1 . When it comes to lowering blood pressure, studies have typically shown that aerobic (有氧的) exercises are best. Recent research suggests another type of physical activity is worth including as an effective tool to prevent and treat high blood pressure.

Exercises that engage muscles without movement, such as wall squats and planks, may be best for lowering blood pressure, according to a large study published in July, 2023 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This type of training is known as isometric exercise, according to the Mayo Clinic. Isometric muscle action happens when muscles contract but do not visibly change length, and the joints involved don’t move, facilitating stability of the body. Isometric exercises can be done with weights or without, just relying on the body’s own weight.

“These findings provide a comprehensive data-driven framework to support the development of new exercise guideline recommendations for the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure,” said study coauthor Dr. Jamie O’Driscoll in a news release.

The researchers looked into randomized controlled trials that had reported the effects of exercise interventions, lasting two or more weeks, on blood pressure between 1990 and February 2023. From a review of 270 trials with 15,827 participants, the researchers found that among HIIT (high intensity interval training), isometric exercise, aerobic exercise, dynamic resistance training and a combination of the latter two, isometric exercise led to the greatest reductions in blood pressure.

It’s also important to note that there are other lifestyle changes as well as exercise that can benefit your blood pressure. These include keeping to a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, cutting down on salt, not drinking too much alcohol and ensuring that you continue to take any prescribed medication.

More research is needed to determine exactly why isometric exercises might be better for lowering blood pressure than other types of training, the authors said.

2 . How do you spend your spare time? There will be different answers to it. Most people in Poland(波兰) have their own ways of spending free time. Sometimes they just want to have a rest, but they try to do something more pleasant most of the time. They have many different hobbies, which help them to get away from their everyday problems and spend their free time happily.

Many Polish(波兰的) people like travelling. They look for new places that they have never been to and add new and exciting experiences to their journey. Some of them like to climb mountains, others like to go to the sea or a lake to swim, because these can make them get exercise and are good for their health.

Many Polish people also like to watch sports in their free time. They are usually crazy about football, and football is regarded as the Polish national sport. Many football fans may support a certain team, so they go to watch every match of the team they support, and they buy many things that have any relation with the team. Watching a sport and doing it are both good ways to relax.

In addition, doctors say that doing sports is very good for the health. Many people in town, especially young men, often go to the gym to attend the exercise classes to keep fit.

Besides these ways, Polish people have many other ways to spend their free time. And they really enjoy their free time.

3 . Eating fruits and vegetables is part of keeping a healthy diet. Health experts ______ people should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. A(n) ______ way to remember this is to try to eat each color of the rainbow (彩虹) ______. This is because different colored fruits and vegetables contain different vitamins and minerals. ______ you eat one of each color each day, you are sure to ______ the necessary nutrition your body needs.

______ fruits and vegetables is good for the heart. There are many delicious ______ in this group. Have an apple with lunch. You can ______ have a red pepper for a hot tasty small meal. ______ some tomatoes and put them on your sandwich. Or ______ you can have strawberries after dinner. When you ______ red, your heart works better.

Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables contain vitamin C. Vitamin C helps the ______ protect itself against disease. In this way it helps your body stay in good health. ______, these wonderful foods are good for your sight. So it is a great ______   to have a glass of orange juice with breakfast. Then put some peaches in your lunchbox. Are you afraid of catching a cold? ______ that from happening by eating a juicy tangerine (a type of small sweet orange).

Green fruits and vegetables have long been widely known as healthy foods. ______, they are especially good for keeping teeth and bones strong. When you eat green, your smile will thank you! Your bones will thank you too!

Blue and purple fruits and vegetables are useful to the ______. They help with memory. Put blueberries in your bowl. You can easily ______ where you put your keys!

Eating the rainbow is an easy way to ______ yourself. So make your eating habits a little more ______!

5 . Growing up, I was often the first Jewish person my classmates had ever met. I lived in Mississauga, Ontario, and was the only Jewish student in my grade—sometimes the only one in the whole school. This difference set me apart.

Every September, I hated presenting the note my parents had expertly made to a teacher I was just getting to know. The note explained that I would be absent during the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I fretted that my teachers would label me the “Jewish kid”.

