You’ve most likely heard the news by now: A car-commuting, desk-bound, TV-watching lifestyle can be harmful to our health. All the time that we spend rooted in the chair is linked to increased risks of so many deadly diseases that experts have named this modern-day health epidemic the “sitting disease”.
Sitting for too long slows down the body’s metabolism (新陈代谢) and the way enzymes (酶) break down our fat reserves, raising both blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Small amounts of regular activity, even just standing and moving around, throughout the day is enough to bring the increased levels back down. And those small amounts of activity add up — 30 minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts can be just as effective as a half-hour block of exercise. But without that activity, blood sugar levels and blood pressure keep creeping up, steadily damaging the inside of the arteries and increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other serious diseases. In essence, fundamental changes in biology occur if you sit for too long.
But wait, you’re a runner. You needn’t worry about the harm of a sedentary lifestyle because you exercise regularly, right? Well, not so fast. Recent studies show that people spend an average of 64 hours a week sitting, whether or not they exercise 150 minutes a week as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Regular exercisers, furthermore, are found to be about 30 percent less active on days when they exercise. Overall, most people simply aren’t exercising or moving around enough to counteract all the harm that can result from sitting nine hours or more a day.
Scared straight out of your chair? Good. The remedy is as simple as standing up and taking activity breaks.
1. What is the best way to bring down high blood sugar level and blood pressure?| A．Exercising for 150 minutes or more every week. |
| B．Getting rid of the habit of car commuting and TV watching. |
| C．Interrupting sitting time with light activity as often as possible. |
| D．Standing or moving around for at least two or three minutes every day. |
| A．Modern. | B．Risky. | C．Inactive. | D．Epidemic. |
| A．They usually do not meet the standard of exercise recommended by WHO. |
| B．They generally spend less time sitting than those who are inactive. |
| C．They often live longer than those who don’t exercise. |
| D．They tend to stand or move around less on their work-out days. |
| A．The challenges of the modern lifestyle. |
| B．The reasons for the spread of a modern epidemic. |
| C．The effect of regular exercise on our body. |
| D．The threat to our health from long hours of sitting. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Have you ever feel stuck?
Robert Susa helps you do up the power and creativity significantly with a few simple changes to your daily routine:
Go for a walk
Regular exercise helps improve thinking and memory retention. Taking a walk, a cardio class, or a long-distance run gives your brain a rest from work-related thoughts. It has a chance to be creative, which could help you fix the little problem you’ve been having with your invention idea.
Indulge in a hobby
A brain needs novelty and exercises to maintain its youthful functions. If your artistic abilities take over your mind for a few hours each week, perhaps an hour a day is enough to strength your brain.
Eat brain food
Like your body, your brain needs healthy and nutrient-rich foods to increase productivity. Food rich in flavonoids(黄酮类) can help you optimize your brain and assist with creating your produce or service and helping you remember the conversations and connections you have with other people, as well as those random middle-of-the-night thoughts that could prove useful later on.
Find time to clear your mind
If you’re having trouble concentrating or you’re stuck on a problem, take a little time to meditate. It can clear your mind and provide stress release, and let all worries and problems escape. It benefits your body as well.
Add any of these activities-or all four-to your daily routine, and it may help ignite a creative spark. Allowing your brain to change from its workaholic state and into a free-minded flow might be what you need to figure out your great idea.
1. When you feel stuck, you shouldn’t| A．go for a walk |
| B．find time to clear your mind |
| C．eat over-dose brain food |
| D．indulge in a hobby |
| A．Taking a long time to meditate. |
| B．Clearing your mind completely. |
| C．Allowing your brain to its workaholic state. |
| D．Relaxing yourself and providing stress release. |
| A．optimizing your brain |
| B．increasing productivity |
| C．clearing your head of worries and problems |
| D．letting your artistic abilities take over your mind all the time |
【推荐2】Fast walkers may live longer than dawdlers (缓慢的人)— regardless of their weight, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Leicester University analyzed data on 474, 919 people with an average age of 52 in the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2016. They found women who walked briskly had a life expectancy of 86.7 to 87.8 years old, and men who kept up the pace had a life expectancy of 85.2 to 86.8. Slow walkers hadn’t much encouraging prospects (前景): women had a life expectancy of 72.4, and men of 64.8 years old, if they were more leisurely in their movements. According to the paper, published last week, that ratio held true even if the fast walkers were severely overweight. It does not necessarily mean fast walkers will live longer. Experts say it suggests walking speed could be a simple way for doctors to judge their patients’ general health alongside other tests.
