1 . After graduation, I decided to take the gym seriously. Accompanied by a friend, I
One day, he suggested that we
But several weeks later, he managed to
“We’re not getting enough
“Tennis? I can’t play tennis! That
However, weeks later, I started playing tennis. After several months of
I learned a valuable
| A．quit | B．changed | C．started | D．designed |
| A．confident | B．familiar | C．careful | D．satisfied |
| A．take up | B．focus on | C．make up | D．check in |
| A．admired | B．supported | C．revised | D．refused |
| A．remind | B．persuade | C．attract | D．request |
| A．wanted | B．imagined | C．scheduled | D．arranged |
| A．fluent | B．skillful | C．curious | D．impressive |
| A．movement | B．adventure | C．exercise | D．time |
| A．includes | B．requires | C．improves | D．explores |
| A．suggestion | B．strategy | C．behaviour | D．goal |
| A．hopeful | B．careful | C．painful | D．harmful |
| A．obviously | B．formally | C．actually | D．finally |
| A．lecture | B．message | C．lesson | D．responsibility |
| A．flash | B．follow | C．narrow | D．contact |
| A．positive | B．calm | C．confused | D．interested |
2 . Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight and one foot remain in contact with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says. According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries related to running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first talk with a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?| A．They have to follow special rules. | B．They are suitable for the marathon. |
| C．They must run long distances. | D．They are good at swinging their legs. |
| A．It’s more effective in body building. | B．It’s less challenging physically. |
| C．It’s less likely to cause knee injuries. | D．It’s more popular at the Olympics. |
| A．becoming an experienced coach. | B．Having a medical checkup. |
| C．Doing regular exercises. | D．Getting experts’ opinions. |
| A．Objective. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Positive. |
3 . Back in January, my partner and I resolved to take exercise seriously. This would mean spending hours every week working out, stretching and sweating our way to better health, which is something that is particularly difficult when you glance at the weather outside and see dark clouds on the horizon. “Looks like it is about to rain, I guess I’ll go for a run tomorrow instead.” But then just as we were on the edge of giving up again, we discovered a brilliant new way to make exercise better: by turning it into a video game.
SWIFT is a cycling game that you control by pedaling your real bike, which is fixed onto a device called a turbo-trainer. As you pedal, the trainer sends signals back to your computer to control the character on screen. And smartly, the game sends back instructions to the trainer to apply different levels of resistance, so that as you’re cycling up a hill in the game, you can actually feel it on the bike.
So, after restoring our small garage and signing up for a $12 per month subscription, we had our TV, bike and all-important cooling fan ready to go.
Once you’re set up, you can participate in virtual cycle rides in 3D-recreations of real places, like London and New York, or fictional locations. And importantly, other real human cyclists appear alongside you, sharing your journey.
The genius of the design is that it has used lots of the tricks of traditional video games to keep pushing you a little bit further and harder: go a little faster, and you’ll be rewarded with a little achievement marker, and if you pedal harder, you might win a race against another real player. It’s essentially generating for some sort of dopamine(多巴胺) hits that riding along on a traditional exercise bike simply can’t match.
I’m not the only person who has noticed this. Today many other companies in the tech industry are chasing the same users, and they all offer their own unique versions.
1. Why does the author mention the weather in Paragraph 1?| A．To give a warning of the coming storm. |
| B．To complain about the changeable weather. |
| C．To reveal the limitation of traditional exercise. |
| D．To persuade readers to mind the weather while exercising. |
| A．A real bike. | B．Monthly payment. |
| C．A turbo-trainer. | D．3D glasses. |
| A．How SWIFT motivates its users. |
| B．Who are the target users of SWIFT. |
| C．What physical benefits SWIFT users get. |
| D．Why traditional bikes are replaced by SWIFT. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Critical. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Favorable. |
4 . In an ideal world, we would be able to devote as much time to sports as we feel we need. But in reality, with growing demands in both work and family, we can only jump at the chance for our physical exercise when we can. Making the most of that time to practice Yin Yang yoga, which mixes the dynamic and slow-paced elements of yoga, helps keep you active and relaxed.
