism. And among any sexually reproducing species, parental care helps individuals pass on their genes.

But kin selection cannot explain why humans are so nice to strangers. One idea is that we have evolved to be super-cooperative because, over time, more cooperative groups have outcompeted less cooperative ones. But there generally isn’t enough genetic variation between groups to allow natural selection to favor more cooperative ones.

Some researchers think the solution lies in an idea called cultural group selection. Forget shared genes, they argue. Selection can favor cooperative groups if the people within them share enough culture. The idea is controversial because to work it requires that groups remain culturally distinct. As critics point out, people tend to migrate (迁移) between groups, which should homogenize (使同质化) ideas and customs. Those who back the concept counter that groups have ways to maintain their distinct culture, including a process called norm (准则) enforcement. Put simply, if someone migrates into a new cultural group, they are pressured into following the local rules because failing to do so leads to punishment.

Earlier this year, Mathew and Handley at Arizona State University published a study testing the idea. They sampled 759 people from four ethnic groups in Kenya who compete intensively for land, water and livestock. The pair estimated that genetic differences between individuals from different groups was generally less than 15%. Cultural practices and beliefs varied much more, by 10% to 20%. People cooperated most with members of their own group, as cultural group selection predicts, and to a lesser extent with members of other groups whose norms most closely matched their own. That makes sense if culture rather than genetics is what matters. “I think this is one of the most explicit tests of cultural group selection theory so far,” says Mathew.

Not everyone is persuaded. Krasnow at Harvard University sees no theoretical flaw with the idea, but says that some of his research undermines it. He has found that people don’t just enforce the rules within their group, but also punish people from other groups who fail to follow their own group’s norms. Mathew counters that it is reasonable to enforce the norms on outsiders as a step towards incorporating (使并入) them into your cultural group. “This is often how empires expand,” she says.

1. The example of bees and ants is used to ________.

A．highlight the significant role of reproduction

B．demonstrate the efficiency of a super-organism

C．reveal why parents care about their selfish genes

D．explain the cause of organisms helping one another

2. For the idea of cultural group selection to work, a pre-condition is that ________.

A．cooperative groups have a larger chance of survival

B．genetic variations in the same cultural group are small

C．cultural differences are weakened with people migrating

D．cultural distinctiveness can be preserved with certain methods

3. The text is developed mainly through ________.

A．sorting information into different topics

B．narrating events in time order

C．presenting doubts and exploring answers

D．discussing similarities and differences

4. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．culture plays a more significant role in choosing cooperators

B．being selfish is of vital importance for an individual to survive

C．Mathew’s study result contradicts what cultural group selection predicts

D．people joining a new group will be punished for not keeping their own culture

【推荐2】When Christopher Columbus landed on the then unnamed Costa Rica in 1502, he saw many Indians wearing gold earrings. So he thought the land must be rich in gold. He named the place Costa Rica, which means “rich coast” in Spanish.
Though little gold was found, Costa Rica today is indeed rich with coffee and bananas. Coffee is the most important product in Costa Rica and most of it is exported (出口) to other countries like America and West Germany. Bananas are the country’s second most important export.
Costa Ricans also grow many other crops such as fruits, corn and beans for their own use. Costa Ricans love colors and their houses are painted in bright colors.
Education is very important to the Costa Ricans. Almost every village has a school and education is a must for children between seven and fourteen years of age. Boys and girls go to separate (单独的) schools. Classes begin in March and end in November. The other three months of the year are harvest time and the children have to help their parents to pick coffee beans.
1. What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?

A．How Columbus found Costa Rica.

B．How Costa Rica got its name.

C．What the Costa Ricans wore.

D．What language the Costa Ricans spoke.

2. The Costa Ricans may NOT paint their houses ______.

A．pink and red	B．grey and black
C．blue and green	D．yellow and orange

3. In Costa Rica, boys and girls between seven and fourteen ______.

A．must go to school

B．study in the same school

C．do not have to go to school at all

D．can choose to stop schooling at any time

4. From December to February, school children in Costa Rica ______.

A．have lessons every day

B．have their examinations

C．help their parents pick coffee beans

D．help their parents decorate their houses

【推荐1】Most of the sandstorms that had swept China last year originated from foreign land, a Chinese official in charge of desertification control said Monday. And the invasions (入侵) could partly explain the frequent sandstorms in the country in recent years despite its achievements in desertification control.

