From the early morning, I sit, glued to the chair in front of my computer, even for hours sometimes. But one thing I try to do every day is take a ten-minute walk around midday.
Walking at lunchtime is a smart thing to do, a new study finds. This doesn’t seem like news. After all, we’ve known forever that doing exercise is good for us. But as The New York Times points out, those fitness studies typically looked at the effects of exercise plans in the long run. This new study looks at changes that happen more quickly, from one day to the next or even from this hour to the next hour.
A group of office workers who almost sit got involved in the research, all out of shape, but otherwise emotionally and physically healthy. Researchers asked them to take 30-minute lunchtime walks, three days a week for 10 weeks. The volunteers were also asked to install apps on their phones, so that the researchers could send the volunteers questions after they walked. Then the researchers used those answers to judge how the volunteers were feeling about life and work, and to measure their feelings about everything from stress and tension to motivation.
When the researchers compared the volunteers’ answers on the afternoons when they walked to those on the afternoons they didn’t walk, there was quite a difference. On the days when they had a lunchtime walk, the volunteers said they felt less stressed, more energetic and more relaxed versus(与……相对) on the days when they didn’t walk.
Unfortunately, many of the volunteers weren’t confident that they’d continue walking after the study, mainly because they were expected to work through their lunch breaks. Understandable, sad.
1. How does the new study differ from other fitness studies?| A．It focuses on the short-term effects of walking. |
| B．It calls on people to have a walk after lunch. |
| C．It mainly pays attention to office workers. |
| D．It aims at studying the relationship between exercise and health. |
| A．To chart their time spent online. | B．To know how long they walked. |
| C．To respond to the researchers’ questions. | D．To prevent them from getting lost. |
| A．Office workers usually have little time to go for a walk. |
| B．Walking brings more advantages to people than other exercise. |
| C．A long-time-to-sit lifestyle is linked to an increased risk of disease. |
| D．Lunchtime walks contribute to quickly boosting people’s mood. |
| A．They will spend more time walking. |
| B．Some of them tend to be more outgoing. |
| C．Most of them will perform better at work. |
| D．They may stop lunchtime walks due to work pressure. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Tricks to keep fit
Do incline sit ups. Prop your legs up on the side of your bed and lie down on the floor so that your legs are above your head.
Add weights to your incline sit-up routine.
Run sprints. This is one of the best cardio (有氧运动) exercises for improving abs, because it forces you to take deep breaths and gives you a complete body workout.
Replace drinking alcohol and soda with drinking water, green tea and fruit juices. There are a lot of calories in alcohol and soft drinks.
| A．Eat healthy foods. |
| B．Lay a light weight across your chest. |
| C．Food helps to maintain and enhance relationships . |
| D．Start off running 20 yard sprints as fast as you can. |
| E．Increase your consumption of soluble (可溶的) fiber. |
| F．Slowly lift your back up off the floor and bring your head toward your knees. |
| G．Changing your drinking habits alone can decrease your calories by 25 percent. |
【推荐2】Humans spend approximately one-third of their lives sleeping, which means that by the time you reach 15 years old, you will have slept for about 5 years! However, the question remains: why do we do it? Sleep has long been a puzzle for people, leading scientists to explore its mysteries. They have found that during sleep, our brains and bodies do not simply shut down; instead, complex processes unfold.
What causes sleepiness? It’s caused by our biological clock releasing a special chemical signal at the same time daily, signaling it’’s time to wind down. The feeling of heaviness comes from the buildup of old nerve messenger chemicals. When the message gets too much, the brain senses that it’s time to sleep. During sleep, the body breaks down and clears away these old messengers, preparing for a fresh start.
As you slip into sleep, your heart and breathing slow down, and your brain ignores the most sounds and surroundings around you. Despite appearances, your brain remains active during sleep, performing essential tasks. Throughout the night, you cycle through light, deep, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep stages every 90 minutes. Early on, slow-wave sleep is the primary stage, aiding in brain cleaning, while towards morning,REM sleep increases, leading to vivid dreams. During sleep, your body repairs and grows, creating new skin, muscle, and other tissues with released chemicals. It’s also a time for hormone (荷尔蒙) production, aiding growth, and boosting the immune (免疫) system to fight infections.
