Caffeine (咖啡因) is linked to lower body mass index (BMI) and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (糖尿病). Genetic differences in how people metabolise (代谢) caffeine may influence how overweight they are, but this doesn’t mean drinking more coffee will make you slimmer.
Genetic evidence indicates that higher levels of caffeine in a person’s blood may be linked with lower weight. But people shouldn’t assume that drinking more coffee will be a route to weight loss, says Dipender Gill at Imperial College London, who helped carry out the study. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive (对精神起作用的) substance, with many people consuming much coffee or caffeinated soft drinks a day.
Numerous studies have previously suggested that caffeine consumption is linked with lower weight. But these were mainly observational studies, which recorded people’s health and their caffeine consumption, making it hard to know if caffeine caused the effects or just correlated with them. Gill’s team used an alternative approach, looking at genetic differences in how quickly people break down caffeine to mimic (模仿) the effects of giving different amounts in a random trial.
There are two genes that affect people’s ability to break down caffeine, meaning that after consuming the same amount of it, people with different variants would have different levels of it in their blood. Gill and his colleagues analysed data from several previous studies that recorded people’s DNA and tracked their health. They included nearly 10,000 people in total, although most included only people of European ancestry.
The studies didn’t analyse blood samples, but previous work has shown that those who break down caffeine more slowly have higher levels of it in their blood on average — even though they tend to drink less coffee. The team found that people genetically predisposed (有倾向的) to have higher caffeine levels had a lower BMI, a measure of a person’s weight in relation to their height; lower fat mass; and a lower likelihood of having type 2 diabetes, a condition linked with being overweight.
“We know that caffeine affects metabolism (新陈代谢) and how energetic someone is. It makes sense that there might be an association,” says Benjamin Woolf at the University of Bristol, UK, who also worked on the study. Gill says people shouldn’t change their drinking habits based on these results — and that people wanting to lose weight should be especially wary of consuming milky and sugary coffee drinks. “A lot of caffeinated drinks are quite calorific,” he says. “Caffeine can have other harmful effects, including effects on sleep and heart function.”
1. What can we learn about caffeine?| A．Caffeine can make you have a slim figure. |
| B．The people thinner may have higher levels of caffeine in their blood. |
| C．Caffeine is the most psychoactive substance in the world. |
| D．Caffeine can be only found in people’s blood. |
| A．By finishing a questionnaire. | B．By doing investigation. |
| C．By analyzing previous data. | D．By collecting blood sample. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Scared. | C．Aware. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．People should drink more coffee to lose weight. |
| B．Europeans are more likely to be affected by coffee. |
| C．Those breaking down caffeine more slowly have higher levels of it in their blood. |
| D．Caffeine may have an impact on your sleep and heart. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The 2023 Shanghai Coffee Culture Week opened on May 13, with a variety of activities integrating industry, culture and lifestyle scheduled.
On the event’s opening day, Yongpu Coffee, in collaboration with the food delivery platform Eleme and China Construction Bank, offered 30,000 cups of coffee for free. Multiple coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee and McCafe will also provide free coffee and coupons (优惠券) during the event.
From May 18 to 21, West Bund International Coffee and Lifestyle Festival is taking place in Xuhui Binjiang area, involving more than 100 coffee brand outlets (销售点) located along a 5-kilometer shoreline of the Huangpu River.
It is the first time that Shanghai has launched such a large coffee-themed market, organizers said. In addition to enjoying freshly brewed coffee, visitors can attend diverse activities such as exhibitions, performances and workshops to experience coffee culture.
Many cultural sites in the city are also participating in the coffee culture week. Sinan Mansions in downtown Shanghai is holding the Bonjour Coffee Art Fair from May 19 to 21,which has attracted some 20 coffee staff members and 80 artists.
The Shanghai History Museum will launch the Square Coffee Festival, inviting fans and industry experts to share their knowledge about coffee. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Books and Periodicals Distribution Association will hold a coffee-themed book fair in more than 80 stores across the city.
Organizers said they hope these events will boost the consumption of coffee and cultural products, and promote the coordinated development of the two industries.
The Shanghai Coffee Industry Summit will take place on May 26, which includes two roundtable discussions and about 10 seminars. Corporate leaders will discuss the latest consumer trends and offer their insights into hot topics.
According to data from domestic tech and retail giant Meituan, the value of China’s freshly brewed coffee industry is expected to reach 15.79 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) this year. It was valued at 8.97 billion yuan in 2021.