Yin and Yang are the Taoist concepts representing a balance of opposite forces which are also interconnected. Yin is inactive, cooling, and negative, associated with the female force. Yang is active, warming, and positive, associated with action and movement. They are complementary to one another, as one cannot exist without the other.
Yin Yang yoga is a combination (结合体) of high-energy movement which builds energy, increases strength and promotes stamina (耐力), followed by the more restful practice of Yin to give us a deeper stretch (拉伸) and calm the nervous system.
If you have a busy and active life you may feel more in Yang, so taking some cooler, slower Yin yoga practice into your routine may help you feel calmer and more balanced.
If you are practicing for an hour, divide the time in half. Warm up with sun salutations (拜日式瑜伽), continue into a dynamic flow and then move on to some standing postures. After half an hour your heart will be pumping, muscles tighten up and you are hopefully feeling energetic, but ready for a rest. Then pick five Yin postures to hold for 3-5 minutes, or even longer if you are enjoying them!
As ever with yoga, if you are a beginner or have health issues, always attend a class with a trained instructor first to guide you safely through the yoga practice and avoid injury.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．Most of our sports time should be spent on Yin Yang yoga. |
| B．We’d better devote as much time to physical exercise as we can. |
| C．Busy schedule makes it impossible for us to do any form of sports. |
| D．Yin Yang yoga can be a choice of physical exercise when we are busy. |
| A．Independent from one another. |
| B．Competitive against one another. |
| C．Similar to each other but unable to work together as a whole. |
| D．Different from each other but together making a good combination. |
| A．Relaxing muscles. | B．Building stamina. |
| C．Strengthening the body. | D．Quickening the heartbeat. |
| A．Hold each Yin posture for longer than 5 minutes. |
| B．Do not practice yoga when you are not in good health. |
| C．Start your yoga practice with an expert trainer. |
| D．Spare half an hour for five Yin postures in every yoga practice. |
5 . It can be incredibly difficult to encourage ourselves to go for a run during winter, particularly when it’s wet and windy outside. But new research has found that even a super-quick run could have great health benefits. In fact, it seems that just a 10-minute session will not only make us feel better, but could actually improve brain health, too.
Now, we all know that exercise can improve mental and physical health in many ways. But when it comes to mental well-being, there’s been relatively little research done on the specific benefits of running, compared with other physical activities, such as cycling. So this was something put to the test during a recent study. Researchers from University of Tsukuba in Japan asked participants to run on a treadmill (跑步机) for just 10 minutes. They then had to take a Stroop Color and Word Test which is used to measure reaction time in brain processing. Results showed there was a highest point in self-reported pleasure and an increase in degree of activity of the brain.
In other words, runners were found to have an increase in blood flow in the part of the brain that’s associated with dealing with functions and controlling mood (情绪). Researchers then compared these results to a similar study on cycling, which also showed improved cognition (认知), but no mood improvement. Therefore, it seems various types of exercise can make us feel differently.
The authors noted, “Given exercise is medicine, the effects of drugs differ depending on the type of drug, and different types of exercise such as running and cycling should be observed to have different effects on mental health and brain functions as well.”
So pushing ourselves to get outside for a run really will make us feel better, probably more than other fitness activities. And these findings show that we don’t necessarily need to do a lot of exercise to feel the benefit of it.
1. What did the new research find?| A．Running fast benefits all of us. | B．Running is the best exercise. |
| C．A short time run can be beneficial. | D．A healthy mind encourages us to run. |
| A．People who are doing a research. | B．People who love running. |
| C．People who are professional athletes. | D．People who are taking part in an activity. |
| A．Blood flow. | B．Cycling. | C．Medicine. | D．Colors. |
| A．We should go for a run in winter. | B．Running really benefits us mentally. |
| C．We don’t need a lot of exercise. | D．Running on a treadmill is better than running outside. |
6 . Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern, to which physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong, and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr.Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers: “Firstly, you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”
Dr Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle. “Overweight” means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities, but is not seriously overweight. “Active” refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities, but do not have a high fitness level.