Since the start of last spring, the north and northwestern Chinese regions had been hit by 17 sandstorms, of which, a dozen came from foreign land.

Situated in the central-Asia sandstorm region, one of the world’s four largest sandstorm sources, China also suffers from sandstorms from outside the country while being blamed as a sand source to northeast Asia. The other three major sources are in Africa, North America and Australia.

The land suffering from desertification has been decreasing by 7,585 sq.km annually in China, and the area of sandy land has also been falling by 1,284 sq.km a year.

The shrinkage (收缩) forms a clear contrast to the fact that the land suffering from desertification and sandy feature was added by 10,400 sq.km and 3,436 sq.km late last century, respectively.

Currently, the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million sq.km, accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation’s land, and its sandy land totals 1.74 million sq.km, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country’s total.

1. What does the underlined word “decreasing” mean in Paragraph 4?

A．Going up.	B．Going down.
C．Coming from.	D．Taking up.

2. Where do most of the sandstorms in China come from?

A．The northern Chinese regions.

B．The northwestern Chinese regions.

C．Foreign countries.

D．The western part of China.

3. Which of the following is believed to be the sand source to northeast Asia?

A．China.	B．Africa.
C．Mongolia.	D．Australia.

4. In a magazine,the passage may be found in the column of                 .

A．entertainment	B．health
C．education	D．environment

【推荐2】In five minutes Buck had made fourteen hundred dollars for Thornton and his friends. The money made it possible for them to travel east, where they wanted to look for a lost gold mine. Men said that this mine had more gold than any other mine in the north. Many had looked for it, and some had died looking for it. The only men who knew where it was were now dead.

Thornton, Pete and Hans, with Buck and six other dogs, started off to the east in the spring. They travelled up the Stewart River and crossed the Mackenzie Mountains. They did not move quickly；The weather was good, and the men shot animals for food when they needed it. Sometimes they travelled for a week, and sometimes they stopped for a week and searched for gold in the ground. Sometimes they were hungry, and sometimes they had lots of food. They spent all the summer in the mountains, carrying everything they needed on their backs, sometimes making boats to go down rivers or across lakes.

In the autumn they came to a strange, flat country, with many lakes. They travelled on through the winter and met nobody, but once they found an old wooden house, with an old gun in it.

When the spring came, they found, not the lost mine, but a lake in a wide valley. Through the shallow water the gold showed like yellow butter, and here their search ended. There was gold worth thousands of dollars in the lake, and they worked every day, filling bag after bag with gold.

The dogs had nothing to do except watch the men and eat the food which the men shot for them. Buck spent many evenings sitting by the fire.

As he sat, he saw again his dream world, where the strange hairy man sat next to him. He also heard something calling him into the forest. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, he lifted his head and listened, and then ran off into the forest.

One night he woke up and heard the call again, a long howl. He ran into the forest, following the sound, and came to an open place in the trees. And there, his nose pointing to the sky, sat a wolf.

The wolf stopped howling and Buck walked slowly towards him. The wolf ran, and Buck followed. After a time, the wolf stopped and waited, watching Buck, ready to attack. But Buck did not want to fight, and soon the wolf realized this, and the two animals became friendly. Then the wolf started to run again, and he clearly wanted Buck to follow him. They ran for hours through the forest, and Buck remembered again his dream world where he, and others like him, had run through a much older forest.

Then they stopped to drink, and Buck remembered John Thornton. He turned and started to run back. The wolf followed him, then stopped and howled, but Buck ran on and did not turn.

Thornton was eating dinner when Buck returned. Buck jumped all over him, and for two days never left his side. He followed him everywhere, watching him while he ate and while he slept. But after two days the call of the wild came again, and he remembered the forest and the wolf who had run beside him.

He started to sleep out in the forest at night, sometimes staying out for three or four days. Once he was away for a week, fishing and killing animals for food. He ate well, and he grew stronger and quicker and more alive. His golden brown coat shone with health as he ran through the forest, learning its every secret, every smell, and every sound.

