Success and Risk(风险) in Extreme Sports
What is it that drives some to take extreme risks,while the rest of us hurry for the safety of the sidelines?
Lester Keller, sports-psychology expert, says that not everyone has the mental makeup to do well in extreme sports. He notes that most of us hit a natural ceiling(天花板) that limits our interest for extreme risk. But others have a much greater interest for risk. Keller points to a top ski racer. He told Keller that the great risk makes you feel alive, tests what you are made of and how far you can take yourself. He said he would get nervous on some of the courses, but that this would just make him fight more.
Psychologists note that some people seem to be crazy for adrenaline(肾上腺素) rushes as a behavior looking for excited feelings. Like many extreme athletes, Emily Cook’s interest for risk appeared at a young age, “ was a gymnast,” she said. “I was one of those kids who enjoyed and did well at anything where you were upside down”. As she started doing harder tricks, she was drawn to the challenge. “There are moments when you’re up there doing a new trick and it seems like an impossible thing. But overcoming that is just the coolest feeling in the world.”
Shane Murphy, sports professor, has worked with groups climbing Everest. “To me, that just seems like the height of risk,” he said. “But to them it was the next step in an activity that they’ve prepared for years.” Murphy said the view of extreme athletes is different from our own. “We look at a risky situation and know that if we were in that situation we would be out of control. But from the athletes’ view, they have a lot of control, and there are many things that they do to minimize(最小化) risk.”
Another understanding of risk may be something referred to as “the flow”, a state in which many athletes become concentrated on the acts that focus the mind completely on the present. “Something that makes you try doing a tougher climb than usual, perhaps is that your adrenaline flows and you become very concentrated on what you’re doing,” Murphy says. “After it’s over, there’s great excitement.”
People of different skill levels experience the flow at different times. Some may always be driven to adventures that others consider extreme. “I can enjoy hitting a tennis ball around, because that’s my skill level,” Murphy says. “But others might need the challenge of Olympic competition.”
1. By using the term “natural ceiling” in Paragraph 2, Lester Keller points out that .| A．extreme athletes must learn special skills |
| B．extreme athletes have chances to take risks. |
| C．many people don’t want to do extreme sports. |
| D．many people can’t limit desire for extreme sports. |
| A．They put in lots of preparation for challenges. |
| B．They are more fortunate than other sportspeople. |
| C．They carry little risk when facing big challenges. |
| D．They have special reasons that others can’t easily understand. |
| A．Extreme athletes use techniques or skills that other people don’t use. |
| B．Non-athletes are probably wise not to try extreme sports. |
| C．Most people can’t concentrate on bigger risks. |
| D．A certain state of mind makes people want to try something difficult. |
| A．risk-taking is something you either naturally do or avoid |
| B．those who take risks will possibly be successful in life |
| C．extreme athletes are driven by a need to be better than others |
| D．taking part in extreme sports is not as difficult as people think |
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【推荐1】Teen Fitness
Our Teen Fitness program will be available from July 4 to September 3 for youth aged 12 to 17 at all GoodLife Fitness clubs from coast to coast, across Canada.
Participating teens will have full club access with the following exceptions: pool, Hot Yoga Studio, Tennis Court and Tanning Salon (日光浴沙龙).
We've all heard the news: Overweight teenagers are tipping the balance at an alarming rate. According to the Canada Health Measure Survey :
★ Over 26% of children and youth are overweight.
★ 60% of Canadian youth do not get the required daily physical activity for their growth and development.
★ 93% of children and youth are not meeting Canada's Physical Activity Guidelines.
Instead of a Teen Fitness membership card, this year our teens will have a regular membership card presented to them.
Pre-registration will be available in June.
General Teen Information:
★ Free teen membership for ages 12 - 17 only.
★ Membership term: July 4-September 3; all teen memberships come to an end September 3.
★ Parents or legal guardians must register for a Teen Member and provide proof of age.
★ Membership includes access to most club areas at all locations: 7 days a week from 8 am to 4 pm with last check-in at 3:00 pm.
★ The teens will receive their membership key tags (标签)upon completion of registration at the club.
★ Maximum workout time for Teen Members is 2 hours per day.