It is hardly the first study holding up walking speed as a powerful evidence that appears to improve and determine our health.
In 2011, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study by Stephanie Studenski, who found the same: walking speed was a reliable predictor of life expectancy.
In 2013, US researchers found walking pace was linked to lower heart disease risk and longer life expectancy. In 2018, a study from the University of Sydney found picking up your walking pace to even an “average speed” could cut your risk of premature death by a fifth.
And Tom Yates, the physical activity professor at Leicester who's behind the latest study, has been publishing findings on this connection for years.
In 2017, he analyzed the same UK Biobank data and found walking speed appeared to affect the risk of dying from heart disease — concluding that the slowest walkers were twice as likely to suffer a heart-related death compared to quick walkers.
1. What does the underlined word “briskly” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Casually. | B．Quickly. | C．Actively. | D．Energetically. |
| A．Most fast walkers are overweight. |
| B．Fast walkers have a simple way of living. |
| C．Walking speed can help doctors know about their patients’ general health. |
| D．Doctors will surely have better ways to cure their patients of their illness. |
| A．Walking slowly is bad for people's health. |
| B．Walking speed can predict a person’s life expectancy. |
| C．People won't die early by increasing their walking pace. |
| D．Lower heart disease risk is determined partly by walking pace. |
| A．Fast Walkers May Have a Long Life Expectancy |
| B．Life Expectancy Is Determined by Exercise |
| C．Researchers Try to Improve Life Expectancy |
| D．The Public Doubt Researches on Walking Speed |
【推荐3】Are you relatively skinny but growing a “beer belly”?
Then don’t be surprised at your next checkup if the nurse measures your waistline to determine your healthy weight. That’s because research is showing that a protruding (鼓出的) belly may be a sign of VAT — a dangerous form of fat around organs deep inside your body. “Studies confirm that visceral (内脏的) fat is a clear health risk,” said Dr. Tiffany Wiley, a senior expert at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Unlike the fat just under your skin, visceral fat raises your risk for heart disease. Experts think that’s because visceral fat raises blood pressure and inflames (使发炎) tissues and organs.
However, you can’t assume you’re safe from visceral fat if your overall weight is healthy, experts stress. That’s because you can have dangerous visceral fat even if you’re not considered overweight — and not have any visceral fat even if you are overweight.
How do you know if your stomach is protruding into dangerous size? Do a check. Non-pregnant women with a waist size greater than 88 cm and men with a waist larger than 102 cm, are at higher risk according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you’re Asian, it drops to 80 cm for women and 90 cm for men. But it is only a rough measure. “The only sure way to know is to check your visceral fat levels on a CT scan or MRI,” say experts.
According to the AHA committee, the most salutary physical activity to “shrink” belly is aerobic exercise. Aerobic means “with oxygen”, so aerobic exercise increases your breathing rate and promotes the circulation of oxygen through the blood. This type of exercise makes the heart work more effectively and improves its ability to move oxygen-carrying blood with every beat. Speed walking, jogging, stair climbing, cycling and swimming are all examples of aerobic exercise.
“However, more studies are needed to determine the best physical activity, food and other lifestyle changes to reduce heart disease risk,” Dr. Tiffany Wiley added.
