1 . Spending time outdoors has long been linked (联系) to better health. Gardening goes beyond just beautifying outdoor spaces—it can have a deep effect on our physical and mental (身心上的) health.

Gardening involves physical activity that works all the main muscle (肌肉) groups, which is helpful for overall health. “Activities such as digging, planting, weeding and harvesting require movement and can help to improve strength,” said Clayton, CEO of an online lawn care company. “Performing these activities regularly can help burn calories, and keep a healthy weight.”

Beyond burning calories and building muscle, lots of studies have shown that gardening can improve the immune system (免疫系统). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, and gardening is listed as a suitable activity. Doing garden work for that time each week can reduce the risk of obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. Additionally, spending time outdoors makes us get close to natural sunlight, which is important for vitamin D synth.

Gardening provides a chance for social connection, too. It can be a shared activity among family members, friends or neighbors, building relationships and a sense of belonging.

Gardening also offers cognitive (认知的) benefits. It excites the senses, improves focus and encourages problem-solving and creativity. It provides a chance to learn about plants, ecosystems and the environment, developing a deeper understanding and appreciation for nature.

1. What is Clayton’s attitude towards gardening?

A．Supportive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unclear

D．Uncaring.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly tell us about gardening?

A．It improves focus.	B．It is a waste of time.
C．It can keep a body in shape.	D．It helps to reduce the risk of diseases.

3. How does gardening affect social connection according to the text?

A．It contributes to creativity.	B．It encourages problem-solving.
C．It builds relationships between people.	D．It improves people’s awareness of safety.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．How to Start a Garden	B．Choose a Garden or Not
C．What Plants Grow Best in a Garden	D．Start Gardening and Get the Health Benefits

2 . Jumping rope is popular but we tend to ignore (忽视) its benefits.     1     A study found that college men who spent 10 minutes jumping rope daily for six weeks improved their cardiovascular (心血管的) fitness just as much as college men who spent thirty minutes jogging for the same time. Here are some benefits of jumping rope.

    2    

Since most of your major muscles are working when you jump rope, the exercise creates a lot of heat in the body. Your body needs to burn more fuel to produce this energy, so it burns lots of calories. It burns more calories than any other exercises, such as jogging, cycling and swimming.

Improves coordination (协调)

Jumping rope requires good coordination, especially as you advance to more skilled moves.     3     It improves coordination by requiring several body parts to communicate in order to complete one movement. The feet must jump in time with the wrists turning in order to create a continuous jumping motion.

Reduces injury risk

With your improved coordination from jumping rope, you’ll be less likely to get hurt either during exercise or in daily activities.     4     As a result, you are more agile (灵活的) and your body awareness is improved greatly. This guarantees fewer injuries.

Improves heart health

Since jumping rope gets your heart pumping, it’s great for your cardiovascular system and heart health. Jumping rope can increase your VO₂ Max (最大摄氧量), the measure of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can breathe during exercise. The higher someone’s VO₂ max, the more cardiovascular endurance (耐受力) they have.

Jumping rope gives us a full-body workout with just one piece of equipment and one move.     5     Jump to some music, or take your rope to a nearby park to enjoy the fun.

A．Burns calories

B．Improves muscles

C．It benefits us not only physically but also mentally.

D．You can quickly swing the rope twice within each jump.

E．It may even be more effective than other forms of exercise.

F．Jumping rope forces you to move your upper and lower body together.

G．So jumping rope helps you stay calm, clear and focused in everything you do.

4 . One of the presents in my house this Christmas was a late 18th-century volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (大英百科全书). It is a window into the discoveries and thinking of the time. The encyclopaedia is an entertaining reminder of how _______ some of our current truths are bound to be. Certainties in areas we haven’t yet understood will look just as ridiculous as some of these in centuries to come. And one of those we are still remarkably _______ is the effect of food and exercise on our bodies. We’re surrounded by confident _______ on how to eat, how to avoid or reverse obesity (肥胖), and yet the advice seems pointless while the world gets fatter. Much of what we think we know is a pile of assumptions rather than _______ .

Our confusion is the theme of Spoon-Fed, a book by one of Britain’s leading nutrition researchers, Tim Spector of King’s College London. Its subtitle is: “Why almost everything we’ve been told about food is wrong.” It is a call for us to _______ more.