1. What does the survey in Canada show?| A．Teens' state of health is worrying. |
| B．Most teens can't balance study and play. |
| C．Schools pay much attention to teens' fitness. |
| D．50% of teens benefit from GoodLife Fitness. |
| A．At most two hours' daily exercise. | B．Three-month free membership. |
| C．Free access to the Tennis Court. | D．Light exercise at night on weekends. |
| A．buy a key tag after registration | B．make the registration by himself |
| C．arrive no later than 3:00 pm | D．be accompanied by his parents |
【推荐2】Winter-swimming has become popular in Beijing. Three years ago, few people would go swimming in the icy waters. But now there is a Winter-swimming Enthusiasts’ Club（冬泳爱好者协会）and it has more than 2 000 members. The oldest is 84 years old and the youngest is only 7. The members are from all walks of life. They may be workers, peasants, soldiers, teachers, students…
Though it is now the coldest part of the season and the water temperature in the city’s lakes is around 0℃, many winter-swimmers still swim in the icy waters, even when it is snowing. They enjoy themselves in the lake, while the people by the side of the lake are wearing heavy clothes.
Why are so many people interested in winter-swimming? Because winter-swimming can be good for one’s health.
Bei Sha is a good example. He is 69, and he once suffered from（患……病）heart trouble for 26 years. After ten years of winter-swimming he is now in good health. Scientists are now studying the effects of winter-swimming on health.
1. Among the winter-swimmers the oldest man is_______ ye
ars older than the youngest one.| A．91 | B．84 |
| C．77 | D．7 |
| A．The members do different jobs at different places. |
| B．They come from all parts of Beijing. |
| C．They are persons of different ages. |
| D．They are men and women, old and young. |
| A．they are not afraid of coldness |
| B．they often swim in the icy waters |
| C．they know that they can benefit（得益）from it |
| D．winter-swimming can make people healthy |
| A．more and more people like to swim in Beijing |
| B．it is more interesting than swimming in summer |
| C．winter-swimmers are brave men |
| D．winter-swimming does a lot of good to one’s health |
【推荐3】“Our research has shown that the No. 1 reason people become fans is that it's your connection to your first community,” said Adam Earnhardt, chairman of the communications department at Youngstown State University and co-author of Sports Fans, Identity and Socialization: Exploring the Fandemonium. “I don't care if a Seattle fan moves to China, he or she carries with them their love for the sports teams,” he said. “
“It's phenomenal,” said Simons. “We have this ability to understand other people so remarkably that their victories literally become ours. Our testosterone literally responds to their victory.
Professor Robert Cialdini at Arizona State University came up with the term BIRG— Basking In Reflected Glory—to describe the intense pride fans feel when their teams succeed. It can be used as a verb, as in, "Seahawks' fans are currently BIRGing up a storm." The counterpoint, as coined by researchers C. R. Snyder, Mary Anne Lassergard and Carol E. Ford, is the concept of CORFing—Cutting Off Reflected Failure.
This leads into another concept, that of cognitive bias, also known as confirmation bias, which causes fans to help explain away defeats by blaming outside factors, such as referees. I'm sure it would also help explain why Seahawks fans rallied around Richard Sherman after his postgame interview, rationalizing behavior that was widely criticized by many fans with no vested interest. It could also explain the notion of "eustress", invented by endocrinologist Hans Selye to refer to a combination of euphoria(极度愉快的心情)and stress, such as that resulting from watching tense sporting events. Indeed, it's much of the appeal.
| A．It means that different team is accessible to you. |
| B．Belonging to your favorite team stimulates your confidence. |
| C．That identity is first and foremost. |
| D．The more we follow a team, the deeper the bond becomes. |
| E．In that sense, your favorite team can serve the same purpose as church and family: Fostering a sense of belonging. |
| F．This refers to the inclination by fans to distance themselves from their team after a defeat. |
【推荐1】An international design competition was held in 1955 for an art center to be built. There were 233 entries received from many countries. Danish architect Jorn Utzon won the competition with his unique design of shells that looked like sails on a boat.
The construction began on March 2, 1959 and was expected to be accomplished within 4 years. However, they quickly ran into trouble. The ground was not suitable to hold the weight of the building and huge concrete foundations (混凝土地基) had to be built. Mr Utzon had also made mistakes about how many columns (柱) would be needed to support the roof, thus making the concrete shells at the risk of falling down.
Mr Utzon figured out a new way to disperse the weight of the concrete by making each shell out of a part of a perfect globe. The 14 shells look like a single piece of concrete, but they are actually built across frames (框架) of concrete to hold them in place. They weigh as much as 15 tons each. The highest roof point of the building is 67 m above sea level — the same as a 22-storey high building.