1. What can visitors do during the 2023 Shanghai Coffee Culture Week?| A．Get coupons and make freshly brewed coffee. |
| B．Enjoy free coffee and read coffee-themed books. |
| C．Visit coffee exhibitions and put on performances. |
| D．Share ideas about coffee and get employed in workshops. |
| A．To hold diverse activities. | B．To spread knowledge about coffee. |
| C．To show the city’s unique features. | D．To promote coffee industry and culture. |
| A．Coffee consumption is increasing rapidly in China. |
| B．Meituan has benefited a lot from coffee industry. |
| C．The Coffee Culture Week has boosted the coffee industry. |
| D．Freshly brewed coffee industry is the most promising industry. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Culture. |
| C．Health. | D．Science. |
【推荐2】Healthy eating is not just what you eat, but how you eat. Here are some tips for you:
Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous benefits, especially for children.
Take time to chew(咀爵) your food and enjoy mealtime.
Avoid eating at night.
| A．Drink plenty of water. |
| B．Try to have dinner earlier. |
| C．Be careful when eating out. |
| D．Eat your food slowly, tasting every bite. |
| E．Listen to your body. |
| F．It allows you to follow others’ healthy eating habits. |
| G．Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. |
【推荐3】In the green hills of northern Thailand, a woman painstakingly picks coffee beans out of a pile of elephant dung (粪便). They are preparing an essential ingredient of one of the world’s most expensive drinks.
This remote corner of Thailand is better known for drug trafficking than coffee, but Blake Dinkin decided it was a perfect place for him to combine wildlife conservation with business.
Initially, Dinkin considered using a kind of cat to make coffee, but he found the cats were usually kept in cages and force-fed beans.
According to Dinkin, the enzymes (酶) in the elephant’s stomach function as a kind of slow cooker and the stomach acid takes the bitterness out of the beans. The elephant riders’ wives collect the coffee beans from the dung, before washing and drying them in the sun.
The rewards, however, are worth all the work. At around $1,880 per kilogram, the coffee doesn’t come cheap.
| A．The 44-year-old Canadian founded Black Ivory Coffee. |
| B．The local elephant riders considered the project a crazy idea. |
| C．Its unique taste and special processing cycle give the product a romantic appeal. |
| D．Making coffee from elephant dung, however, turned out to be harder than expected. |
| E．To make a kilogram of coffee, the elephants have to eat about 33 kilograms of the beans. |
| F．This is against the businessman’s desire to support rather than damage the environment. |
【推荐1】Around 7,000 B.C. (during the Neolithic period), some hunters and gatherers began to rely chiefly on agriculture for their life. Indeed, agriculture itself evolved over the course of time and Neolithic peoples had long known how to grow crops. The real transformation of human life occurred when huge numbers of people began to rely primarily and permanently on the grain they grew and the animals they domesticated.
Agriculture made possible a more stable and secure life. With it Neolithic peoples developed, starting an energetic, creative time. They were responsible for many fundamental inventions and innovations that the modern world takes for granted. First is systematic agriculture – the reliance of Neolithic peoples on agriculture as their primary, not merely additional, source of food.
Thus they developed the primary economic activity of the entire ancient world and the basis of all modern life. With the settled routine of Neolithic farmers came the evolution of towns and eventually cities. Neolithic farmers usually raised more food than they could consume, and their surpluses permitted larger, healthier populations. Population growth in turn created an even greater reliance on settled farming, as only systematic agriculture could sustain the increased numbers of people. Since surpluses of food could also be traded for other goods, the Neolithic time witnessed the beginnings of large-scale exchange of goods. With the increasing complexity of Neolithic societies, writing emerged with the need to keep records and later by the urge to record experiences, learning, and beliefs.
The change to settled life also had a deep impact on the family. The shared needs and pressures that encourage extended-family ties are less urgent in settled than in nomadic (游牧的) societies. Ties to the extended family weakened. In towns and cities, the nuclear family was more dependent on its immediate neighbors than on distant relatives.
1. The passage talks mainly about ____________.| A．why many human societies depend on agriculture |
| B．what changes agriculture brought to human life |
| C．how Neolithic peoples discovered agriculture |
| D．why the first agricultural societies failed |
| A．move from one place to another |
| B．exchange goods with others |
| C．domesticate wild animals |
| D．worry about their safety |
| A．the amount of food they had to consume |
| B．the more food they produced than needed |
| C．the extent to which they relied on agriculture |
| D．the increase in population agriculture brought about |
| A．Family members began to work together to raise food |
| B．Immediate neighbors often became family members |
| C．The extended family became less important |
| D．The nuclear family became self-sufficient |
| A．Then a third level appeared. |
| B．Different people have different wants on each level. |
| C．There are several levels of wants in one’s life. |
| D．When there is money enough to satisfy one level of wants, another level appears |
| E．At this stage, we now may seek to ensure the health, safety, and leisure. |
| F．Also included here are fancy foods and the latest styles in clothing. |
| G．Human wants seem endless. |
【推荐3】Have you ever played a computer game for a long time and then kept seeing the game’s images afterward? This happened to me with the classic shape-falling game Tetris (俄罗斯方块), created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov.