According to Dr Lopez, overweight teenagers should keep active to keep healthy. Ride a bike, play volleyball or basketball for a while, and go for a twenty-minute walk each day. All these will help to burn up calories. Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, starting with twenty of each a day. “Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger,” said Dr Lopez. The same principle applies to active teenagers.
Dr Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise, together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities. “These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr Lopez said. Some weight-training and other body-strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the personˈs strength.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Active people always have a high fitness level. |
| B．Overweight people always take more exercise. |
| C．Inactive teenagers are not seriously overweight. |
| D．Keeping fit means changing teenagers’ lifestyle. |
| A．It can make the teenagers grow taller. |
| B．It can help teenagers become healthier. |
| C．It can help to burn up calories. |
| D．It can increase teenagers’ strength. |
| A．walking | B．stretching and bending |
| C．riding | D．weight-training |
| A．Doing exercises | B．Teenagersˈ fitness |
| C．Different lifestyles | D．Overweight teenagers |
7 . You might say I found marathoning, step by step. Or perhaps it found me. I was
It started when I joined a group of women in my neighborhood for a daily three-mile walk. At first it was
It so happened that I
I never had someone
Running a marathon isn’t for everybody. But it is for anybody, anybody who wants to
| A．always | B．rarely | C．never | D．nearly |
| A．pointing | B．applying | C．turning | D．spreading |
| A．hard | B．relaxing | C．unfamiliar | D．exciting |
| A．some | B．both | C．more | D．none |
| A．report | B．record | C．recall | D．consider |
| A．held | B．missed | C．attended | D．mentioned |
| A．inspired | B．disturbed | C．embarrassed | D．amused |
| A．participate | B．finish | C．win | D．run |
| A．agree with | B．rely on | C．care for | D．believe in |
| A．confidence | B．pleasure | C．satisfaction | D．motivation |
| A．last | B．first | C．only | D．second |
| A．test | B．identify | C．imagine | D．reach |
| A．knowledge | B．request | C．principle | D．experience |
| A．bigger | B．brighter | C．clearer | D．nicer |
| A．view | B．love | C．description | D．memory |
8 . A small study out of Skidmore College examined the advantages of morning vs, evening exercise for both women and men. Paul, professor for health at Skidmore, led the study.
“We had the groups divided into evening and morning groups,” he says. “We found women and men answered differently to different types of exercise depending on the time of the day, which surprised us.”
The study showed that for women who want to lower blood pressure (血压), the risk of heart disease or reduce fat, morning exercise works best. Those women hoping for upper body muscle (肌肉) gains or mood (心情) improvement should consider evening exercise. For the men, the findings were somewhat different: Evening exercise lowers blood pressure, the risk of heart disease, and feelings of tiredness. But similar to women, they burn more fat with morning exercise.
“For many people, the best time to exercise will depend on their chronotype,” says Heisz, author of Move the Body, Heal the Mind.
“Chronotype is your body’s natural habit to sleep at a certain time—it’s what decides whether you’re a night owl or an early bird. For the 25% of the population that considers themselves a night owl, getting both enough sleep and enough exercise can be difficult,” adds Heisz.
He continues, “Sleep—which provides your body the necessary time to recover (恢复) and make gains from exercise—should always be the first choice. When it comes to exercise, regardless of research on the advantages of certain exercises at particular times of the day, your results will not be good if it doesn’t allow enough time for sleep.”
1. What can women get by doing evening exercise according to the study?| A．A fat loss. |
| B．A good mood. |
| C．A lower blood pressure. |
| D．A smaller risk of heart disease. |
| A．Give an example. | B．Tell the difference. |
| C．Do an experiment. | D．Explain a term. |
| A．Enough sleep. | B．Low-fat food. |
| C．Plenty of water. | D．Lots of exercise. |
| A．A Night Owl or An Early Bird |
| B．Why Fitness Plan Being Important |
| C．How to Change Your Exercise Time |
| D．The Best Time of a Day to Exercise |
1．表达理解；
2．提出建议；
3．给予鼓励。
注意：1．词数80左右；
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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Yoga(瑜伽) is
Better yet, recently several studies
Remember
