Nenad Bach, an American composer and singer who lives with Parkinson’s disease (帕金森病) is the founder of “Ping-pong Parkinson”, a movement that promotes ping-pong as a therapy (疗法) to improve the lives of Parkinson’s patients worldwide.
After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2010, Bach found that his tremors (颤抖) and other symptoms were keeping him from playing his guitar. But a friend introduced him to ping-pong, also known as table tennis, and he soon found that both his motor skills and his mood seemed to improve when he played. Bach’s doctor confirmed his improved state. And that’s when the idea for “Ping-pong Parkinson” took root.
In 2017, Bach worked with well-known New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz. Shortz also happens to be the owner of the Westchester Table Tennis Center. In October of 2019, the first Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championship was held at the Center, attracting people with Parkinson’s disease from as far away as Sweden, Japan, Brazil, Croatia, England, and China.
Recently, a small study was conducted by scientists at Fukuoka University in Japan. People with Parkinson’s disease participated in a table tennis exercise program once a week for six months. Participants experienced significant improvements in facial expression, posture rigidity, speed of movement and hand tremors. They also experienced improvements in speech, handwriting, getting dressed, getting out of bed and walking.
Dr. Ken-ichi Inoue, the study’s author, comments, “While this study was small, with twelve participants, the results are encouraging because they show ping-pong, a relatively inexpensive form of therapy, may improve some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.” Dr. Inoue is planning a much larger study to confirm his findings.
1. Why did Bach pick up ping-pong?| A．He found it great fun. |
| B．He followed his doctor’s advice. |
| C．He wanted to improve his conditions. |
| D．His friend needed someone to play it with. |
| A．“Ping-pong Parkinson” met with wide objections. |
| B．Doing word puzzles benefits people living with Parkinson’s disease. |
| C．Bach taught people living with Parkinson’s disease to play the guitar. |
| D．The first Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championship was held in the US. |
| A．Small subject number. | B．Short studying period. |
| C．Incomplete study aspects. | D．Limited subject performances. |
| A．To promote a sports event. |
| B．To tell the story of Nenad Bach’s struggle. |
| C．To introduce a therapy for Parkinson’s disease. |
| D．To present the findings of Nenad Bach’s research. |
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【推荐1】When he moved from South Africa to New York City, Norman Rosenthal noticed he felt more depressed during the cold, short days of the city’s winters than he had in his home country.
“It was an illness hiding in plain sight because people said ‘well, that’s how everyone feels in winter.’ They didn’t see it as treatable,” says Rosenthal, a world-famous researcher at Georgetown Medical School. In 1984, he published the first paper to scientifically name the winter blues-Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also called seasonal depression. It was a type of depression brought on by the dark days of winter.
Mental health experts say there are solutions to treat SAD. The first treatment that may have longer lasting benefits is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a form of talk treatment that Rohan, a heath expert recommends for treating SAD. “Negative (消极的) thinking will produce negative emotions, and we want to change those into slightly less negative, more neutral (中立的) thoughts,” she says of the CBT approach. For example, “I hate winter.” might be replaced as “Winter isn’t my favorite season, but I still find things to enjoy.”
Finding wintertime hobbies may also help. “People with SAD often have hobbies and interests that are summer specific-growing gardens, beach going,” Rohan says. Instead of hibernating (冬眠) under a blanket, she suggests those people find indoor hobbies to enjoy-knitting, joining a book club or going to the gym. Exercising, learning ways to manage stress or planning a sunny vacation during the winter can all help to improve your mood.
Rosenthal stresses that there’s no reason to not seek mind health treatment, even if symptoms (症状) are only present for a few months out of the year.
1. What can be inferred about Norman Rosenthal?| A．He is the first to describe SAD. |
| B．He was suffering from SAD in 1984. |
| C．His paper about SAD is on his own experience. |
| D．His life in South Africa contributes to SAD research. |
| A．Make people follow their heart. |
| B．Improve people’s talking skills. |
| C．Help people change negative thinking. |
| D．Get rid of people’s wrong idea of SAD. |
| A．People with SAD don’t grow gardens. |
| B．Lifestyle changes are useful for mind health. |
| C．Managing stress depends on people’s preference. |
| D．Winter is a good time to improve people’s mood. |
【推荐2】Dr. Raint Mishori of Georgetown University Hospital says many people believe it's possible to become immune to colds. But that's not the Case. “There are about 200 different viruses that cause the common cold and people think that once you get a cold, you develop immunity for the rest of your life . This is wrong.” She said.
