As I put down the exercise equipment, my brain tries to focus on what my trainer has said.
“Describe that to me,” asked Rob. He is looking for an answer that required me to connect my brain to my body.
Yes, I know. My brain is connected to my body — the thing that has been carrying my head around for the last 56 years. Since completing my undergraduate degree I have been increasingly immobilized by my working life. Sitting still at a desk, staring at a screen, it’s mostly through my fingers that I connect to my brain.
“I felt great,” I reply. “I could feel it in my back.” Rob is quick to encourage and set up more weight. Then cheerfully he’ll say “okay, next set.”
Every accomplishment in my life has been centered in my head — grades, degrees, promotions, published papers and teaching. But on reflection, I wasn’t paying much attention to my body.
Weightlifting is different. Rob is a trainer and manager at my local gym, my guide in helping me with a single goal — get strong. Despite my age, size and beginner status, Rob has made me feel safe. He is always close by, watching and posing questions. Like “where did you feel that?” or the more general request, “Describe that for me.”
Early on I took these as rote (机械性流程) pleasantries (客套话). Over time I realized he wanted more than just routine answers. Having shown me how to do an exercise, Rob would encourage me to think about the muscle or chain of muscles as they moved. The questions were a test of that connection. Gradually, I started thinking my way back into my body. Not my body as a whole but as individual, connections to newly identified places. Intentionally. Specifically. Magically. It’s surprisingly difficult.
I am five months into a new way of living with this 56-year-old body. It talks to me in a tally different way now. It reminds me of my capabilities, my muscles calling me to move, demanding to be challenged. And I long to continue this dialogue so that I’m ready the next time Rob says: “Describe that to me.”
1. What can we learn from the third paragraph?| A．The author is allergic to exercise. |
| B．The author has been living an active life. |
| C．The author doesn’t understand the trainer. |
| D．The author’s fingers may be flexible. |
| A．To help her release pressure. |
| B．To help her feel her muscles working. |
| C．To keep her focused on work. |
| D．To stop the embarrassing atmosphere. |
| A．The author’s gratitude to Rob. |
| B．The author’s solid determination. |
| C．The author’s recommendation to readers. |
| D．The author’s confusion about weightlifting. |
| A．A brand-new lifestyle. |
| B．An effective way of exercise. |
| C．Weightlifting: my favorite exercise. |
| D．Keeping muscles connected. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Can Exercise Make You More Creative?
If you often exercise, there is a good chance you also tend to be more creative, according to a study of the links between physical activity and imagination. The study, which was published in Scientific Reports, finds that active people come up with more and better ideas during tests of their inventiveness than people who are relatively sedentary.
Science already offers plenty of evidence that physical activity influences how we think. Many studies on people and animals show that our brains change in response to physical activity, in part because during exercise we marinate(浸泡)our brains with extra blood, oxygen and nutrients. In rodent(啮齿动物)studies, animals that regularly exercise produce far more new brain cells than sedentary counterparts, even if they are elderly.
However, creativity is one of the most abstract of thinking skills, and its relationship with exercise has not been clear. Some past research had speculated that good moods might be the intermediary inking activity and creativity. According to that idea, moving makes people happier, and their good cheer in turn stimulates their creativity.
To learn more about how being active could possibly affect creativity in the first place, researchers at the University of Graz in Austria tracked the normal activities of a group of healthy adults.
Crosschecking the data, the scientists found that the most active of the volunteers proved to be also the most creative, especially if they often walked or exercised moderately. Active people also tended to be in high spirits, although their moods were highest if they engaged in vigorous activities, rather than moderate ones. However, the correlations between activity, creativity and moods were slight.
The study was associational, though, meaning that it looked at a brief moment in people’s lives. It did not involve a randomized experiment and cannot tell us how exercise and other activities might shape creativity, if not by raising moods, or show whether a brisk walk now helps us better finish a newspaper column or some other creative venture later. But the results do suggest that active imaginations start with active lives.
| A．In other words, exercise does not directly affect creative thinking. |
| B．They equipped these volunteers with activity trackers for five days. |
| C．Through exercise, people tend to feel refreshed and focused on what they’re doing. |
| D．Creativity is an innate ability, which can be brought out to its full potential with sufficient exercise. |
| E．In people, too, exercise improves our moods and tends to sharpen our abilities to reason and remember. |
| F．This suggested that it was not improved moods, but physical activity, that had a greater influence on creativity. |
【推荐2】Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.
Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all. doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.
High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.
The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure (措施) to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.
Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?| A．Making teens attach importance to ęxercise later. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Helping teens learn to make good plans |
| A．Happiness. | B．Risk. | C．Safety. | D．Sadness. |
| A．means making students choose between sports and studies |
| B．helps students make good use of all their time |
| C．means students adjust to their studies better |
| D．helps students do better in their studies |
| A．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| B．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| C．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
| D．How high school students can live a better life. |
【推荐3】Everyone knows that running is a good way to stay in shape. The simplicity of running appeals to many people. You don’t need a lot of complicated or expensive equipment; you just need a good pair of running shoes. Well, that idea is changing.
This is not a surprise to the Tarahumara Indians, who live in northwest Mexico. The rough terrain (地势) in their area makes it easier to travel on foot than by horse or by car. Traditionally, the Tarahumara were hunters. They follow their prey over long distances, sometimes, for days, until the animals became exhausted.
But here is the amazing part: Tarahumara runners don’t wear running shoes. Tarahumara shoes are very simple. The sole (鞋底) is a piece of rubber held to the foot with homemade belt. These rubber soles protect against sharp objects, but they don’t provide any support or cushioning.
How is it possible that some of the best runners in the world don’t wear running shoes? Scientific studies are beginning to point to something the Tarahumara have known for centuries: Human beings are built for running barefoot. In a recent study, researchers used a video camera to examine how athletes run when they are barefoot.
| A．The study revealed that barefoot runners land on the middle of their foot. |
| B．Some researchers suggest that perhaps you do not need shoes at all. |
| C．As a result, for the Tarahumara, running very long distances became part of daily life. |
| D．Many of these shoes have higher heels that are equipped with special materials. |
| E．As the force of impact drives the foot toward the ground, the arch flattens and expands. |
| F．In response to this research, shoe companies started to reconsider the design of running shoes. |
【推荐1】It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and do all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having Brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string (线). It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute.”
On the way we met Mrs. Patric, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls.
There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the houses. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn’t mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep “the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to “go park, see duck.”
“I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that far.”
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling. “It’s a wonderful day,” she offered, “really warm, yet there’s a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on,” I told my little girl. “You’re right, it’s too good a day to miss.”
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath (余波) of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of — what dark and horrible things?
“Say!” A smile sipped out from his lips. “Do you remember — no, of course you wouldn’t. It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
I hardly dared speak. “Remember what?”
“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
1. Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought ________.| A．she was too old to fly kites |
| B．her husband would make fun of her |
| C．she should have been doing her housework then |
| D．her girls weren’t supposed to play the boy’s game |
| A．felt confused | B．went wild with joy |
| C．looked on | D．forgot their fights |
| A．She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother. |
| B．She was reminded of the day they flew kites. |
| C．She had finished her work in the kitchen. |
| D．She thought it was a great day to play outside. |
| A．the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories |
| B．his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life |
| C．childhood friendship means so much to the writer |
| D．people like him really changed a lot after the war |
【推荐2】When Stanford University student Ellen Xu was a five-year-old in California, she vividly recalls her parents rushing her little sister to the hospital. Three-year-old Kate had fallen acutely ill; she had a fever, reddened eyes, a rash and some swelling in her hands and tongue.
At first, the puzzled doctors thought she had influenza, but when her condition didn’t improve, the Xus returned to the emergency room, where a doctor by chance had prior experience with an acute inflammatory (炎症性的) reaction in the blood vessels known as Kawasaki disease. Though rare, it’s the leading cause of acquired heart disease in babies and young children, and its cause and triggers remain somewhat mysterious. The doctor knew how to treat it: He ordered a dose of intravenous immunoglobulin, and eventually Kate shook off the illness without suffering damage to her heart.