The real trouble always came as the local new year’s festival approached. I was Jewish and celebrated Hanukkah, not this festival. At school, on one day before the winter break, every class would sit in neat rows in the gym and sing songs from the festival. However, the music teacher sometimes played Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, a Jewish festival song, and I would feel hundreds of eyes staring at my red cheeks. As my friends counted down the days until the festival, I counted the days until it was over and I could go back to feeling normal.

Each year during primary school, my mother would coordinate (协调) with my teacher to come to my class and tell the story of Hanukkah. She would prepare treats and materials depending on my age. Every time I would proudly stand beside her as she told the story of Hanukkah and explained the symbols. The children who had attended the presentation previously competed to answer questions. After my mom left, I would overhear them showing off their fried treats to kids in other classes.

My mom’s annual visits to my school sparked (激发) interest from other parents as well. Over the years, we had visits from parents who shared how festivals were celebrated in Germany and Italy.

My mom showed me, my classmates and their families that what sets us apart should be celebrated and shared, an intention which I continue to set for myself as I cycle through another holiday season.

7 . When instant cake mixes first appeared in the 1950s, American housewives were doubtful. These mixes, promising easy cake-baking, felt too easy. The manufacturers discovered that requiring the addition of an egg in the baking process was just enough to make the housewives happy with their work. The greater sense of effort gained from a little extra labor is believed to have been essential to the later success of the cake mix.

This reflects the IKEA effect (宜家效应), which is identified by psychologist Michael I. Norton and his colleagues, suggesting we place greater value on things we have worked to create. They conducted four studies in which they asked participants to fold paper cranes and frogs, assemble IKEA boxes, and build sets of Legos. They then asked the builders to bid (出价) for their creations, and compared the prices with bids from people who hadn’t built them. The builders consistently outbid the non-builders.

Interestingly, the IKEA effect works even when people have no opportunity to fully personalize their creations. While most participants’ folding skills left much to be desired, they loved their imperfectly personalized products all the more. Builders valued their wrinkled crane-like creations nearly five times as much as non-builders. Beauty, it seems, is in the eye of the builder.

Today, as cities are suffering from severe housing crises, the IKEA effect can give us insight into the well-being benefits of a self-building approach to housing development. Projects like WikiHouse and the “half-a-house” approach pioneered by Alejandro Aravena’s architecture company Elemental are working to make housing more affordable and sustainable by making it easier for people to build and personalize their own homes.

“The moment people are involved with their built environment, they have a totally different relationship to it,” WikiHouse co-founder Alastair Parvin explained. “When the roof starts leaking or a door starts creaking, they have the power to fix it themselves.”

8 . In a gray box, I have a thick pile of love letters. I imagine about sharing them with a granddaughter when I’m 90. But my most treasured love letter is from one of my best friends. It’s a handwritten letter years ago when I was having trouble getting over a man. Her letter is the most romantic in my pile. It made no excuses. It simply let me know that I was loved.

Reflecting on her gift, and the dying art of handwritten letters in our age of emails and emoticons, I chose to conduct an experiment this Christmas: replacing presents with heartfelt, handwritten love letters for my family members.

In our digital era, most of us rarely take the time to share deeply considered thoughts and emotions with the people in our lives. Handwriting captures the writer’s emotions, often preserved longer than digital exchanges. However, technology is taking over. First came typewriters and keyboards. Now a new brain-computer lets people type with their minds. What are we losing when we sacrifice the physical labor behind the written word? We tend to value what we struggle for. Have we undervalued the human exchange of ideas?

That day, I came across a letter my mom wrote to her parents when she was young. She seemed so comfortable with her parents. It was a relationship I didn’t have with her. I was inspired by my mother’s letter to her parents when I sat down to write my letter to her. I wanted her to know my love, and to close the crack that technology and culture had created between us. With each sentence, I was discovering new and deeper ways of seeing my mother, and making myself known to her in more thoughtful ways as well.

Eight single-space pages later, my hand was aching but I was done. It was only the first of my love letters, but it was already clear: What had begun as a fun project was in fact one of the most important undertakings of my life.