“Anxiety.” The very word causes discomfort. Its effects—shortness of breath, pounding heart, muscle tension—are upsetting. Research shows that in and of itself, anxiety is not deadly, and it certainly is not a disease.
It can build your emotional strength and toughness
Working out at the gym is supposed to be hard and uncomfortable, since it involves pushing our physical strength past what you can easily do.
Humans are social creatures. The number one predictor of happiness is not financial success, or fame. It’s the quality of our relationships. In the same way, sharing our anxieties with our loved ones is one of the most effective strategies to build connection.
It can help you readjust and rebalance
Often, all of us find ourselves at the end of our rope. Our responsibilities pile up, our resources break down, and we just don’t have enough time to get everything done. We feel uncomfortably anxious most of the time. In such cases, what we’re experiencing is called stress.
Therefore, anxiety can be a healthy, helpful emotion that is a constructive aspect of human life.
| A．Anxiety can have a more specific meaning |
| B．It’s about time we start to put it to good use |
| C．It’s no wonder that anxiety is causing us much concern |
| D．It can increase your emotional relationship and connection |
| E．Similarly, you need to face some degree of mental hardship |
| F．Quite the contrary: it is an indicator of brain and sensory health |
| G．Simply put, the demands placed upon us outweigh our available resources |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Imagine a bridge made of Legos with an uneven number of Legos supporting each end of the bridge. One side has three support pieces, and the other side only has two. How would you make the bridge supports balanced? Most people would add a piece to the short stack (一摞). But why not remove a piece from the taller stack?
People’s preference for adding might cause problems. For example, think about messy homes. Benjamin Converse, a behavioral scientist at the University of Virginia, was part of a team that first found this adding preference. The team asked 100 volunteers to solve eight puzzles. Each puzzle could be solved by adding or removing things. Of the 94 volunteers who completed the task, 76 people added things. Only 18 people removed. The scientists suspect that most people use adding simply because removing never even comes to mind.
Next, the scientists wanted to know if they could influence people to use removal instead of addition. In one experiment, the team offered 197 people a dollar to solve a puzzle. The puzzle involved a Lego structure. The structure was a large pillar with a roof on top. But the roof was uneven. They asked people to make the roof stable. The scientists then split people into two groups. They warned the first group that “each piece you add costs 10 cents”. However, more than half of them still added new blocks to make the roof stable, even though they had the option to remove. The second group was also warned about the cost of adding pieces. But they were also told that “removing pieces is free”. That reminder caused most of them to remove the block to stabilize the roof, proving that people are more likely to remove if they are given reminders. “When people try to make something better. . . they don’t think that they can remove unless they are somehow reminded to do so,” says Converse.
On some deep level, people seem to realize that removal comes less naturally than addition. That may be what’s behind such sayings like, “Less is more.”
1. Why is “messy homes” mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To explain the process of the recent study. |
| B．To connect the study with daily life. |
| C．To tell why people add more than remove. |
| D．To present the meaning of preference |
| A．Most people find removing more difficult than adding. |
| B．People tend to add instead of removal with some reward. |
| C．Reminders can increase the likelihood of choosing removal. |
| D．People are more likely to remove than to add in most cases. |
| A．By explaining the process of research. |
| B．By providing the significance of the study |
| C．By providing several reasons for adding. |
| D．By explaining the background of the study. |
| A．Indifferent | B．Ambiguous | C．Reasonable | D．Suspicious |
【推荐2】If you think that running marathons (马拉松) will help you live a long and healthy life, new research may come as a shock. According to a recent scientific study, people who do a very strenuous workout are as likely to die as people who do no exercise at all.
Scientists in Denmark have been studying over 1,000 joggers (慢跑者) and non-joggers for 12 years. The death rates from the sample group indicate that people who jog at a moderate (适度的) pace two or three times a week for less than two and a half hours in total are least likely to die. The best speed to jog at was found to be about 5 miles per hour. The research suggests that people who jog more than three times a week or at higher speeds of over 7 mph die at the same rate as non-joggers. The scientists think that this is because strenuous exercise causes structural changes to the heart and arteries (动脉). Over time, this can cause serious injuries.
Peter Schnohr, a researcher in Copenhagen, said,” If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy, jogging a few times a week at a moderate pace is a good polity. Anything more is not just unnecessary, and it may be harmful.”
The implications (暗示) of this are that moderate forms of exercise such as tai chi, yoga and brisk walking may be better for us than “iron man” events, triathlons and long-distance running and cycling. According to Jacob Louis Marott, another researcher involved in the study, “You don’t actually have to do that much to have a good impact on your health. And perhaps you shouldn’t actually do too much”.
1. The underlined word “strenuous” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “______________”.| A．hard | B．regular |
| C．practical | D．enjoyable |
| A．suggest giving up jogging | B．show risks of doing sports |
| C．provide supportive evidence | D．introduce the research process |
| A．It may injure the heart and arteries | B．It can exhaust the body and soul |
| C．It will bring too much pressure | D．It might cause worse exercise performance |
| A．No exercise at all is the best choice. | B．More exercise means a healthier life. |
| C．Marathon runners are least likely to die. | D．Proper exercise results in good health. |
【推荐3】“Being a sports fan is a very psychologically healthy activity,” says Daniel Warm, professor at Murray State University whose research program centers on the psychology of sport fandom(运动迷). Fandom connects us to other like-minded people, which satisfies our human need for belonging, he says.
These relationships are significant: People who identify as sports fans have higher levels of self-esteem, lower levels of loneliness and tend to be more satisfied with their lives compared to those who aren’t interested in sports, Wann says. Fans tend to have more access to social support, help and resources as well. Research suggests that when people have support from their communities, they have better health.
Beyond bonding, fans get to enjoy the psychological benefits of winning, even if they have nothing to do with the players or games.
Of course, teams sometimes lose. Prior to a sporting event, there’s at least a 50-50 chance that you’re going to be disappointed in your outcome.
So, why do people continue to put their faith behind teams that tend to lose? People who feel a strong psychological connection to a team are more likely to root for a team when they’re having a losing season.
“Sports random has nothing to do with the outcome of a game,” Warm says. For example, if a pizza restaurant continually got your order wrong, you’d likely switch to a more reliable parlor(店铺). But because being a fan is so central to people’s identities, people are willing to accept defeat and continue to be loyal to a team.
Being part of a fan community can also help people cope with losses. A 2019 study found that watching a football game with other fans helps to relieve the negative psychological effects of losing. For fans of the losing team, sharing the pain may have protected them from losing self-esteem.
“There are other things that random brings with it above and beyond the ability to enjoy the team’s successes,” Warm says. Watching sports can be a way to relieve stress, or spend time with family, he says.
To that end, some surveys suggest that activities like March Madness pools can reduce productivity. Any sort of fandom can be distracting, but Warm says that talking about sports at work and spending time with people who share a common interest can make people more excited to go to work.
However, if you find you’re consuming so much sports content that your work is suffering, or it’s impacting your interpersonal relationships, then it can be a sign you should tone it down, he adds.
1. What is the characteristic sports fans generally bear?| A．Higher sense of self-worth. | B．Worse health conditions. |
| C．Being ready to help others. | D．Various means of support. |
| A．Fans are forced to be loyal to teams. |
| B．Fans are good at sharing pains with teams. |
| C．Fans are brave enough to accept losses. |
| D．Fans own a great sense of identity and belonging. |
| A．Leading to distraction. |
| B．Making people too excited to go to work. |
| C．Increasing people’s productivity. |
| D．Impacting interpersonal relationships. |
| A．A poster. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A science fiction. | D．A magazine. |
