1 . The key to losing weight is to understand what really motivates you. Have you ever been excited about losing a few pounds?
Ask questions. When you’re researching different dieting products and plans or even talking to a doctor about diets, ask as many questions as you can.
Get real.
Weigh yourself weekly. It’s important to track your weight on any diet or weight loss plan, but don’t step on the scales every day. Weighing daily won’t show you the big picture.
| A．Stay balanced. |
| B．Once a week is fine. |
| C．Stick with your healthy eating plan. |
| D．Losing one to two pounds a week is a realistic goal. |
| E．Being well-informed will help you choose the best diet for yourself. |
| F．Regular weight checks will show you your progress over time. |
| G．If so, you must find a way to turn excitement into determination. |
2 . Losing weight comes with a lot of health benefits-including making your brain sharper.
Yes, it turns out that overweight may damage cognitive functions such as memory and attention. There have been few studies of overweight and cognitive functioning, possibly because it is generally believed that it is not a primary risk cause for poor cognitive performance. Losing weight, therefore, may help improve these mental functions, according to a new research led by John Gunstad, assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University.
Growing evidence suggests that being fat is linked to cognitive deficits (缺陷). So Gunstad and his team guessed that losing weight might improve mental function. For their study, they measured memory and attention in a group of 150 overweight participants, some of whom had some kind of operation for weight loss and some did not. All of the volunteers completed mental skills tests to assess their abilities of memory and attention at the beginning of the study, and again 12 weeks later. To begin with, about 24% of the patients showed damaged learning and 23% showed signs of poor memory when tested. At the end of the study, those who had lost weight after operation improved their scores into the average or above average range for cognitive functions. Scores for the volunteers who didn’t lose weight dropped even further.
The study helped Gunstad to find out whether losing weight had any effect on mental function. Now that he’s seen the positive effect that weight loss can have on memory and attention, he says he will next study those who choose to lose weight by the traditional way—eating healthier and getting more active. He expects that losing weight in this way will have a similarly positive effect on the brain. “If we can improve the condition with operations, then we can probably produce the same change with behavioral weight loss as well,” he says.
1. There is less research on overweight and cognitive functions because researchers _____.| A．believe overweight only affects our body |
| B．have focused on ways to sharpen people’s mind |
| C．do not consider overweight a main cause for low cognitive ability |
| D．are clear about the relation between weight and mental functions |
| A．losing weight has little effect on people’s memory |
| B．losing weight can improve people’s mental functions |
| C．overweight people are likely to have psychology problems |
| D．overweight people’s abilities of concentration differ greatly |
| A．Slim people are smarter than overweight people. |
| B．Healthy diet is better than exercise in losing weight. |
| C．Traditional ways of losing weight are better than operation. |
| D．Overweight people will get smarter by taking more exercise. |
| A．Body Weight and Health | B．Losing Weight by Operation |
| C．Ways to Improve Mental Functions | D．Losing Weight to Sharpen Your Mind |
3 . Have you ever noticed that some people can eat what they want and stay in shape, while others carefully watch what they eat and still put on weight? How annoying! However, scientists are beginning to believe that some people get the ability to stay thin from their parents.
Scientists say that when some people eat, their bodies will naturally store the excess energy from food as fat. These people gain weight if they eat more than they need each day. Meanwhile, other people eat more than they need but their bodies are able to “burn off” the extra food without making fat, so they rarely have weight problems.
To show that this is true, scientists have experimented on laboratory mice. They gave the mice a special diet with a lot of fat. Some mice gained weight while the other mice stayed thin, even though both groups of mice ate the same amount of food and got the same amount of exercise. Scientists concluded that weight gain seemed to be influenced by genetic (基因的) factors. They also believe they have now identified the genes that may cause this tendency. These genes, according to the scientists, get passed down the generations. Armed with this knowledge, they believe it may be possible to develop medicines that can target the genes and stop people from gaining weight.
The study of weight gain is becoming more important as the numbers of people who are overweight continues to grow. In the United States, over seventy percent of the population have weight problems. This means they are at risk of illness such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
Current medicines for weight control do not work very well because they can have serious side effects, such as heart problems. However, it takes a long time to develop and thoroughly test new drugs. Therefore, despite this breakthrough in the study of weight-loss drugs, scientists and health professionals all agree that currently the best way to control weight gain is to have a healthy, balanced diet and an active lifestyle with daily exercise. This will not only help people avoid becoming overweight, but also help them stay healthy and energetic.
1. According to the scientists, some people ________.| A．are able to stay thin because of genetic factors |
| B．can eat what they want and stay healthy forever |
| C．usually keep doing exercise to lose their weight |
| D．don’t eat anything every day but still put on weight |
| A．they eat many vegetables |
| B．they eat less than others |
| C．they don’t store any energy from food as fat |
| D．they can burn off the extra food without making fat |
| A．Fewer people will have weight problems in the future. |
| B．People with weight problems may suffer from heart trouble. |
| C．We now have good medicine for people with weight problems. |
| D．The result of the experiments on mice and humans are different. |
| A．Current medicine solve weight problems well. |
| B．We should exercise regularly and eat properly. |
| C．Taking exercise every day may cause heart problems. |
| D．Testing new drugs is hard because of the side effects. |
