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. |
| 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. |
| A．Effect. | B．Goal. | C．Opinion. | D．Question |
| 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 . Poetry Slam is a type of competition where people read their poems without props(道具), costumes or music. After performing, they get scores (0-10) from 5 judges. The judges can be anyone——they don’t even need to be poets! Scores are awarded based on how much each judge likes the poem.
Make it original. The written piece must be original.
Time. Each poet has three minutes to perform. While reading your poem, make sure you finish it within three minutes.
Simple.
Rhythmic. Your poem should have a rhythm（韵律)that shows through your performance. A slam poem moves the audience through different emotions.
| A．Poets lose points for failing to meet limit. |
| B．The purpose of this judging process is to attract everyone to take part in it. |
| C．Your poem should be able to reach your audience the first time it is heard. |
| D．The highest and lowest scores are dropped and the middle three are kept. |
| E．The poem performed for the competition needs to be your own work. |
| F．How the poem is performed is at least as important as the content if not more. |
| G．Watch other Poetry Slams for encouragement, to get feedback and start competing in your own Poetry Slam. |
3 . Improving as a runner is about more than just running all of the time.
Keep a relaxed but strong upper body to conserve energy efficiently. You want to keep your chin(下巴)up and your shoulders back, with loose, relaxed arm and hand muscles. Your elbows are bent at 90 degrees but swing freely. If anything, the only muscles you want to focus on keeping strong and tight are the ones in your core(核心).
Use your light run to work up a light sweat. A higher body temperature ensures your muscles are loose and flexible, and your body is pumping blood effectively throughout. For everything other than easy runs, use the first five to ten minutes to build a light sweat and get your body ready for exercise.
| A．Don't feel like an easy day is "cheating". |
| B．Alternate easy and hard runs to build strength rapidly. |
| C．Even five minutes of walking is a good way to get started. |
| D．"Warming up" truly means you want to warm up your body. |
| E．You are to pay a little attention to details and a smart training plan. |
| F．That's because this will naturally help you efficiently channel energy. |
| G．Remember to relax your face and neck muscles instead of tensing them |
4 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Getting experts’ opinions. |
| B．Having a medical checkup. |
| C．Hiring an experienced coach. |
| D．Doing regular exercises. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Tolerant. | D．Conservative. |
5 . Since the early 1980s, sponsorship （赞助）has become a major part of sport. But how effective is it?
There were some big changes to football shirts in the early 1980s. Instead of shirts telling you the name of the team, they gave you the name of a company. At times, it wasn't clear if the team playing was Manchester United or Sharp Electronics. However, fans soon got used to the new look shirts until they changed again: first to Vodafone, then to American Insurance Company AIG, and then to American re-insurance company Aon. It's hard to keep track sometimes.
So, why has sports sponsorship become so popular? Both sides see clear advantages. Most large companies are keen to link their brand to a well-known sporting personality because they believe raising their image in this way will increase sales. And the large sums they offer to do so is a big incentive （激励）for the other side. There's a lot of money involved in sports sponsorship, and many predict that the sums will be rising over the coming years.
But problems can arise. For example, what happens if they sponsor an unsuccessful player or team? Will they look stupid at the end of the season if their team has lost? And what happens if they sponsor a team or player who gets into trouble? DeutscheTelekom was one of the major sponsors of the famous cyclist Lance Armstrong but found it in an awkward situation when he failed drugs tests. As a result of this scandal（丑闻），many companies have moved away from sponsoring cyclists. Instead many now choose to sponsor events rather than the people. Of course, it doesn't matter which team wins because the audiences will see lots of company ads and logos everywhere and the companies know that they will win.
But the really important question is, does sponsorship work? Will you buy their products after the game just because you've seen their ads and logos? There's clearly more research to be done.