“He's the finest dog that I've ever seen,” said Thornton to his friends one day as they watched Buck walking out of camp. “There’11 never be another dog like him,” said Pete.

They saw him walking out of camp but they didn't see the change that happened when he was inside the forest. At once he became a thing of the wild, stepping softly and silently, a passing shadow among the trees.

1. How long did it take them to find gold?

A．About a year.	B．About two years.
C．About six months.	D．About three months.

2. What is the best title of this chapter?

A．The call of the wild.

B．The wolf in the forest.

C．The dog’s dream world

D．The lost gold mine.

3. This excerpt is a part of______?

A．a documentary novel.

B．a biography.

C．a fiction.

D．a news report.

4. In this excerpt(节选)we can clearly see that the author is good at______?

A．describing mental activities.

B．visualizing vivid scenes.

C．doing psychological analysis.

D．expressing personal belief.

5. What can we infer from the last four paragraphs?

A．Thornton and Pete noticed the change in Buck.

B．Thornton and Pete thought Buck was the best dog.

C．Buck became more and more obedient.

D．The wild life made Buck become stronger.

6. Which of the following about Buck is right?

A．Buck's hidden wildness was slowly awakened.

B．Buck liked to fight with the wolf in the forest.

C．Thornton and Pete didn't treat Buck well at all.

D．Buck didn't make any money for Thornton and his friends.

【推荐3】A camera has captured footage of two wild giant pandas in a national park in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The clips, taken in the Xuebaoding section of the Giant Panda National Park, include two pandas wandering in the daytime and moving alone at night. It is particularly rare to see two wild giant pandas walking together, the administration of the park said on Friday.

In the video, a giant panda walked up to a tree and sniffed it carefully. Then a second panda, looking like a quiet “little girl”, approached, looking at the ground, perhaps in search of food. Later, the first panda turned around, rubbing its bottom back and forth as if scratching or dancing, a typical marking behavior in animals. After that, it lay on the ground, waving its hands and feet around, as if to amuse its companion.

According to a staff member at the administration, the camera was set up on Dec. 23, 2019 in a location that was often visited by the furry animals.

Wildlife protection experts said the video was likely taken in April, the breeding(繁殖) season for wild giant pandas. The two adult pandas were very harmonious together, with no fighting, leading to the conclusion that they were probably a male and a female engaged in courting and playing.

In 2017, China announced a plan to build the Giant Panda National Park to help the endangered animals strengthen their relations, bringing together pandas on six mountains in three provinces, Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan.

1. The underlined word “clips” in Paragraph 2 probably means “__________”.

A．cameras	B．national parks
C．giant pandas	D．videos

2. Why did the first panda wave its hands and feet?

A．To help itself lie on the ground.

B．To attract the female panda.

C．To ease the discomfort.

D．To search for food.

3. What can you infer from Paragraph 5-6?

A．Pandas often like to fight in April.

B．Only adult pandas can live in harmony.

C．Giant pandas were better protected after 2017.

D．China started to help all the endangered animals in 2017.

4. Where can you most probably read the passage?

A．In a fashion magazine.	B．In a travel brochure.
C．In a storybook.	D．In a newspaper.

【推荐1】There are hundreds of types of birthday cake in the world. You are likely to enjoy one during at least one of your birthday parties. But have you ever stopped and wondered, “Why am I eating this? What makes this dessert fit to celebrate the day of my birth?”

It’s because you are as important and beloved as the gods.

The ancient Egyptians are thought to have “invented” the celebration of birthdays. They believed when pharaohs (法老) were crowned, they became gods, so their coronation (加冕) day was their “birth” as a god.

Ancient Greeks borrowed the tradition, but realized that a dessert would make the celebration more meaningful. So they baked moon-shaped cakes to offer up to the goddess of the moon. They decorated them with lighted candles to make the cakes shine like the moon. It is the reason why we light our birthday cakes on fire.

Modern birthday parties are said to get their roots from an 18th century German celebration. On the morning of a child’s birthday, he or she would receive a cake with lighted candles that added up to the kid’s age, plus one. This extra candle was called the “light of life,” representing the hope of another full year lived.