1. What would a “beer belly” cause?| A．Enlarged organs inside the body. | B．Higher risk of heart disease. |
| C．Raised mental pressure. | D．Inflamed stomach. |
| A．A white man with a waist size of 120 cm. |
| B．A white woman with a waist size of 90 cm. |
| C．An Asian man with a waist size of 102 cm. |
| D．An Asian woman with a waist size of 75 cm. |
| A．Beneficial. | B．Difficult. | C．Enthusiastic. | D．Useless. |
| A．Doing aerobic exercise can remove visceral fat completely. |
| B．Heart ability improves when one does speed walking. |
| C．Further studies are needed to reduce heart disease risk. |
| D．Food and life style determine one’s body shape. |
【推荐1】One of the biggest icebergs(冰山) ever recorded has just broken away from Antarctica. The giant block covers an area of about 6,000 sq km; that’s about a quarter the size of Wales, part of the United Kingdom. A US satellite observed (观察)the berg while passing over an area known as the Larsen C Ice Shelf (冰架).
Researchers, who’d been following the development of a large crack(裂缝) in Larsen’s ice for more than a decade, were expecting it. The crack’s expansion had accelerated since 2014, making an upcoming calving(分离) ever more likely. The thick berg will not move very far, very fast in the short term. But it will need to be monitored(监视). Currents and winds might eventually push it north of the Antarctic where it could become a serious threat to shipping.
The American space agency’s Aqua satellite noticed clear water in the crack between the shelf and the berg. The water is warmer relative to the surrounding ice and air. The event was confirmed by other spacecraft such as Europe’s Sentinel-1 satellite-radar system. The new Larsen berg is probably in the top 10 biggest ever recorded. The largest observed in the satellite era was an object called B-15. It came away from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000 and measured some 11,000 sq km. Sixe years later, parts of this super-berg still existed and passed by New Zealand. In 1956, it was reported that a US Navy icebreaker had met with an object of roughly 32,000 sq km. That’s bigger than Belgium. Unfortunately, there were no satellites at the time to follow up and confirm the observation.
The Larsen C Ice Shelf has been known to produce bigger bergs. An object measuring some 9,000 sq km came away in 1986. Many of Larsen’s bergs can enter the Weddell sea or can follow currents into the Southern Ocean, and even into the South Atlantic. A good number of bergs from this shelf can end up being caught on the shallow continental shelf around the British overseas area of South Georgia where they gradually fade away.
1. How did researchers view the appearance of the new Larsen berg?| A．It needed to be confirmed. |
| B．It was smaller than expected. |
| C．It came as no surprise. |
| D．It was formed within a very short time. |
| A．Study the satellite-radar system. |
| B．Keep a close eye on the new iceberg. |
| C．Try to find the cause of the calving. |
| D．Focus on the clear water in the crack. |
| A．B-15 was much bigger. |
| B．B-15 was discovered earlier. |
| C．B-15 was noticed by the satellite |
| D．B-15 was founded by a navy icebreaker. |
| A．To give an example of Larsen’s bergs. |
| B．To compare it with the new berg. |
| C．To show where Larsen’s bergs often go. |
| D．To explain why Larsen produces big bergs. |
| A．The secret behind the phenomenon of calving. |
| B．Larsen C Ice Shelf needs more attention. |
| C．Some of the biggest bergs ever recorded. |
| D．Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctica. |
【推荐2】The population of rare Atlantic puffins in Maine, US, took a hit this year, as the number of chicks to survive a tough summer collapsed. The state's coastal bays and the Gulf of Maine are among the fastest warming large water bodies on the planet, making the puffins' fate a test-case for how climate change could disrupt marine ecosystems worldwide.
The little clown-colored birds faced a complex of challenges: nests were flooded by some of the heaviest rains in a hundred years, exposing chicks to cold and predators. It was tough for young puffins, who were being brought up in caves along the island's shores. And their parents had a hard time finding herring (鲱鱼) and other North Atlantic prey they usually dive for, which scientists think may have swum to cooler waters too deep or far-off for the birds. The adult puffins flew farther than usual to find food. Scientists say this limited their time to keep baby puffins warm in their nests. They did find and bring to the nests a lot of butterfish, but the thing is that butterfish are too big for young puffins to swallow.
