I hesitated to join the new Tai Chi Club because I always    1    (believe) tai chi was for old people. In fact, it was really     2    (amaze) and had a huge effect on me physically and mentally.    3     is said that a 13th-century Taoist named Zhang Sanfeng invented tai chi after drawing     4    (inspire) from a fight between a snake and a bird. 

While     5    (learn) the basics of tai chi, I found myself bored and aching. Luckily, my coach taught me how to relax my     6    (muscle) and focus on peace of mind. With these requirements in mind, I found my balance and flexibility     7    (slow) improved.  

I discovered that tai chi is deeply rooted     8     the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang, and that the practice of tai chi aims to maintain the balance of yin and yang in the body.  

A year of practising tai chi has had a positive effect on my everyday life. I feel    9    (happy) and more confident. I will continue to practise tai chi and enjoy the benefits     10     it has brought me.

You already know the fact that regular exercise is important for controlling weight and     1     (avoid)a variety of health conditions. But it can also improve your academic     2    (perform). And. if you’re a distance learning student, you may miss out on some of the opportunities for physical activity afforded to more traditional students who routinely walk around campus. But it’s well worth the effort     3     (put) the schedule exercise into practice.

The study, which     4    (publish) in the Journal of Medicine & Science, describes physical activity as     5     vigorous movement that produces sweat and heavy breathing. Mike McKenzie found that students who studied over three hours per day were 3. 5 times     6    (likely) to be exercisers. Over a decade ago, McKenzie     7     (say) researchers discovered a link     8     exercise and focus in children.

More recently, another study by Johnson reveals that even short ”microbursts“ of physical activity throughout the day can have positive effects. Jennifer tells that sitting for long periods of time,     9    college students tend to do, can have a negative health effect. In addition, the study found that five-minute bouts of walking every hour had a positive impact on mood, tiredness, and hunger at the end of a day. This may be     10    (particular)beneficial to students who also work a full-time job and study in the evening and nighttime hours.

3 . 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.

5 . Risks of Overtraining

Getting in shape and training for an event such as a marathon requires long-lasting and intense physical commitment.    1     But the truth is, sometimes the very acts we do to get healthy can actually push us past our physical limits.

Specifically, overtraining is a set of signs that occur when your body is not able to recover sufficiently before going into your next workout.     2    People tend to ignore them. Over time, the cycle of starting the next training session before allowing recovery causes breakdown of the very parts of the body that you work so hard to build up.

The structures and systems of your body adapt to the demands you have placed on them before the rest time. If your workout slightly goes beyond your current ability, it will adapt toward what you did in a positive way.     3    

Two main factors are necessary in recovery: nutrition. and rest. Good nutrition, including water and protein intake, is extremely important, especially within 40 minutes of your workout.     4    Your body uses the nutrients you have given it during the rest time. especially sleep, to strengthen.

One of the best ways to prevent overtraining is to focus on your morning resting heart rate.     5    Generally, you will detect an increase in your heart rate before the other signs show up. Tracking it in a log can be a great way to monitor your recovery.

6 . A new study involving nearly 50,000 people from four continents offers new insights into identifying the quantity of daily walking steps that will best improve adults’ health and longevity(长寿), and whether the ideal number of steps differs across people of different ages. The study represents an effort to develop an evidence-based public health message about the benefits of physical activity. The often-repeated 10,000-step-a-day saying grew out of a decades-old marketing activity for a Japanese pedometer(计步器), with no science to back it up.

Led by physical activity professor Amanda Paluch, an international group of scientists conducted an experiment among adults aged 18 and older. They grouped the nearly 50,000 participants into four comparative groups according to average steps per day. The lowest step group averaged 3,500 steps; the second, 5,800; the third, 7,800; and the fourth, 10,900 steps per day. Among the three higher active groups, there was a 40—53% lower risk of death, compared to the lowest step group.

More specifically, for adults 60 and older, the risk of early death leveled off at about 6,000—8,000 steps per day, meaning that more steps than that provided no additional benefit for longevity, while for adults younger than 60, about 8, 000—10,000 steps per day.

“So, what we saw was this continuing reduction in risk as the number of steps increases, until it levels off. Interestingly, the study found no definitive association with walking speed.” Paluch says.

The new study supports and expands findings from another study led by Paluch before, which found that walking at least 7,000 steps a day reduced middle-aged people’s risk of early death. “There’s a lot of evidence suggesting that moving even a little more is beneficial, particularly for those who are doing very little activity.” Paluch says. “More steps per day are better for your health.”

8 . 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.

9 . You may have heard the name of Parkrun. But you may not know it was founded by Paul Sinton-Herwitt, who was ______ the Royal Society of the Arts' Albert Medal in 2019. He got the honor for his __________ in the field of social improvement.

Parkruns are free, weekly, community __________ all around the world. The events are 5km and __________ on Saturday morning in parks and open spaces. It is a positive and inclusive __________ where there is no time limit and no one finishes last. Everyone is __________ to come along, whether you walk, jog, run, volunteer or watch.

In 2004 Paul had lost his job and he was __________ in an accident. Down but not out, this was the time when the __________ of Parkrun first came to him. On 2nd October 2004,13 amateur runners arrived in Bushy Park, London. Parkrun was born. The first team _________ Paul and his wife Joanne together with a few of their friends. At that time, it was just called a time trial, the name Parkrun was not _________ until 2008, and no one knew what a phenomenon it would become.

The second Parkrun wasn't __________ until 2007. Shortly after Wimbledon, Richmond, Banstead and Leeds Hyde Parks started to host Parkruns. And then, __________ and the number of events have continued to grow. Parkrun is now a __________ phenomenon, represented in 21 different countries, stretching across five continents.

At the 2019 ceremony Paul gave a speech celebrating Parkrun, from the tiny _________ he planted fifteen years ago through to the worldwide movement. Paul went on to praise their movement of real people and communities, empowering themselves and those around them to do __________ things for themselves and one another.

10 . 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.