1. What's one of the effects of sports sponsorship on the football fans?| A．They can buy cheaper football shirts. |
| B．They recognize the teams more easily. |
| C．They welcome the changes of sponsorship. |
| D．They are confused about the names on the shirts. |
| A．Sponsorship is often a win-win situation. |
| B．Many sports teams actually dislike sponsorship. |
| C．The money on sports sponsorship will decrease. |
| D．Sports sponsorship certainly promotes a company's sales. |
| A．To better spread their brands. |
| B．To cut the cost of sponsorship. |
| C．To attract more people's attention. |
| D．To avoid unexpected troubles of the players . |
6 . Working out can help teenagers boost their grades, a new study suggests. Adolescents who routinely engaged in moderate to vigorous（剧烈的）exercise showed long-term improvements in their academic performance, the British Journal of Sports Medicine study reported.
“Our study suggests that the effect of physical activity may be quite large,” John Reilly, a professor at the University of Strathclyde said. The researchers looked at a sample of about 5000 children who were involved in a long-term study that tracks children born in the UK between 1991 and 1992. When children reached 11 years old, their daily physical activity levels were measured using an accelerometer（加速器）for three to seven days. The device, similar to a pedometer（计步器）tracking the number of steps taken, recorded the average time children exercised, which was 29 minutes a day for boys and 18 for girls.
“The actual levels of daily physical activity at age 11 were quite low,” Mr. Reilly noted. The children had their academic performance tested at ages 11 and 13 with compulsory national tests for students, and also at 15 or 16 with the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam. The tests assessed the children’s abilities in English, math and science subjects. The results showed that the more children participated in moderate to vigorous physical activity, the higher their test scores were at age 11 in all three subjects. For girls, science scores were most strongly linked to exercise.
When children were tested again at age 13, their academic scores were still linked to how much they had exercised when they were 11 years old. By the time the youngsters took the GCSE exam, each 17-minute-per‑day increase in physical activity for the boys was linked to an improvement in their scores. Every additional 12-minute increase a day in exercise for the girls was also linked to an increased score, especially in the science category.
The researchers have called for more studies to look at the possible academic benefits that could be derived if students exercised the recommended 60 minutes or more a day.
1. What’s the study about?| A．The influence of exercise on students’ scores. |
| B．The secrets of students’ ranking high in class. |
| C．The causes of students’ participating in sports. |
| D．The ways of improving students’ physical conditions. |
| A．To record how long students exercise. |
| B．To record the walking speed of students. |
| C．To record how many steps students walk. |
| D．To record the number of calories students consume. |
| A．Students at age 11 do more exercise than at other ages. |
| B．Boys at age 13 get more benefits by doing more exercise. |
| C．Girls’ science scores are more closely related to exercise. |
| D．More and more students do exercise to improve their scores. |
| A．adopted. | B．acquired. |
| C．concluded. | D．displayed. |
7 . 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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. |
8 . For some people, walking or running outdoors is a great way to exercise. What may not be so great is seeing rubbish all over the ground. Well, some people are doing something about it.
A Swedish man named Erik Ahlström, started the movement in 2016. He moved to Stockholm from a small community (社区) in northern Sweden. Each day he would ride his bike to work. He became worried about the amount of rubbish and litter he saw each day on his way to work. So, he took matters into his own hands. He began picking up the rubbish.
Today, plogging is an official activity, which is becoming more and more popular. People of all ages are welcome to plog. Exercise while helping your community.
Along with cleaning up the environment, there may be another reason to choose plogging instead of just jogging. You may get a better workout. One fitness app, Lifesum, records one hour of plogging as burning 288 calories.
As can be seen, cities around the world now hold plogging events. The goal is to spread the idea that littering is not acceptable. People would think twice before dropping a garbage on the ground.
| A．Plogging is equal parts of exercise and community service. |
| B．And that is how plogging was born! |
| C．And plogging does good to your health. |
| D．Usual jogging burns about 235 calories. |
| E．They are plogging! |
| F．There are people all around the world doing this. |
| G．You get to know your neighbors. |
9 . Daily physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, many architects and designers are working to create buildings that encourage people to make exercise a part of their ordinary routine. The movement to promote healthy activity through architecture is called active design. It began in 1998 as part of a university public health program, and it has since gained popularity in cities around the world. Active design uses a number of techniques to encourage the occupants of a building to be more active.