There are many other common beliefs about colds that medical science doesn't support. How many of us believe the main cause of the common cold is exposure to cold temperatures? Even some studies have shown that people get sick more frequently during the winter.
But Dr. Mishori says it is not because of cold weather. It's because people tend to gather and the way the common cold virus is transmitted from one person to another is through handshake, through sneezing, or through coughing on one another.
While there is no actual cure for the common cold, Dr. Mishori says there are still a few things you can do to help reduce its duration and ease symptoms. Though the medical community says Vitamin C does not help prevent colds, there is definitely some proof that it helps keep them from being as bad. “So if you catch a cold and start taking about two grams of Vitamin C a day, there is evidence that it might shorten the number of days that you will be suffering with these symptoms.” Dr. Mishori stated.
In addition, medical science says honey and chicken soup are effective against colds. Especially honey. “There is increased evidence that it helps shorten the duration of the common cold sometimes even by two to three days particularly in children,” Dr. Mishori said. “Chicken soup also helps reduce the duration of the cold.”
There's also a common belief that you should “feed a cold and starve a fever.” Dr. Mishori says “not necessary”. “If you do have a cold and you don't feel like eating anything, it's not going to hurt you but you have to drink a lot and you can drink water or you can drink tea, anything that gets fluids into your body, “she said, “That's very important.”
So—if drinking fluids is a good idea—what about milk? “I will never give milk to a child who has got bad phlegm. My son used to have that and he would threw up.” Nadine Audrewy, a proud grandmother of 5, believes it's not a good idea to give milk to a child who has a cold.
Well, says Dr. Mishori, maybe and maybe not. “Dairy products do not cause increased secretions but they can thicken the secretions,” she explained. “So it's possible that discomfort is increased when you drink milk, but obviously if you are a baby and it's all you drink then you should not stop giving babies milk.”
There are many other myths about colds that do not stand the test of science. Doctors say the best advice is to continue using whatever works best for you. Even if it doesn't make the cold better, it won't make it worse either— while you wait for the cold to just run its natural course.
1. A medical expert will probably agree__________.| A．people develop total immunity after a cold | B．viruses spread only in winters |
| C．a cold may be the result of human contacts | D．low temperatures are major threats to our health |
| A．drink a lot to get fluids | B．have as much tea as possible |
| C．force yourself to eat a lot | D．starve yourself to kill the virus |
| A．exposure to cold weather is the main cause of common colds |
| B．getting fluids into bodies can cure colds |
| C．chicken soup and Vitamin C help prevent colds |
| D．dairy products may increase the discomfort of a child with a cold |
| A．common yet mistaken beliefs | B．recent scientific discoveries |
| C．experience from older generations | D．conclusions proved by researches |
【推荐3】More than half the young children and teenagers in China are nearsighted, according to a survey by top government agencies, which called for intensified efforts to prevent and control the condition.
The survey, which was conducted last year, found that eight of 10 senior middle school students were nearsighted, compared with 71.6 percent in junior middle school, 36 percent in primary school and 14 percent of 6-year-olds in kindergarten. Overall, 53.6 percent were nearsighted. The prevalence (流行程度) of a high degree of myopia also became alarming as the percentage of senior students in high school, who wear glasses stronger than six diopters, has mounted to 21.9 percent. Up to 80 percent of the country’s young adults suffer from nearsightedness, according to a report in the medical journal Lancet. In contrast, the overall rate of myopia in the UK is about 20-30 percent. If you walk the streets of China today, you’ll quickly notice that most young people wear glasses. In Shanghai, for instance, 86 percent of high school students suffer from myopia, or nearsightedness, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The growing prevalence of myopia is not only a Chinese problem, but it is an especially East Asian one. According to a study published in The Lancet medical journal in 2012, by Ian Morgan, of the Australian National University, South Korea leads the pack, with 96 percent of young adults (below the age 20) having myopia; and the rate for Seoul is even higher. In Singapore, the figure is 82 percent. To say that Asia is having an eye problem is an understatement.