Xu remembers being curious about her sister’s dramatic condition and was amazed that the grown-ups couldn’t answer her questions about why it was so hard to detect. “In my mind, it was this mystery, she says. ”It was a puzzle I wanted to solve. “
A decade later, wanting to enter a high school science fair, she had an idea: ”What if we had a doctor in our pocket?“ So she created just that: Using AT, Xu designed an algorithm(算法) that uses visual data to diagnose (诊断) Kawasaki disease based on five physical symptoms.
The technology works the same way as apps that can identify birds and plants with photos you’ve taken on your cellphone. Worried parents can upload a photo that they have taken of their child, and the technology will scan the image for symptoms of Kawasaki disease, which often have a strong visual element, such as a rash or a swollen tongue.
Xu’s invention has been applied as a web app on the Kawasaki Disease Foundation’s website without charge. ”The technology could also be developed for recognizing auto-immune and rheumatological (风湿病学的) diseases, “ she says. ”It means a lot to me. I want to use Al to help people live happier and healthier lives. “
1. Why was Kawasaki disease so hard to diagnose?| A．It had no symptoms. |
| B．It had never been known before. |
| C．It could be confused with influenza. |
| D．It couldn’t be diagnosed by medical instruments. |
| A．To describe the bad results of the disease. |
| B．To introduce a case remaining mysterious. |
| C．To show why Xu developed the technology. |
| D．To prove doctors should accumulate clinical experience. |
| A．It is convenient and cheap. |
| B．It can take the place of doctors. |
| C．It can treat Kawasaki disease quickly. |
| D．It can diagnose Kawasaki disease via scanned pictures. |
| A．The technology is an AI-powered diagnosed tool. |
| B．Xu had the idea of the technology when Kate was treated. |
| C．The technology can’t be applied to diagnose other diseases. |
| D．Influenza is the leading reason of acquired heart disease in babies. |
【推荐3】When Amanda Wanklin and Michael Biggs fell in love, they didn't realize the challenges they might face as a biracial couple. Amanda says, ''At first we only knew that we wanted together. '' They settled down in Birmingham, England, eager to start a family. On July 3, 2006, the black and white couple got their “one in a million'' miracle: Amanda gave birth to fraternal twin (异卵双胞胎) girls with completely different skin colors, and the greatly amazed parents gave their daughters intertwined names: one would be Millie Marcia Madge Biggs, the other Marcia Millie Madge Biggs.
From a young age the girls had similar features but very different color schemes. Marcia had light brown hair and fair skin like her English-born white mother, while Millie had black hair and brown skin like her black father, who is of Jamaican descent. ''We never worried about it; we just accepted it，'' Michael says.
''When they were first born, '' Amanda recalls, ''people would look at my one daughter and then look at my other daughter. Then I'd get asked the question: 'Are they twins? '''
''Yes. ''
''But one's white and one's black. ''
According to Amanda, people who commented on the girls weren't openly discriminatory (歧视的) or judgmental—just very curious, and then as time went on, people just saw the beauty in them.
The twins know what racism is. ''Racism is where somebody judges you by your color and not by your true self, '' Millie says.
Michael, the father, says he’s faced inequality at times throughout his life because of the color of his skin. '' But it's a different time now, '' he says. Neither he nor Amanda has ever witnessed racist behavior toward their twin girls.
''When people see us, they think that we're just best friends, '' Marcia says. ''When they learn that we're twins, they're kind of shocked because one's black and one's white. '' But when the twins are asked about their differences, they mention something else entirely. ''Millie likes things that are girlie. She likes pink and all of that, '' Marcia says. '' I don't like the color pink; I'm a tomboy. People should know about us by our true selves, not by our colors. After all, people are made how they are. ''
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Amanda and Michael are of the same race. |
| B．Amanda and Michael were not happy about the birth of their twins. |
| C．The possibility of twins with different skin colors is small. |
| D．It was easy for Amanda and Michael to start a family of their own. |
| A．Sometimes Michael is unequally treated because of his race. |
| B．The twin girls see their skin colors as their major difference. |
| C．People are curious but friendly to the twin girls. |
| D．People who are racists judge a person by his appearance. |
| A．She never answers them. |
| B．She is upset about their questions. |
| C．She answers with their different characters. |
| D．She tells them about colors. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Tolerant. |