The director of the National Audubon Society's Seabird Institute, Don Lyons, says puffins provide a unique window on global warming, on how even small shifts in the range or timing of any one species' occurrence can influence the fate of many others. "Working with puffins in Maine, we're seeing the harbingers (预兆) of climate change every day," he said. "I tend to think of puffins as a group of researchers. They're going out and sampling our marine ecosystem all summer, many times a day. And the way we learn from them is watching what fish they bring back and how well they are able to raise baby coffins. ... They're really telling us to be concerned, you know, to pay attention."
Lyons says that with good management of herring and other fisheries that the puffins depend on, the birds should be able to hang on. Puffins can live up to 30 years and this means it won’t be too terrible if they meet only a bad year. He adds, though, that their future in Maine may depend on just how often those bad years keep rolling in.
1. The phrase “took a hit” (in the 1st paragraph) probably mean “________”.| A．suffer heavy losses | B．escape bad fortune |
| C．increase on a large-scale | D．decline moderately |
| A．Puffins’ nests are open to the attack of their predators. |
| B．Baby puffins are not adequately fed. |
| C．Puffins’ prey prefers to stay in warm waters. |
| D．Butterfish are not the appropriate food for baby puffins. |
| A．puffins are helping human to maintain marine ecosystem |
| B．we can tell the marine ecosystem from what puffins do |
| C．puffins are more capable of diving for their prey |
| D．it’s interesting for researchers to work with puffins |
| A．the control of puffins’ population |
| B．prohibition of fishing herring and other fish |
| C．puffins’ abilities to adapt to different marine ecosystem |
| D．the frequency of the continuous occurrence of bad year |
【推荐3】People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly(均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect (忽略) the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1. The discovery shows that Westerners .| A．pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth |
| B．consider facial expressions universally reliable |
| C．observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways |
| D．have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions |
| A．To make a face at each other. | B．To get their faces impressive. |
| C．To classify some face pictures. | D．To observe the researchers’ faces. |
| A．The participants in the study. | B．The researchers of the study. |
| C．The errors made during the study. | D．The data collected from the study. |
【推荐1】Pressure Cooker Safety
When you are cooking with a pressure cooker, you should learn a few common sense rules：
1. Never leave the cooker unwatched when it is in use.
2. Add sufficient liquid but never past the recommended fill point. Overfilling the cooker may block the vent pipe（排气孔）and cause the cooker to explode.
3. Set the cooking time. Too much time may overcook the food or too much pressure may buildup the cooker. Too little time will lead to undercooked food.
4. If you are new to pressure cooking, follow the cooking instructions carefully. Heat and time can either result in a great meal or a ruined one.
5. Never try to force a pressure cooker cover open. Allow the cooker to cool or run it under cool water before trying to open the cover.
6. Clean the cooker thoroughly after each use. Mild detergent（洗涤剂）and hot water work the best. Do not use stove ash or sand for they may damage the cooker. The gasket is best cleaned in warm soapy water and then dried. Store the gasket in the bottom of the pot.
1. According to the first rule, the user should ______.
| A．never turn off the stove | B．always add sufficient liquid |
| C．never leave the cooker empty | D．keep the cooker under close watch |
| A．after it is cooled down | B．while it is still on the stove |
| C．with force when it is hot | D．as soon as the cooking is finished |
| A．Overfilling the cooker with food and water. | B．Cleaning the cooker with detergent. |
| C．Cooling the cooker with cold water. | D．Setting too little cooking time. |
【推荐2】Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain relevant, but many publishers are too cautious about piracy (盗版) and lost sales to cooperate. Among the big six, only Random House and Harper Collins license e-books with most libraries.