Several factors are associated with the high rate of nearsightedness in China's children and teenagers, including lack of outdoor physical activity, lack of adequate sleep due to heavy work and excessive use of electronics products. And some biologists compared Singaporeans living in Singapore to those living in Australia. They found that 29 percent of the Singaporean students had myopia compared with just 3 percent in Sydney. The main correlation was once again, time spent outside.
“The big difference was the Chinese children in Australia were outdoors a lot more than their matched peers in Singapore,” says Ian Morgan, a retired biologist at Australian National University, who coauthored the 2008 study. “This was the only thing that fit with the huge difference in prevalence.”
1. From paragraph 2, according to the survey we can know that ____________.| A．the rate of myopia in Shanghai is the highest |
| B．the rate of myopia in the UK is higher than that in China |
| C．the rate of junior middle school students who suffer from myopia is the highest |
| D．the rate of senior middle school students who suffer from myopia is the highest |
| A．Time of reading books. | B．Lack of adequate sleep. |
| C．Lack of outdoor physical activity. | D．Excessive use of electronics products. |
| A．introduce some methods to protect our eyes |
| B．tell us why so many people have an eye problem |
| C．compare the myopia figures of different countries |
| D．call on everyone to pay attention to the myopia among the young people |
| A．A literary essay. | B．A historical novel. |
| C．A science report. | D．A travel magazine. |
【推荐1】Getting out into the great outdoors is an even better idea than you think.
It's good exercise.Let's not forget the most obvious benefit of camping.
It is a good way to truly connect with nature.Too often we take nature for granted.In fact，spending a few days in nature with the family will teach your kids thins they may have never known before.
You have no stress after the camping.Vacations can be stressful.Sometimes when you get home from vacations，you need another rest for your last vacation.
| A．You can stay away from TV. |
| B．They may know how to work an iPad. |
| C．You'll meet new challenges each time. |
| D．Sure. it saves some money if you stays in a camper. |
| E．You're spending a lot of time performing physical activities. |
| F．Many campers report better sleep cycles when they return from a trip. |
| G．But once you settle into camping with your family，the stress of every day will disappear. |
【推荐2】At an age where many of his contemporaries are winding down, Jo Schoonbroodt is somehow speeding up. On Sunday, the 71-year-old from the Netherlands, ran a marathon in 2hr 54min 19sec to become the fastest septuagenarian (70-90 年龄组) in history.
A few days later, when the Times catches up with him, his achievement is still sinking in. “I only started jogging at 36 because my doctor told me I had high cholesterol (胆固醇),” he says. “But last year I ran 7,242 kilometres, which is more than double what I did in my car.”
But the secrets of his success might surprise you。 “Most runners train too hard. I do a lot of my training with groups who run very slowly. And then I build on these basics with some faster interval training.”
Schoonbroodt often runs at 9-or 10-minute mile pace, far slower than the 6.38min / mile he ran for 26.2 miles to set his world record, but he says the crucial thing is that he listens to his body. “A lot of people follow a training plan or coach and push on even when their body is saying: ‘No, this is not a good day to do it.’ But if you go out the door and just do what you feel, it’s easier to keep running and stay injury-free.”
Being a late bloomer (大器晚成), he believes, has actually helped him because his ego (自我意识) never had to worry about chasing faster times of his youth. “Because I started so late, I missed my best years. But that’s no problem. Everything is still new to me.”
Schoonbroodt, meanwhile, has no plans to put his feet up. “My next marathon is in two and a half weeks, on an old Roman road built 2,000 years ago,” he says, the excitement obvious. It will be his third in 2023. And with that he is off. After all, the quest (追求) for another sub-three-hour marathon waits for no man. Not even one who is 71.