One of the most important strategies of active design is inspiring people to make walking part of their routine. A particularly successful tool for promoting walking is the skip-stop elevator. These elevators stop only on every second or third floor, leaving riders to take the stairs in order to reach their destination. Another strategy of active design is to make stairs more pleasant and inviting. Instead of creating dark stairwells that are located in isolated parts of buildings, active design uses well-lit and centrally placed stairs to encourage more foot traffic. Skip-stop elevators and appealing stair design are both effective tools of active design because they offer incentive and opportunity for exercise. In fact, researchers studying a building that employs both skip-stop elevators and more attractive stair design said that 70 percent of building occupants reported using the stairs every day.
Active design encourages physical activity using not only the interior features of a building, but the relationship between a building and its surroundings as well. A building that employs active design may integrate outdoor space in order to make the environment more engaging and promote physical activity. Some elements that architects use to incorporate the exterior with the interior are glass walls, interior gardens or park spaces, and courtyards with open ceilings, all of which de-emphasize the boundaries between inside and outside. These elements make the building more physically and mentally invigorating. Similarly, by increasing the number of entrances and exits to a building, architects can help keep a building’s users interested in their surroundings by providing a variety of routes for them to use. If people continue to be stimulated by new sights or experiences, they are less likely to choose the quickest and easiest path to their destination and may instead choose a more physically challenging route.
1. What does the underlined word “incentive” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．requirement | B．encouragement |
| C．technique | D．assistance |
| A．To demonstrate the differences between elevator and stairwell design. |
| B．To describe one advantage of using skip-stop elevators in buildings. |
| C．To make a point about why people don’t use the stairs often. |
| D．To argue that skip-stop elevators may lead to design failures. |
| A．Creating more routes for entering and exiting. |
| B．Building gardens inside the building. |
| C．Creating spaces with open ceilings. |
| D．Using see-through materials. |
| A．Para 2 describes an early model of a design discussed in para 3. |
| B．Para 3 argues about the effectiveness of the technique from para 2. |
| C．Para 3 introduces a different strategy than the one discussed in para 2. |
| D．Para 2 explains a technique, and para 3 gives examples of how it is used. |
10 . Roller coasters are fast and exciting. But passing a painful kidney (肾) stones is not. The process is painful and can take a long time. But American researchers have found that a roller coaster ride just might help those suffering from a kidney stone. They say such rides help patients pass the stones with a 70 percent success rate.
David Wartinger led the study. He found that where the person sits on the roller coaster can make a big difference. He said, “In the pilot study, sitting in the last car of the roller coaster showed about a 64 percent passage rate. Sitting in the first few cars only had a 16 percent success rate.”
It also mattered where the stones were located in the kidney. The researchers found that stones located in the upper part of the kidney model were passed 100 percent.
When it comes to passing kidney stones, not all roller coasters are equal. The researchers used 174 kidney stones of differing shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters. They found that Big Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked. The other two roller coasters both failed the test. Wartinger said the other rides were too fast and too violent. The movement forced the stones against the side of the kidney. He said that the ideal roller coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns.
Wartinger thinks roller coaster rides could also be used as a preventative measure. He said that a yearly ride on a roller coaster could even prevent stones from developing. “You need to heed the warnings before going on a roller coaster,” he said. “If you have a kidney stone, but are otherwise healthy and meet the requirements of the ride, patients should try it.”
He adds that it’s definitely a lower cost alternative to other treatments. And riding a roller coaster is definitely more fun!
1. According to the text, passing kidney stone is ______.| A．fast | B．exciting |
| C．interesting | D．painful |
| A．Sitting in the first car of a roller coaster. |
| B．Sitting in the middle car of a roller coaster. |
| C．Sitting in big roller coasters with doctors’ care. |
| D．Sitting in rough and fast roller coasters with twists and turns. |
| A．Worried. | B．Negative. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Some treatments of kidney stones |
| B．Advantages of riding roller coasters |
| C．Roller coasters can help pass kidney stones |
| D．Kidney stones can be cured by riding roller coasters |
