1 . Running is often tiring and a lot of hard work, but nothing beats the feeling you get after finishing a long workout around the track.

But while it’s long been believed that endorphins (内啡肽) —chemicals in the body that cause happiness—are behind the so-called “runner’s high”, a study suggested that there may be more to this phenomenon than we previously knew.

According to a recent study published by a group of scientists from several German universities, a group of chemicals called endocannabinoids (内源性大麻素) may actually be responsible for this familiar great feeling.

To test this theory, the scientists turned to mice. Both mice and humans release high levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids after exercise. After exercising on running wheels, the mice seemed happy and relaxed and displayed no signs of anxiety. But after being given a drug to block their endorphins, the mice’s behavior didn’t seem to change. However, when their endocannabinoids were blocked with a different drug, their runners’ high symptoms seemed to fade.

“The long-held notion of endorphins being responsible for the runner’s high is false. Endorphins are effective pain relievers, but only when it comes to the pain in your body and muscles you feel after working out,” Patrick Lucas Austin wrote on science blog Lifchacker.

Similar studies are yet to be carried out on humans, but it’s already known that exercise is a highly effective way to get rid of stress or anxiety. The UK’s National Health Service even prescribes (开药 方) exercise to patients who are suffering from depression. “Being depressed can leave you feeling low in energy, which might put you off being more active. Regular exercise can improve your mood if you have depression, and its especially useful for people with mild to moderate (中等的) depression,” it wrote on its website.

It seems like nothing can beat that feeling we get after a good workout, even if we don’t fully understand where it comes from. At least if we’re feeling down, we know that all we have to do is to put on our running shoes.

1. What did scientists from German universities recently discover?

A．Working out is a highly effective way to treat depression.

B．The runner’s high could be caused by endocannabinoids.

C．Endorphins may contribute to one’s high spirits after running.

D．The level of endorphins and endocannabinoids could affect one’s mood.

2. Why did the scientists give mice drugs in their experiment?

A．To find what reduces the runner’s high symptoms.

B．To see the specific symptoms of the runner’s high.

C．To identify what is responsible for the runner’s high.

D．To test what influences the level of endocannabinoids released.

3. What does the underlined word “notion” mean?

A．Effect.

B．Goal.

C．Opinion.

D．Question

4. What can we know about regular workouts according to the UK’s National Health Service?

A．They can help ease depression symptoms.

B．They are the best way to treat depression.

C．They only work for those with serious depression.

D．They can help people completely recover from depression.

2 . There are many ways to travel within a city. We can walk, cycle, or take a bus. But no matter which way we travel, we have to follow the route (线路) the city planners laid down for us.

Parkour practitioners (跑酷爱好者), however, see the city in a completely different way. To them, there are no designed routes. There are no walls and no stairs — they jump, climb, roll and crawl to move across, through, over and under anything that they find in their path. The city is their playground.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has noticed that this activity is drawing more and more people to it — there are 100, 000 people taking part in parkour today in the UK alone, according to The Guardian — and how it is helpful for people to be much stronger: It trains coordination and balance. So the FIG is thinking about recognizing parkour as a new sport and adding it to the Olympics by 2024.

But parkour practitioners themselves don’t seem to be happy with the idea. They see parkour as “a lifestyle”, wrote the website NextSportStar. “It’s a competition against the conditions rather than just a sport.”

Indeed, many do parkour just to “escape the daily routine and experience the city in different ways”, wrote reporter Oli Mould on The Conversation. They see parkour as a way to express themselves through relaxing moves and creative routes while freeing themselves from the pressure.

It’s great that the FIG wants to develop a new sport and stay close to a new cultural form. But it would be greater if they knew that not everything in life is a competition.

1. How do the parkour practitioners do parkour?

A．They plan the way themselves.

B．They move on as they wish.

C．They run faster than others.

D．They follow certain routes.

2. Why does the FIG want to add parkour to the Olympics?

A．It’s a special way of life.

B．It draws their attention.

C．It helps balance people’s life.

D．It’s good for people to keep healthy.

3. What is the author’s idea on parkour?

A．It is more exciting than other sports.

B．It is worth adding to the sporting event.

C．It is more a lifestyle than a competition.

D．It encourages people to challenge themselves.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Parkour practitioners

B．Making the city their own

C．Training in a different way

D．A new sports competition

4 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.

Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all. doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.

High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure (措施) to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.

Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.

1. According to Paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?

A．Making teens attach importance to ęxercise later.

B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school.

C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise.

D．Helping teens learn to make good plans

2. What does the underlined word “hazard” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Happiness.

B．Risk.

C．Safety.