1. What message does Schoonbrodt’s story carry?| A．It is never too late to run. | B．More haste, less speed. |
| C．Time waits for no man. | D．An earlier bird catches the worm. |
| A．He competed with slower runners. |
| B．He made full use of the intervals. |
| C．He trained in line with his condition. |
| D．He ran faster in the races than in trainings. |
| A．He can draw lessons from other runners. |
| B．He has no youthful success to think back to. |
| C．He can equip himself with new running skills. |
| D．He has a strong desire to make up for the lost time. |
| A．He is unsure of winning it. | B．He is eager to participate in it. |
| C．He has no plan to enter for it. | D．He will not run it in three hours. |
【推荐3】The biggest soccer organization in the U.S. introduces new rules to make the sport safer.
The U.S. Soccer Federation announced that players in its teams who are 10 or younger are no longer allowed to head the ball. Players aged from 11 to 13 have limits on how often they can practice heading.
The new rules are set to stop kids from getting hurt because of a blow to the head that shakes the brain. Players may get headaches by heading the ball. Even worse, they may also get concussions, which will cause lasting brain damage.
Heading the ball can be one of the most dangerous parts of soccer. Sometimes the force of hitting the ball with their heads gives players concussions. But more often, players receive concussions when they jump to head the ball and by accident knock heads with other players or fall and hit their heads on the grass.
“More concussions happen during the act of heading than any other action in soccer,” says Dr. Robert Cantu, an expert on brain damage.
So far, the new rules are only used by teams that are part of the U.S. Soccer Federation. But the group says it hopes more soccer teams will soon follow its example.
Former U.S. soccer star Brandi Chastain is one of the leaders of the activity to ban heading among young soccer players. She welcomes the rule change but wants the rule to include all players under 14.
1. The new rules are made to________．| A．keep young players from being hurt |
| B．teach young players how to practice heading |
| C．make the U.S. Soccer Federation more famous |
| D．encourage young players to improve their skills |
| A．She is against them. | B．She supports them. |
| C．She is unsure about them. | D．She doesn’t care about them. |
| A．New rules in soccer. | B．How to protect young players. |
| C．Brain damage becomes more common. | D．The introduction of the U.S. Soccer Federation. |
【推荐1】A United Nations report found the ozone layer (臭氧层) is slowly recovering, more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing ozone-consuming chemicals. The ozone layer, a blanket of gas that exists between 10km and 50km above Earth’s surface, protects the planet from the sun’s powerful radiation.
“We see things getting better,” said Paul Newman, co-chair of the UN team that examines the health of the ozone layer every four years. The global average amount of ozone 30km high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045.In Antarctica, where the ozone layer is so thin that there’s a big hole, it won’t be fully fixed until 2066, the report said.
The global effort to recover the ozone hole came out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol. Professor Petteri Taalas said the recovering of the ozone layer showed what could be achieved when the world worked together. “Ozone action sets an example for climate action,” Professor Taalas said.
There were signs of recovering in the last report on the ozone layer four years ago but the improvements were only slight. “Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot,” Mr. Newman said. Mr. Newman added the two main chemicals that damage the ozone layer—chlorine (氯) and bromine (溴)—were now in lower levels in the atmosphere. Chlorine levels were down 11.5 per cent since peaking in 1993 and bromine, which is more damaging to the ozone layer but is at lower levels in the air, dropped 14.5 per cent since its 1999 peak.
UN environment program director Inger Andersen has previously said the recovering of the ozone hole was “saving two million people every year from skin cancer”.
1. What do we know about the ozone layer from paragraph 1?| A．It made the whole world work together. |
| B．It can protect the sun from powerful radiation. |
| C．It is recovering at a speed more than expected. |
| D．It can produce some chemicals for consumption. |
| A．The average amount of ozone. | B．The present situation of ozone. |
| C．The places where ozone appears. | D．The times when ozone fully recovers. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Uncertain. | C．Optimistic. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．There were some false data in the last report. |
| B．Chlorine and bromine levels in the air have come down. |
| C．Skin cancer is caused to a larger extent by the ozone layer. |
| D．Chlorine causes more damage to the ozone layer than bromine. |
【推荐2】The American dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage, creativity and determination, they can achieve a better life for themselves. More specifically, they agree on how to get ahead in America: get a college education, find a reliable job, and buy their own house. But do Americans still believe in that path, and if they do, is it attainable?