Feeling stressed one evening, I turned on my Switch to find a game to play and relax with. That’s when I discovered Tetris. Before I knew it, I was obsessed. Even when I stopped, my brain was still playing, with the blocks falling in my mind. I started looking at objects in the real world and thinking about how they could be moved and stacked(堆叠) together. I even dreamed about Tetris. I was experiencing the common "Tetris effect".
Introduced by journalist Jeffrey Goldsmith in his 1994 Wired magazine article called This Is Your Brain on Tetris, the effect has been observed by psychologists and researchers. The lasting images of Tetris are due to the "Zeigarnik effect", in which people have better memories of uncompleted tasks than those of completed ones. Tetris, being a game that technically never ends, keeps you thinking of the game’s unfinished task, reported Tech Times. And the catchy music stays with you, too.
There are also positives to the Tetris Effect. In his 1991 study, psychologist Richard Haier at the University of California found that continuously playing Tetris resulted in the thickness of the cerebral cortex (大脑皮层) increasing, which improves brain efficiency(效率), reported psychology website Practical Pie. Haier’s discovery got Tetris put into the Guinness World Records Video Gamer’s Edition 2008, as the "first video game to be proven to improve brain functioning and efficiency".
Tetris has also been researched for use as a treatment for people suffering from trauma (创伤). The Yale Scientific Magazine reported that researchers at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK, found that playing Tetris appeared to reduce intrusive (侵入性的) memories in the short term for individuals affected by motor vehicle accidents.
So, the next time you want to play a computer game, why not try the classic Tetris and see if it improves your brain function? But he warned, you’ll likely be seeing falling blocks everywhere.
1. What does the underlined word "obsessed" in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Quite shocked. | B．Extremely interested. |
| C．Highly satisfied. | D．Very curious. |
| A．It is connected to the way our memory functions. |
| B．It is an uncommon occurrence among children. |
| C．It can cause the "Zeigarnik effect". |
| D．It is primarily related to the game’s music. |
| A．Improved memory. |
| B．Lifted mood. |
| C．Better brain function. |
| D．Relief from painful experiences. |
| A．Serious. | B．Amusing. |
| C．Worried. | D．Doubtful. |
【推荐1】A few months ago, I was in a cinema queue behind a man whose two sons were asking if they could have Tango Ice Blasts bright blue partly frozen drinks. The father hesitated for a moment. They’d already had too much sugary stuff that day, he said. “But it’s sugar-free,” replied one of the boys. That sealed the deal. The boys walked off happily into the cinema holding their drinks.
In an era when sugar is widely seen as enemy No.1, sugar-free drinks and treats, sweetened with low-calorie additives (添加剂), become well-liked and promise guilt-free sweetness. Some people deliberately choose low-sugar options in the hope of losing weight or managing diabetes; others just enjoy the taste.
But even if you aren’t seeking them out, it’s hard to avoid artificial sweeteners. In 2021, researchers looked at foods for sale in Hong Kong and found that sweeteners were present not just in products where you would expect them, such as sugarless chewing gum, but also in salad dressings, breads, instant noodles and many crisps.
They have become such a common part of our diet that environmental scientists have started looking for traces of them-particularly acesulfame potassium, which passes through the body largely undigested — as a marker for human waste in lakes and rivers.
The rise of sweeteners is, in part, a sign of the spectacular success of sugar taxes, which have been introduced in more than 40 countries since 2010. In the UK, the soft drinks industry tax was announced in 2016 and fully carried out in 2018, as part of a plan to “tackle childhood obesity”. The tax charged manufacturers 24p a litre for any drink with 8g or more of added sugar per 100ml. Almost all the major soft drinks brands in the UK cut the sugar content of their products and replaced the missing sweetness with some kind of artificial alternative. “Original” Coca-Cola and “blue” Pepsi were among the few drinks to keep their recipes the same. Once they became more expensive, compared to the sugar-free alternatives, their sales fell.