D．Sadness.

3. According to the PCFSN, doing sport          .

A．means making students choose between sports and studies

B．helps students make good use of all their time

C．means students adjust to their studies better

D．helps students do better in their studies

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Why high school students should receive physical education.

B．Why some schools consider physical education important.

C．How schools can help students love doing sports.

D．How high school students can live a better life.

6 . 阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。

How do students spend their spare time after finishing their homework? Watch TV, play computer games, or go outside to relax? Here's a good example.

Tim and Kerry Meek are both teachers. They live in the UK with their two daughters: eleven-year-old Amy and nine-year-old Ella. Recently, the Meek family has become the focus of the whole country after they completed 100 different outdoor activities in one year.

The Meek couple didn't want their children to spend all their free time in front of the TV and become "couch potatoes". So about one year ago, the Meeks decided that watching TV and playing computer games were not permitted. Instead, they set 100 tasks for the two girls to do outside. Although Mr. and Mrs. Meek are not outdoor activity fans, they took part in all the activities to encourage their daughters. It turns out that the two sisters really had a good time joining activities.

Every holiday and weekend, whether it's sunny, rainy or snowy, the Meeks' would set off to try the activities on their list, including hiking, sailing, climbing, skiing, and so on. The two little girls not only had a wonderful time, but also learned a lot of skills from the activities. They were even able to stand up in front of their school to give a talk for charity. "Our friends spend a lot of their free time doing things which are harmful to their health. Luckily, we've had the chance to experience something different." Amy and Ella also helped their parents to draw up a new list of challenges for the next 12 months.

1. Why did the Meeks become the focus of the UK? (no more than 10 words)
2. What does the underlined phrase "couch potatoes" mean? (no more than 15 words)
3. When did the Meeks go out to do the activities? (no more than 5 words)
4. What did the two little girls learn from the activities?(no more than 5 words)
5. What have you learnt from the story? (no more than 25 words)

7 . Once upon a time, when you first attended a youth sporting event, your parents probably weren't expecting you to become a professional athlete.They signed up for a basketball, football or swimming course for you in the hope that you might learn lessons about winning gentlemanly, losing with dignity(尊严)and insisting on it when things get hard. Yes, playing games is good exercise, but it is the life lessons that matter most.

For many of us, instead of looking to improve our minds and spirits, we began judging progress only by the size of our muscles or the numbers on a weighing machine. The thought that athletic competition is about greater life lessons and the building of character has been further undermined(削弱)by headlines about professional athletes.

“And yet there's still strong evidence that sports strongly improve certain personal qualities,” says Angela Lumpkin, Professor of the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas. And that's true for athletes of any age.Amateur sports(业余体育运动)provide a safe place for competition. They also provide a practice ground for managing stress.

The advantages of taking part in a sport can seep(渗透)into your professional life, too. In basketball, for example, “Getting everyone to play the right role on the court is the key to success,” says Alan Arlt, the founder of the Life Time Fitness basketball program Ultimate Hoops. “That is certainly useful in the business world, where everyone understands their own role in the organization.” “In athletic events, you go through good and bad times often in the period of two hours,” says former NBA head coach Flip Saunders. “Do you have the calm manner to settle yourself down, or do you totally lose it and get thrown out of the game which hurts both you and your team？All of that on­court experience has a real effect on how you deal with real­life situations.”

1. What would parents expect when their children joined in sports?

A．To win as many games as possible.

B．To improve their health.

C．To make more friends.

D．To get through difficulties.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．People play sports to build their character.

B．People still hold the idea that sports can keep us fit.

C．People keep playing sports to improve minds and spirits.

D．People pay more attention to the news of professional athletes.

3. Amateur sports are mentioned in Paragraph 3 in order to        .

A．support Lumpkin's idea

B．introduce the next topic

C．show another piece of evidence

D．show the main idea of the paragraph

4. According to the last paragraph, the sports experience has a real effect on        .

A．how to succeed in the future

B．how to keep calm in certain situations

C．how to deal with real­life situations

D．how to understand the role on the court

8 . 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 through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) 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(卡路里) 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 associated with 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 consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.

1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?

A．They must run long distances.

B．They are qualified for the marathon.

C．They have to follow special rules.

D．They are good at swinging their legs.

2. What advantage does race walking have over running?

A．It’s more popular at the Olympics.

B．It’s less challenging physically.

C．It’s more effective in body building.

D．It’s less likely to cause knee injuries.

3. What is Dr. Norberg’s suggestion for someone trying race walking?

A．Getting experts’ opinions.

B．Having a medical checkup.

C．Hiring an experienced coach.

D．Doing regular exercises.