One by one Spector offers answers to recent food _______. Coffee can save our lives, he says. Three to four cups a day reduces the risk of heart disease and may cut the risk of death by 8 per cent. Butter does not damage our hearts, Spector argues, and salt is vital. Eggs have gone “from heroes to villains and back again”. Don’t say no to all red meat on _______ grounds; occasional small quantities of high-quality unprocessed meat provide important vitamins and iron and are “probably good for you“. Exercise is so good for longevity and happiness that it should be considered our No 1 drug, but the one thing for which it’s _______ useless is losing weight. Vitamin pills are a multibillion-pound industry with almost no proven _______ but which can cause real harm. Even vitamin D, which Spector used to study and believe in, he now _______.

Spector also offers more than a set of currently _______ tips. The science of nutrition has not been solved by him, as he would be the first to admit. His most _______ point is that there is no one size that fits all. Our bodies are complex, and our reactions are _______: yet nobody wants to pay for the research that might explain why.

Some combination of food choices, genes, environment and the chemical reactions generated by our microbiome — the unique microbe (微生物的) combinations in our body ― yes different _______ for each of us, leaving some lean and two thirds of us too fat. This is the territory Spector wants to explore further and which might just allow us to _______ the global trend to obesity, with all the risks we’ve witnessed this year.

1.

A．well-known

B．aim-oriented

C．ill-founded

D．long-lived

2.

A．certain about

B．ignorant of

C．capable of

D．worried about

3.

A．decisions

B．courses

C．focuses

D．suggestions

4.

A．facts

B．chances

C．reasons

D．features

5.

A．investigate

B．demand

C．concentrate

D．spend

6.

A．supplies

B．shortages

C．standards

D．myths

7.

A．culture

B．history

C．economy

D．health

8.

A．equally

B．practically

C．socially

D．impossibly

9.

A．effectiveness

B．consciousness

C．competitiveness

D．emptiness

10.

A．serves

B．shares

C．recognizes

D．dismisses

11.

A．pointless

B．topical

C．defensible

D．additional

12.

A．emotional

B．significant

C．questionable

D．forgivable

13.

A．individual

B．unpredictable

C．important

D．available

14.

A．changes

B．outcomes

C．profits

D．addicts

15.

A．start

B．analyze

C．stop

D．reflect

5 . Maybe you plan to ring in 2023 with a new resolve to lose weight, exercise more, not sweat the small stuff. And maybe these resolutions sound familiar — maybe just like the ones you made a year ago! So how can you ensure that your determination to get healthier in 2023 sticks?    1    

Dream big. Want to compete in a marathon or triathlon? Lose 50 pounds or just enough to fit into clothes you once loved? With perseverance (毅力), encouragement, and support, you can do it.     2    Many will cheer you on. Some will be happy to help in practical ways, such as by training with you or taking on tasks you normally handle in order to free up your time.

    3    Any time you fail to make a change, consider it a step toward your goal. Why? Because each sincere attempt represents a lesson learned. When you hit a snag (碰钉子), take a moment to think about what did and didn’t work. Maybe you took on too big a challenge?     4    

Give thanks for what you do. Set your sights on finishing that marathon,not on running it. If you compete to complete, you’ll be a winner even if you wind up walking as much as you run. With exercise — and so many other goals we set — you’ll benefit even when doing less than you’d like to do.     5    If your goal for Tuesday is a 30-minute workout at the gym, but you only squeeze (挤出) in 10 minutes, feel grateful for that. It’s enough. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

A．Learn from the failures.

B．Avoid repeating past failures.

C．Any activity is always better than none.

D．An ambitious aim often inspires others to help you.

E．Try the following tips to help you create long-lasting change.

F．Having a solid system can help you stay motivated and accountable.

G．If so, change into a less ambitious challenge, or break the big one into tinier steps.

6 . Are you sitting more than ever?     1     You’re probably sitting while reading this. Sometimes you sit when you are driving or attending a meeting. Other times you sit when you engage yourself in watching a movie or playing computer games. That’s undoubtedly a lot of sitting. The fact is, the amount of time spent sitting has increased over time.     2    

We know sitting too much is bad, and most of us naturally feel a little guilty after a long-time TV watching.     3     A study on nearly 8,000 adults suggests that there’s a direct relationship between the time spent sitting and our risk of early death of any cause. As the total sitting time increases, so does the risk of early death.