Scientists still have many questions about sleep, such as why some people need more sleep than others and how certain animals can function with less sleep. They aim to find ways to improve sleep quality. However, one thing is clear: getting enough sleep is vital for health and intelligence. Think of sleep as a free magic potion that strengthens you, aids growth, boosts immunity, and enhances intelligence, happiness, and creativity. Simply lie down and rest to enjoy these benefits.
1. What inference can be drawn from scientists’ findings about sleep?| A．Sleep serves no purpose. | B．Sleep has fundamental processes. |
| C．Sleep involves complex processes. | D．Sleep has minimal impact on brain function. |
| A．Determining the best time for sleep. |
| B．Controlling chemicals within the body. |
| C．Managing eating and digestion patterns. |
| D．Regulating daytime and nighttime activities. |
| A．Describing the different stages and functions of sleep. |
| B．Discussing the benefits of daytime activities for overall health. |
| C．Exploring the effects of inadequate sleep on the body and mind. |
| D．Analyzing the impact of stress on the immune system during sleep. |
| A．Narrative of personal sleep experiences. |
| B．Comparison of human and animal sleep patterns. |
| C．Imaginary stories illustrating the advantages of sleep. |
| D．Explanation of sleep importance, with body processes described. |
【推荐3】Try This at Home!
Are you looking for new pastime that will create a balance between physical activities and relaxation? Then yoga may be the perfect choice for you. Yoga can be practiced by people of all ages and levels of fitness.
In the 1930s, Indian Sri T. Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois developed one of the most popular forms of yoga practiced worldwide today. They worked together using an ancient Sanskrit text called Yoga Korunta to create a set routine of yoga movements and breathing exercises.
Ashtanga is different from other forms of yoga. It is a very powerful form of aerobic(有氧的) exercise which creates deep heat in the body.
Furthermore, yoga encourages you to think about what you’re doing. Often you will close your eyes while doing certain movements.
| A．It can also be done anywhere at any time. |
| B．The result of their cooperation was ashtanga yoga. |
| C．Whatever kind of yoga you choose, there are many long-term benefits. |
| D．This allows you to concentrate better and it makes you less competitive. |
| E．Every time someone practices ashtanga, he or she does exactly the same movements. |
| F．If you’re interested in yoga, but can’t find a class near you, then you can learn it by yourself. |
| G．Recently, it has become extremely common for yoga students to go on yoga holidays. |
If you see humor as an optional form of entertainment (娱乐), you’re missing some of its biggest benefits: Humor makes average-looking people look cute. Humor helps uninteresting people seem entertaining too. Studies show that a good sense of humor even makes you seem smarter.
Humor also transports your mind away from your daily troubles. Humor lets you better understand life and sometimes helps you laugh at even the worst of your problems.
In my experience, most people think they have a sense of humor, and to some degree that’s true. But not all senses of humor are created equal. So I thought it would be useful to include some humor tips for everyday life.
You don’t have to be the joke teller in the group in order to show your sense of humor. You can be the one who directs the conversation to fun topics that are ripe for others to add humor.
When it comes to in-person humor, effort counts a lot. When people see you trying to be funny, it frees them to try it themselves. For in-person humor, quality isn’t as important as you might think. Your attitude and effort count a lot.
Some people believe that humorous complaints (抱怨) about the little problems of life make humor, and sometimes that is the case. The problem comes when you start doing too much complaint-based humor. One funny observation about problem in your life can be funny, but five is just complaining, no matter how smart you think you are.
Self-deprecating humor (自嘲式) is usually the safest type, but here again you don’t want to overshoot the target. One self-deprecating comment is a generous and even confident form of humor. But if you do it too often, you can transform in the eyes of others from a confident joker to a Chihuahua dog.
1. How does humor make average-looking people look? (不多于六个单词)2. What is important for in-person humor? (不多于三个单词)
3. How many humor tips are mentioned in the passage? (一个单词)
4. What’s the passage mainly about? (不多于七个单词)
【推荐2】Imagine a warm spring day 66 million years ago. Fish would have been swimming in the rivers in an area that’s now North Dakota in the US. Seconds later, the peace was ended by destruction.