And then, torture — because no one could eat the cake until after dinner. The family replaced the candles as they burned out throughout the day. Finally, when the moment came, the birthday child would make a wish, try to blow out all the candles in one breath, and dig in.

Since the ingredients (原料) to make cakes were pretty expensive, this birthday custom didn’t become popular until the Industrial Revolution. More ingredients were available, which made them cheaper, and bakeries even started selling pre-baked cakes.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The origin of birthday cakes.	B．The significance of birthday cakes.
C．The history of birthday parties.	D．The introduction of cake production.

2. Who established the tradition of celebrating birthdays with cakes according to the passage?

A．Germans.	B．Pharaohs.
C．Ancient Greeks.	D．Ancient Egyptians.

3. The underlined word “torture” in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ________.

A．pleasure	B．replacement
C．sharing	D．suffering

4. Why was the birthday cake custom unpopular before the Industrial Revolution?

A．The transport was inconvenient.

B．The ingredients of cakes were expensive.

C．The cake could not be eaten before dinner.

D．The bakeries would not sell pre-baked cakes.

【推荐2】Like many people，I’ve spent much of my life trying various diets and methods of losing weight, some quick and painless, others slow and tiring. most of them including the so-called “cheat day”.

The principle of the cheat day is simple: After going on a diet throughout a week or a month, you can eat anything you like on that day. The day makes all my eating and drinking not only satisfactory but acceptable. After all, I deserve it.

However, the problem for me was that cheat days were never quite that. Either they became happy cheat weeks, cheat months and sometimes cheat years, or they filled me with anxiety of going off-track so that I couldn't truly enjoy them. Using food as a reward only perpetuated my unhealthy relationship with food, and it troubled me in my approach to health.

After struggling for a couple of months, I came to realize the true colors of the cheat day. It goes to extremes — none or all. Also, cheat days imply that foods can be divided into “good” and “bad”. That's why I felt guilty when I had a piece of cake for breakfast instead of fat-free milk. But food, in fact, has no moral (道德的)value. It is simply intended to fill your body and provide nutrition. Hopefully it tastes good, too.

This simple thought has inspired me to quit cheat days. I don't feel worried or ashamed any more and start to reconsider my relationship with food. I just pay more attention to the signs of my stomach, and eat what I desire while being mindful of the health results. Doing away with cheat days lightens my mind and improves my relationship with food.

1. What do people do on a "cheat day”?

A．Tell lies.	B．Eat what they like.
C．Go on a diet.	D．Try gaining weight.

2. What does the underlined word “perpetuated” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Ruined.

B．Continued.

C．Repaired.

D．Improved.

3. What does the author mainly want to tell us?

A．A healthy relationship with food matters.

B．One needn't feel guilty about eating little.

C．“Cheat day” is effective in nutrition control.

D．Losing weight does harm physically and mentally.

【推荐3】Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. We go fishing, sit in the garden, have a picnic, live in the suburbs or go to the seaside. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. When joggers jog, they don't run the streets. Every one of them tend to go to the park or the river.

But despite this, our children are growing up nature deprived. I spent my boyhood climbing trees. These days, children are robbed of these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and strange new ideas about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.

The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the US: families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Those whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.

ADHD is one of the great problems of modern childhood. One study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.

The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing concern for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality. Even problems with crime and aggressive behaviour are reduced when there is contact with the natural world.

We need the wild world. It is essential to our well-being, our health and our happiness.

1. According to the author, people enjoy      to seek nature.

A．running in the gym	B．jogging on the street
C．shopping in the supermarket	D．sitting in the garden

2. From the second paragraph, we can see that        .

A．climbing trees will certainly do good to the children

B．children probably spend less time in nature nowadays

C．adults deprive the children of their rights to approach nature

D．children tend to be happier as a result of their material satisfaction

3. In what way do people benefit from their contact with nature?

A．Children with ADHD can be cured.

B．Children's performance at school is greatly improved.

C．A garden nearby improves the quality of old people's life.

D．Problems with crime and violent behavior will easily be solved.

4. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Getting close to nature improves our life.

B．Nature can treat the children with ADHD.

C．Playing in nature reduces aggressive behaviour.

D．Human beings can not live without natural areas.