1. What made sugar-free drinks and treats popular?| A．The public’s pursuit of health. | B．The taste of low-calorie additives. |
| C．People’s promise to manage diabetes. | D．Parents’ expectation of guilt-free sweetness. |
| A．Because they are present in every food product. |
| B．Because they can be found in the environment. |
| C．Because they are widely used in our diet. |
| D．Because they are part of a plan to deal with obesity. |
| A．Major soft drinks brands reduced their products’ sugar content. |
| B．Coca-Cola and Pepsi refused to change their recipes. |
| C．Nearly all big soft drinks brands turned to artificial sweeteners. |
| D．Drink companies lowered the price to raise their sales. |
| A．Sugar, Enemy No.1. | B．The Rise of Artificial Sweeteners. |
| C．The Secret to Health: Low-calorie Additives. | D．Scientific Facts Behind Health. |
【推荐2】When you look at a map of the Caribbean, you will see a bunch of little islands surrounded by blue waters,which include places that aren’t always household names, like Montserrat and Anguilla.
While some of the names may not be familiar, the Caribbean is a popular holiday region. Those little dots on the map often turn out to be ideal resorts. There are thousands of islands in the area, many of which are sparsely(稀少的) populated but with breathtaking landscapes.
The biggest challenge you might face in planning your trip is choosing where in the Caribbean to go . All of the nations feature excellent weather. Most feature beautiful beaches. You can enjoy the waters in most of the Caribbean nations and as is often the case with island nations, you will be welcomed warmly by the locals. Here is some information to help you.
Unless you can walk on water or you cruise the Caribbean, the best way to visit is to fly. Some destinations have more frequent and cheaper flights than others. You should do some comparison shopping on flights to the Caribbean. And if you are planning on flying there during the Christmas holiday weeks, it's important to book as early as possible because prices will just keep going up as they get closer.
The Caribbean offers a wide variety of accommodation options. Check out the Caribbean hotels that are available to get a better idea of the various options. If you are on a tight budget, then the Caribbean could be challenging, as there are only a few cheap hotels and hostels that might help you save some money.Many people see the Caribbean from a cruise ship. There is no shortage of cruises that will take you through the region. You can go online to find the cruise or holiday package that is right for you.
1. The Caribbean is popular with tourists mainly because______.| A．the area has a small population |
| B．the places are not always household names |
| C．there are many beautiful islands |
| D．there is no shortage of cruises that can take travellers there. |
| A．prices of air tickets |
| B．tourists to the Caribbean |
| C．flights to the Caribbean |
| D．the Christmas holiday weeks |
| A．Public transport in some of the Caribbean nations is not quite convenient. |
| B．It is not cheap to take a trip to the Caribbean, especially during Christmas. |
| C．It is better to cruise the Caribbean instead of taking a flight. |
| D．There are not many choices on hotels in the Caribbean. |
【推荐3】As we work to ease biodiversity losses and seek to reduce climate change, restoration is an important part of the global solution. But while it is widely understood that ecosystem restoration is the right thing to do, there is far less understanding of what exactly it means, and how it is to be achieved.
One of the most obvious misunderstandings about ecosystem restoration is that it is all about action, especially planting trees. It is important to understand that forest and woodland ecosystems are not the only crucial environments to restore. Ecosystem restoration consists of a huge range of different systems, from farmland soils and grassland systems to our seas and oceans.
Ecosystem restoration is not always about actively intervening (介入). In many instances, passive intervention can be just as effective, if not more so, than active. This involves simply letting nature take the reins. In short, in ecosystem restoration, what we don’t do can be as important as what we do. Often nature already has the answers. But there are situations in which humans have damaged the environment to such a degree that natural restoration is impossible. This is when carefully designed action is required.
Another key thing to remember is that we cannot succeed in ecosystem restoration without local people’s involvement or, ideally, their leadership. When a community feels a sense of belonging and a deep connection with the land, this provides a firm foundation for future conservation and restoration work.
While I dislike taking an overly human-centered view, environmental issues cannot be separated in our complex modern world from socio-economic ones. We need to look at people and the planet as a whole and appreciate the complex web of human life and its interaction with the natural world in order to form practical restoration solutions. It is important to understand how nature can thrive (繁荣) and still provide humans with the things we need. It is only when we consider the natural environment and human society as interconnected that we can really continue to make progress.
1. Which shows the right understanding of ecosystem restoration?| A．Ecosystem restoration involves a variety of systems. |
| B．Direct action on forest ecosystems should be avoided. |
| C．Community-led efforts should be reduced. |
| D．The more trees we plant, the better ecosystems will be. |
| A．Active intervention can improve the local economy |
| B．The cost of passive intervention is high. |
| C．A large population relies on natural resources. |
| D．Nature fails to restore itself. |
| A．To learn from developed countries. |
| B．To take both social factors and nature into account. |
| C．To make a study of local natural resources. |
| D．To put environmental protection first. |
| A．What challenge people face in ecosystem restoration. |
| B．How people can benefit from ecosystem restoration. |
| C．How to repair damaged ecosystems more effectively. |
| D．Why ecosystem restoration becomes urgent. |