These could have been the very last moments of the dinosaur era when a city-sized asteroid (小行星) struck Earth, killing off three quarters of all species on the planet. According to a study published in Nature on Feb 23, the asteroid hit in springtime, which saw the death of an over-160-million-year-old dynasty and changed the course of evolution of life on Earth.
Scientists have long been confused over the time of year the asteroid hit, and how some animals managed to survive while dinosaurs didn’t.
Researchers in 2019 discovered the fishes fossils in North Dakota that died shortly after the asteroid hit Earth. They examined the fossils with a particle accelerator and found out there was seasonal growth on the bones. All fish bone cell densities (密度) and volumes can indicate the season. Because the accelerator also could capture the size, researchers were able to determine when in the year the asteroid hit.
The timing of the big hit, at least for the Northern Hemisphere (北半球), came at a particularly sensitive stage. “I think spring puts a large group of the late Cretaceous biota (白垩纪生物) in a very difficult situation because they were out and about looking for food, tending to their babies and trying to build up resources after the terrible winter,” an author of the study said.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it was in autumn, a season when many creatures prepared for winter. Therefore, life in the Southern Hemisphere was a lot more prepared for this event.
It is unclear whether small animals in the Northern Hemisphere actually did worse than those in the south. There is evidence that Northern Hemisphere turtles were extinguished in the asteroid strike, after which their habitats were later repopulated by turtles from the south, the author said.
1. What influence did the asteroid strike have on the earth?| A．All the creatures on the earth died out. |
| B．It opened a new era in the course of evolution. |
| C．The dinosaur era lasted over 160 million years. |
| D．Only twenty-five percent of dinosaurs survived. |
| A．Life in the Southern Hemisphere was more likely to survive the hit. |
| B．Most animals died because they were sensitive to the harsh environment. |
| C．The larger the size of the animals, the more potentially they could survive. |
| D．The fishes bone cell densities and volumes can tell what caused to the death. |
| A．Broken up. | B．Taken up. | C．Left out. | D．Wiped out. |
| A．The Asteroid Hit. | B．The Cause of Extinction. |
| C．Springing to Extinction. | D．The End of the Dinosaur Era. |
【推荐3】What to cook when you have guests? I always feel like I'm walking on eggshells(小心翼翼） when I have to prepare a dinner party for new friends or people I don't know well.
Take President George Bush senior for example. He had been forced by his mother to eat broccoli(西兰花）since he was a kid. So, upon taking office he banned the vegetable aboard Air Force One.
But it's not only bad memories that make us tun our noses up at certain foods.
So you understand a cook's dilemma when he has guests unfamiliar to him..
| A．There are biological reasons too. |
| B．Food is to man what water is to fish. |
| C．And food is about cultural diversity too. |
| D．Everyone prefers healthy food to fast food. |
| E．Some eaters are particular and don't like cheese. |
| F．It revealed common patterns in foods the British reject. |
| G．This left a bitter taste in the mouths of farmers producing it. |
You can rent a variety of motorbikes or bikes in Thailand. It seems to be very popular in most of the beaches and islands along the places in the north. The most popular bikes are the little 125 cc Honda Dream which you can get for about 150 baht (铢) a day or as little as 3,000 baht per month, making it the cheapest way to tour Thailand for the people from other countries.
Sometimes you will have to go somewhere by taxi. When you are in cities in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, always remember to get a taxi that is traveling on the roads. Some drivers outside hotels refuse to use the meter(计程表). They will ask a price which is several times the price when they use the meter!
The quality of the roads in Thailand is generally pretty good, so renting cars is another way to get around. The big car rental companies may offer you slightly older cars at a very reasonable(合理的) price. It is a little surprising considering that the cost of buying a car in Thailand is more than that in the West. Petrol is also reasonably priced in Thailand, more expensive than American prices, but much cheaper than what is paid in Europe. In the past, Bangkok could be a difficult place to drive in—signs were generally in Thai only, making it a hard job to find exactly where you were by looking around. But now, the situation is improved. In a lot of places, even the farthest corners of the country, street signs are in both Thai and English.