“Sit less, move more” is what the Heart Association encourages us to do.     4     It is like telling someone to just ”exercise“ without telling them how. Exercise guidelines are always more practical. For example, the Center for Disease Control recommends adults do exercise for two hours and 30 minutes every week, plus muscle strengthening activities two or more days a week. We need similar guidelines for sitting.

    5     “It would probably be like, for every 30 continuous minutes of sitting, stand up and move or walk for five minutes at a quick pace,” Diaz, the lead researcher said, adding that the study has put us a step closer to the satisfying guidelines. But more researches are needed to confirm their approach.

A．Now it’s time to get up and move around.

B．Take a moment to think about your sitting activities.

C．Health experts also suggest exercising on a daily basis.

D．But this guideline is just too simple and abstract to make a difference.

E．As of today, average adult will spend 56-86% of their daily time sitting.

F．But what exactly goes wrong when we park ourselves for nearly eight hours per day?

G．To make up for the weakness, a research team is working on a more specific guideline.

8 . Whether someone makes you angry, you’re upset with yourself, or you’re just having a bad day, one of the best ways to direct your angry energy is through exercise. That angry energy can build inside of you.     1     If you’re looking to direct your anger through exercise, there are exercises suitable for it.

Running is a very effective technique to calm anxieties. The focus it takes to run and the endorphins your body releases will take your mind off whatever is frustrating you. Be sure to adequately warm up and stretch before you run!     2     You can enhance the benefits by running in an area that is free of distractions like around a lake or through a peaceful part of the city.

A challenging yoga practice is a great way to control your anger to help you get through it. You may be so frustrated that getting started in a yoga practice may seem impossible.     3     You can focus on directing your angry energy into each of the movements. It may also help you to have the support of the group to help you get involved.

    4     Conditioning classes are a great opportunity to focus your angry energy into hitting a heavy punching bag while also burning a lot of calories. These classes are often challenging, so you can use your anger to help you get through the difficulty of the workout. Focus on your breathing, your technique, and harnessing your anger to deliver strong punches.

Cycling is a serious cardiovascular (心血管的) workout and you can use your anger to help you push through the difficulty of it. When you go for a ride outdoors, the extra focus it takes to navigate the outside world can provide a helpful distraction from your frustration.     5    

A．It’s advisable to find a scenic route.

B．Be sure to obey traffic laws and wear a helmet.

C．Boxing is a great way to relieve your frustration.

D．Joining a class can help take the thinking out of it.

E．Watch out for any moving cars while you’re running.

F．Breathe deeply while practicing yoga and your anger will fade.

G．Working it out is an effective way to channel your rage into movement.

10 . Much of our thinking about health is based on wishful thinking. But science provides clear and simple advice for a healthy life. Graham Lawton explores the evidence. Graham proves that you don’t have to be a health and fitness extremist to be reasonably healthy. He has rounded up the latest and strictest health research and changed it into useful advice on all the big health questions: diet, weight loss, exercise, sleep, ageing and so on.

Graham, New Scientist feature writer, is not the common health expert. He sometimes eats fast food. He has a gym membership but rarely uses it. And he takes medicine to keep his blood pressure under control. He neither has a diet plan nor a 6-week program to keep fit and thin.

But he does have a much better weapon: science. In a talk, Graham explains the basic science, tells people some of the secrets of science, teaches people to use the ability of judgement to tell the good from the bad, and helps them to see beyond the headlines. The talk allows people to eat healthily, lose weight, and sort the truth out from science facts.

But he loves outdoor sports. Last year Graham cycled over 1,200 miles and ran the same distance of 15marathons. He often goes swimming outdoors and walks up eight flights of stairs to his desk instead of taking the lift. He eats his five copies of fruit and vegetables a day, keeps enough water in his body, and doesn’t eat much meat. Despite all the bad habits, his good ones seem to be winning. Graham is 50, but his “biological age” was recently measured as 45.

1. What can we learn about Graham?

A．He has some bad habits.

B．He has an extremely strict diet.

C．He looks down on common health experts.

D．He always bases health on wishful thinking.

2. What does Graham’s talk in paragraph 3 cover?

A．Words as weapons.

B．Health and science.

C．Functions of medicine.

D．Ability and confidence.

3. What does the last paragraph mainly tell us concerning Graham?

A．His indoor sports of his life.

B．His copies of health books.

C．His healthy lifestyle.

D．His way of thinking.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．The Professional Ways to Do Sports

B．The Importance of Exercise for Health

C．The Unique Path to Scientific Success

D．The Secrets of Living a Healthy Life