This major correction saved the project but added one decade to the building time. The building consists mainly of two main halls, a number of smaller theaters, performance halls and other additional facilities. Both main halls are housed in relatively large sail-shaped structures, and the smaller performance halls are housed at the ground floor. In particular, the grand organ (风琴) in the concert hall is one of the world’s largest organs containing over 10,000 pipes.
The Sydney Opera House is a great success in the history of architecture. It is not only a world-famous performing arts center and the landmark of Sydney, but also recognized as one of the seven wonders of the world of the 20th century. In 2007, the Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
1. What was the difficulty when building Sydney Opera House?| A．Its columns were at the risk of falling down. |
| B．There was no satisfactory appearance design. |
| C．The foundation couldn’t support its huge weight. |
| D．No suitable site could be found for construction. |
| A．Put on. | B．Spread out. | C．Cut down. | D．Look into. |
| A．4 years. | B．6 years. | C．10 years. | D．14 years. |
| A．Its position. | B．Its history. | C．Its general shape. | D．Its inner structure. |
【推荐2】As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and French, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars (学者) from a number of organizations—UNESCO and National Geographic among them—have for many years been documenting (记录) dying languages and the cultures they reflect. Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Centre Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following that tradition. His recently published a book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, which grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not satisfied to simply record these voices before they disappear without record. At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials, including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes, which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded, the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project, Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, for the world available not just to scholars but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. What’s the function of paragraph 1?| A．The main idea of the whole passage. |
| B．To attract the attention of the readers. |
| C．An introduction to the topic of the passage. |
| D．To express the writer’s anxiety about the dying language. |
| A．They wanted to follow those traditions. |
| B．They hoped to experienced their culture. |
| C．They hoped to specialized in the languages. |
| D．They wanted to prevent the disappearing of the languages. |
| A．He did lots of research into the materials in Cambridge University. |
| B．He gathered the materials from first-hand experience. |
| C．He was not satisfied with the present situation. |
| D．He raised a family in a village in Nepal. |
| A．How he recorded those languages. |
| B．How he founded two organizations. |
| C．What he did to save those languages. |
| D．What he did is of great importance to protect those languages. |
【推荐3】An unconventional method for growing rice has been found to increase yields (产量) by 20 to 50percent. Reports from China, India, Southeast Asia and Africa suggest that average yield increases of 20to 50 percent are regularly being achieved by farmers adopting the “system of rice intensification (SRI)” which needs one-tenth as many seeds and aims to stimulate (激发) the root system of plants rather than trying to increase yields in the conventional way by using improved seeds and fertilizers.
The idea of using less to gain more is seen as an important innovation for adapting farming to climate change and a way to increase yields at a time when human populations are growing fast but traditional plant breeding (育种) and genetically modified (改变) techniques have failed to increase yields more than a few percentage points, says Norman Uphoff, professor of International Agriculture at Cornell University.
The new way to grow rice needs only half as much water, and proves most popular in water-stressed countries, says Tavseef Mairaj Shah, a Ph. D. researcher. “Rice growing in Kashmir largely depends on irrigation systems that draw water from the river Jhelum. But climate change is leading to drier winters, untimely rains, and warmer summers.”
“SRI is a great technique, not just from the water-saving perspective but because it offers better yields and soil conditions. Different studies, both at the experimental level and farmer—participative level, have shown that SRI improves yields with less water,” Shah adds.
Some academics, the global seed industry and the international community once rejected reports of “fantastic” yields, accusing farmers of falsifying (篡改) records and researchers of carelessness and “non-science”. But more than 600 articles, checked by SRI International Network and Resources Center at Cornell University, have shown benefits.
Uphoff says, “Attitudes are changing. The original hostility (敌意) has gone.” However, the early opposition has resulted in comparatively little scientific research being conducted into SRI and a slow understanding by funders.
1. How does SRI increase the yields of rice?| A．By sowing more seeds. | B．By using improved seeds. |
| C．By adopting special fertilizers. | D．By improving its root system. |
| A．needs less water |
| B．increases labor costs |
| C．requires better soil conditions |
| D．depends on genetically modified techniques |
| A．Curious. | B．Doubtful. | C．Approving. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．How to increase yields? |
| B．People’s attitudes towards SRI. |
| C．A novel means of growing rice. |
| D．The disadvantages of conventional plant breeding. |