1. To a foreigner, the most economical way to get around Thailand is renting a ________．
| A．motorbike | B．car | C．taxi | D．bike |
| A．To make sure there is a meter in it. |
| B．To take a taxi parked outside hotels. |
| C．To take a taxi going on the road. |
| D．To bargain with the driver over the price. |
| A．there were too many traffic jams on the roads |
| B．the signs were written only in their own language |
| C．there were no signs at the farthest corners |
| D．the quality of the roads was not good |
【推荐2】If you ask some people "How did you learn English so well?", you may get a surprising answer, "In my sleep!”
These are people who have taken part in one of the recent experiments to test the Learn While You Sleep method, which is now being tried in several countries, and with several subjects, English is among them.
Scientists say that this sleep study method greatly speeds language learning.They say that the ordinary person can learn two or three times as much during sleep as in the same period during the day—and this does not affect (影响) his rest in any way.However, sleep teaching will only put into your head what you have studied already while you are awake.
In one experiment, ten lessons were broadcast over the radio for two weeks.Each lesson lasted twelve hours—from 8 pm to 8 am.The first three hours of English grammar and vocabulary were given with the students awake.At 11 pm a lullaby (催眠曲) was broadcast to send the student to sleep and for the next three hours the radio in a soft and low voice broadcast the lesson again into his sleeping ears.At 2 am a sharp noise was sent over the radio to wake the sleeping student up for a few minutes to go over the lesson.The soft music sent him back to rest again while the radio went on.At 5 o'clock his sleep ended and he had to go through the lesson again for three hours before breakfast.
1. By the Learn While You Sleep method, one_______________.| A．starts to learn a new lesson in sleep |
| B．learns how to sleep better |
| C．is made to remember his lesson in sleep |
| D．can listen to the radio broadcast anywhere |
| A．in the night time | B．after lullabies were broadcast |
| C．while the student was awake | D．all through the twenty hours |
| A．get up and take breakfast | B．be woken up by a loud voice |
| C．listen to the lesson again in sleep | D．review the lesson by himself |
| A．the English language | B．grammar and vocabulary |
| C．a number of subjects | D．foreign languages |
Ask most people anywhere in the world what they want out of life and the reply will probably be: “to be happy.” Ed Deiner, an American psychology professor, has spent his whole professional life studying what makes people happy, comparing levels of happiness between cultures and trying to find out exactly why we enjoy ourselves.
Many people would say that this question does not need an answer. But Professor Deiner has one anyway. “If you’re a cheerful, happy person, your marriage is more likely to last, and you’re more likely to make money and be successful at your job. On average, happy people have stronger immune systems, and there is some evidence that they live longer.”
So who are the world's happiest people? It depends on how the word is defined. There is individual happiness, the sense of joy we get when we do something we like. But there is also the feeling of satisfaction we get when we know that others respect us and approve of how we behave. According to Professor Deiner, the Western world pursues individual happiness while Asia prefers mutual (相互的，彼此) satisfaction.
“In the West, the individualistic culture means that your mood matters much more than it does in the East. People ask themselves if they are doing what is fun or interesting. They become unhappy when they can’t do any of these things. If you ask people from Japan or China if they are happy, they tend to look at what has gone wrong in their lives. If not much has gone wrong, then they are satisfied.”
People from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries had the happiest culture, Professor Deiner found. “The biggest cultural difference is to do with pride and shame. Hispanic (西班牙语言的) cultures report much more pride and much less shame than others.”
Income also made a big difference to people’s happiness, but only at the lowest levels. Average income earners in the US were much happier than people in poverty. But millionaires were only a little bit happier than people on average incomes. It seems that money makes us happy when we have enough to feel secure.
1. According to the passage, happy people enjoy the following benefits except ______.
| A．a long marriage | B．profession success |
| C．better health | D．respect from others |
| A．Hispanic cultures lay stress on pride and shame. |
| B．Spanish people take too much pride in themselves. |
| C．Attitude towards pride and shame results in Spanish happiness. |
| D．If you are from Spain, you are the happiest. |
| A．Poor people enjoy the same happiness as millionaires |
| B．the higher income one gets, the happier life he lives |
| C．Enough money can make us feel safe and happy |
| D．Average income earners live the happiest life |
| A．cultural differences in happiness |
| B．reasons for happiness |
| C．the happiest culture |
| D．benefits of happiness |