Publishers are wise to be nervous. Owners of e-readers are exactly the customers they need: book- lovers with money. If these people switch to borrowing e-books instead of buying them, what then? Electronic borrowing is awfully convenient. Unlike printed books, e-book files can be downloaded at home from digital libraries anytime. The files disappear from the device when they are due automatically. Awkwardly for publishers, buying an e-book costs more than renting one but offers little extra value.
E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible (不兼容的) e-book formats, devices and licenses. Most libraries use a company called OverDrive, which secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by OverDrive’s global market dominance, as the company can control fees and conditions. Publishers were annoyed when OverDrive teamed up with Amazon, the world’s biggest online bookseller, last year. Owners of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader who want to borrow e-books from libraries are now redirected to Amazon’s website, where Amazon follows up library frequenters directly, letting them know they can “Buy this book” when the loan falls due.
According to Pew, an opinion researcher, library users are a perfect market for Amazon. Late last year Amazon introduced its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which lets its best customers borrow free one of thousands of popular books each month.
Library supporters argue that book borrowers are also book buyers and that libraries are vital spaces for readers to discover new works. Many were cheered by a recent Pew survey which found that more than half of Americans with library cards say they prefer to buy their e-books. So, publishers keep adjusting their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. Random House raised its licensing prices earlier this year, and Harper Collins limits libraries to lending its titles 26 times.
1. What can be inferred from Paragraph 1?| A．Many publishers are hesitant to license e-books. |
| B．The library-publisher relationship has been unstable. |
| C．Libraries and publishers hold the same view towards e-books. |
| D．Random House and Harper Collins are the top two publishers. |
| A．There may be a noticeable drop in profit. |
| B．Rights for publishers can’t be secured any longer. |
| C．E-books can be downloaded again when they are due. |
| D．E-books and their audio files are provided in every format. |
| A．Amazon is adopting measures to win more customers. |
| B．E-books can be lent at libraries as many times as you like. |
| C．OverDrive distributes e-books and audio files to publishers. |
| D．Over half of Americans are borrowing e-books from libraries. |
| A．Reading Online or Offline | B．A Marriage-like Relationship |
| C．A Bright Future for Publishers | D．A Tense Story Raised by E-books |
【推荐3】Get To Know This Sweet and Spiky Fruit
What Are Rambutans?
The rambutan is a tropical fruit native to Malaysia, now grown throughout South East Asia as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Central America. A cousin of the more well-known lychee, both fruits are members of the soapberry family. Rambutans have brownish-pink shells (壳) that are covered in hair-like bristles—in fact, the name rambutan comes from “rambut”, the Malay word for “hair”. The inner white fruit of the rambutan is juicy and sweet. Some say that the rambutan tastes like a sweet green grape.
How to Eat Rambutans
Rambutans are most often enjoyed fresh but also sometimes cooked, used to make rambutan jam. Because of their hard shells, they transport well and are ideal for packed lunches and picnics. They are easily added to cold dishes like fruit salads.
Rambutan Nutrition and Benefits
Rambutans are rich in vitamin C which helps strengthen the immune system and support brain health. Therefore, rambutans make a healthy sweet snack any time of day. Rambutans are low in calories and also rich in fiber (纤维).
Where to Buy Rambutans
Fresh rambutans from abroad can be found in supermarkets nationwide. You can also find rambutans in Chinese and South East Asian markets, both fresh and canned. Though they can be found year round, look for fresh rambutans when they are most plentiful in August and September. When choosing rambutans, pick those that are dark reddish-brown in color. Very pale, light colored rambutans may not be ready to eat.
__________
While you don’t have to immediately put rambutans in a fridge, they will last longer if you do so. To avoid loss of freshness, wrap rambutans in paper and then in a breathable plastic bag.
1. Which are rambutans?A． | B． |
C． | D．  |
| A．The inner white fruit is juicy and sweet. | B．It can be enjoyed fresh or cooked. |
| C．It has a lot of vitamin C. | D．It has zero calories. |
| A．When to Save Rambutans | B．Where to Keep Rambutans |
| C．Why to Wrap Rambutans | D．How to Store Rambutans |