The most recent National Journal poll(民意测验，投票) asked participants about the American dream, what it takes to achieve their goal, and whether or not they felt the control over their ability to be successful. Obviously, the results show that today, the idea of the American dream and what it takes to achieve it looks quite different from it did in the late 20th century. By the large, people felt that their actions and hard work — not outside forces — were the deciding factors in how their lives turned out. But the participants had definitely mixed feelings about what actions make for a better life in the current economy.
In the last seven years, Americans have grown more pessimistic about the power of education to lead to success. Even though they see going to college as a fairly achievable goal, a majority 52 percent think that young people do not need a 4-year college education in order to be successful.
Miguel Maeda, 42, who has a master’s degree and works in public health, was the first in his family to go to college, which has allowed him to achieve a sense of financial stability(稳定) his parents and grandparents never did. While some, like Maeda, emphasized the value of a degree rather than the education itself, others still see college as a way to gain new viewpoints and life experiences. Sixty-year-old Will Fendley, who had a successful career in the military and never earned a college degree, think “personal drive” is far more important than just go to college. To Fendley, a sense of drive and purpose, as well as an effective high-school education, and basic life skills, like balancing a checkbook(支票簿), are the necessary elements for a successful life in America.
1. It was commonly acknowledged that to succeed in America, one had to have ________.| A．a sense of drive and purpose | B．an advanced academic degree |
| C．a firm belief in their dream | D．an ambition to get ahead |
| A．More and more Americans are finding it hard to realize. |
| B．It remains alive among the majority of American people. |
| C．An increasing number of young Americans are abandoning it. |
| D．Americans’ idea of it has changed over the past few decades. |
| A．It helps broaden their minds. | B．It needs to be strengthened. |
| C．It widens cultural diversity. | D．It promotes gender (性别) equality. |
【推荐3】The Internet, search engines, virtual worlds. Have you ever got the feeling that you’re living in a science fiction?
Well, indeed you are.
For more than a century, inventors have been driven to create what sci-fi writers have imagined long before. Buck Rogers inspired a generation of scientists excited about space exploration. Ray Bradbury predicted home-theater systems. William Gibson dreamed up the Internet while writing Neuromancer on a typewriter. Not long after him, Neal Stephenson predicted virtual worlds in his 1991 novel Snow Crash. One of his readers was Philip Rosedale, who loved it so much that he wanted to build a virtual world based on it.
By the late 1990s, technology caught up to the novel, and Rosedale built the virtual world Second Life based on the “Metaverse” from the novel. With 1 million active users, Second Life offers virtual shops, bars, houses and even virtual television studios with virtual celebrities (名人) on virtual talk shows.
“I think it is pretty much what I imagined,” Stephenson says. “I just shoot for the stars, while he makes great things happen.”
But Snow Crash is a dark book. The world in the novel is filled with criminals, violence and environmental problems.
“Science fiction not only puts stars in our hands, it also helps us see the meaning of our work,” Philip Rosedale admits. “It makes it possible for us to see what all of our efforts could eventually lead to.”
In fact, most science fiction authors admit that their work is usually cautionary (警示性的). “While the inventors are rushing ahead and excited about this possibility or that possibility, we’re always standing there warning, ‘Hang on just a second. Let’s think about this a little more’” author William Gibson says. “But most of them will ignore you because they think they already know all things about any given hot topic of the day. But if you can convince them that you’re talking about a planet millions of miles away and hundreds of years in the future or the past, you can actually get them to examine more closely what’s going on right now.”
1. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?| A．Book review. | B．Economy. |
| C．Technology. | D．Psychology. |
| A．Buck Rogers. | B．William Gibson. |
| C．Ray Bradbury. | D．Philip Rosedale. |
| A．He is satisfied with the “Metaverse”. |
| B．It is a very violent virtual world. |
| C．It is not based on his fiction strictly. |
| D．More activities should be added to it. |
| A．Sci-fi writers are much wiser than inventors. |
| B．Most inventors do not respect sci-fi writers. |
| C．People can easily get excited about the inventions. |
| D．Sci-fi can help inventors to think more carefully. |