4. Which word best describes the author’s attitude to race walking?

A．Skeptical.	B．Objective.
C．Tolerant.	D．Conservative.

9 . When it comes to making healthy lifestyle changes, which should come first-changing your diet or becoming more physically active?

Previous studies suggested that providing people with too much information about nutrition and physical activity at once tends (趋向) to be discouraging. That has led to the popularity of advising people to make changes gradually, and set smaller goals.

So the scientists divided 200 inactive participants who were 45 or older into four groups. One group was instructed in making diet and fitness changes at the same time; the second group was taught about diet changes first, and then fitness changes four months later; the third group changed their exercise habits first and made changes in their eating habits four months later; and the final, control group was not instructed in either diet or fitness changes but in how to manage their stress.

The researchers followed the groups for a full year. Compared to the control group, the three intervention (干预) groups made healthy changes in their diet. Those who changed their fitness habits first significantly increased the amount of exercise they received daily compared to the other groups after four months. However, at the end of the year, the group that changed both diet and exercise at the same time was the only one that met the nationally recommended targets for both exercise and nutrition levels, while those who worked on improving their nutrition first were unable to meet the recommended levels of fitness after a year. The researchers suspect that changes to diet are easier to make than changes to physical activity.

The findings show, however, that pairing diet and exercise changes may help to overcome some of the barriers people face in adding more physical activity into their lives. If folks change diet and exercise orderly, the scientists say, they may end up placing more importance on the first set of behavior changes and feel less pressured to address the second set.

1. How is Paragraph 3 developed?

A．By giving examples.	B．By making comparisons.
C．By analyzing causes.	D．By making classifications.

2. Which group was the most physically active after four months?

A．The first group.	B．The second group.
C．The third group.	D．The control group.

3. What might the scientists approve of?

A．Changing eating habits first may be reasonable.

B．Diet and exercise changes should be made orderly.

C．Diet and exercise changes are equally hard to make.

D．Diet and exercise should be processed at the same time.

4. Which of the following is probably the title of the passage?

A．Changing your habits for better health

B．Ways to lead a healthy and balanced life

C．Making healthy lifestyle changes really counts

D．Timing matters in making diet and exercise changes

10 . Along with soccer, basketball is a global sport. As you read this. young people somewhere in the world are happily passing, dribbling(运球) and shooting. It’s enormous fun and a joyful way to spend time with others.

Basketball is a game for everyone. Unlike golf or tennis. it doesn't require great wealth or a lot of space to play. After all, not many people have a golf course-sized backyard. and tennis equipment is expensive. Basketball, by contrast, just needs a wall with a hoop and a ball.

So after its invention by Canadian-American physical educator James Naismith in 1891, the sport took off within US citizens, who quickly became attracted to the game because it suited their circumstances. Today, 127 years later, basketball remains one of the most popular sports in the US, and the National Basketball Association (NBA)has an increasing appeal for fans around the world.

The success of basketball as global phenomenon is undoubtedly related to the way African-Americans play the game.” The basketball court reflected some of the major cultural shifts in America, such as from forbidding African-Americans to play basketball to allowing them to play in the NBA, "the LIVESTRONG website noted.

From the 1950s onwards, segregation rules, which had prohibited African-Americans from playing basketball in NBA games, were no longer used in the US. In 1950, when Earl Lloyd started to play for the Washington Capitols, things began to change. Since then, most of the greats of the game have been African-Americans, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

It's not difficult to see that there's a strong link between political liberation and basketball. Something of this is expressed in a quote from the US author John Edgar Wideman. He makes a connection between basketball and hope:" When it's' played the way it's supposed to be played. basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, raised above the floor, letting the oppressed(受压制的) people of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.”

1. What advantage does basketball have over golf or tennis, according to the author?

A．It can be played everywhere.

B．It doesn't cost much.

C．It doesn't require too much skill.

D．It interests almost everyone.

2. What can we learn about basketball from Paragraph 3?

A．The sport was created by a PE teacher.

B．The sport was not popular with people at first.

C．Its rules have been changed a lot to suit new circumstances.

D．The NBA. with a history of 127 Years. attracts people worldwide

3. The main purpose of Paragraph 5 is to             .

A．explain the origin and rules of NBA games in the 1950s

B．prove the popularity of basketball among African-Americans

C．stress the success African-Americans in basketball

D．show how racial integration took place in basketball

4. What do John Edgar Wideman's words mean?

A．Basketball is sometimes a useful tool for politicians.

B．American people usually have a basketball dream.

C．Basketball stands for the freedom and hopes of people.

D．Political oppression is a serious problem in the US.