Most people know yoga as a kind of exercise, which aims at developing strength and flexibility. However,
2 . It’s truly never too late to begin exercising, according to the researchers led by Pedro Saint-Maurice of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Even for people who were “couch potatoes” in their youth, starting regular exercise in middle-age can still greatly cut the probability of death from any cause.
The study tracked the lifetime exercise patterns of more than 315,000 people. The investigators found that folks who’d exercised all their lives had a 36 percent lower risk of dying during the study period, compared to people who’d never exercised. But, perhaps surprisingly, people who’d been inactive in youth but decided to get more physical in their 40s and 50s saw almost the same decline—35 percent—in their probability of an early death.
The study also found that a mid-life start to physical activity seemed to cut the probability of death from the two major killers—heart disease and cancer. For people who began exercising in their 40s and 50s, rates of death from heart disease fell by 43 percent compared to people who’d never exercised, and the cancer death rate fell by 16 percent. Those declines were similar to those seen in people who’d exercised all their adult lives.
“This study, once again, indicates the importance of physical activity in relationship to one’s long-term mortality,” said Dr. Evelina Grayver. “Whether or not you start exercising when you are younger or older, the benefits will always be there. But starting exercising at a later age and still getting the same mortality benefit doesn’t mean that one should not exercise in younger years. Overall effects of continuous physical activity decrease the risk of an early death.”
The researchers also noted that while other research linking exercise to longevity has looked at physical activity at just one point in the lifetime, theirs is the first to examine the role of “participation in physical activity throughout the different stages of adulthood.” This new research demonstrates the crucial relationship between physical activity and the prevention of death at any age.
1. What can we infer from the passage?| A．Exercising at any age helps one enjoy a happier life. |
| B．Lifelong exercising can guarantee a lower death rate. |
| C．Exercising in 40s and 50s may add years to one’s life. |
| D．Lack of physical activity leads to heart disease and cancer. |
| A．To analyse a link between exercises and death rate. |
| B．To compare the consequences of exercise in different ages. |
| C．To explain the significant effects of continuous physical activity. |
| D．To introduce a new study on the benefits of exercise in middle age. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Disapproving. | C．Supportive. | D．Neutral. |
3 . Do you think you would work out more if you were offered money to do so? Science has shown that money can give people motivation to work out, but perhaps not in the way that you think.
According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, the best strategy isn’t offering money; it’s giving someone money, then threatening to take it away.
Researchers gave 281 people the goal of walking 7,000 steps every day over 13 weeks.
To motivate the people who took part to reach the goal, researchers divided them into three groups.
People in the first group received $1,40(9 yuan) each day as long as they finished 7,000 steps, the second group was only able to collect the $1.40 if they had reached 7,000 steps the day before, and the third group was given $42 at the beginning of each month and $1.40 was taken away every time someone failed to meet the goal.
The third group met their daily fitness goals 50 percent more often than the other two groups, showing that people were most motivated to walk by the fear of losing money.
“People are more motivated by losses than gains, and they like immediate gratification.” study author Dr Mitesh Patel, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, told CNN. “They want to be rewarded today, not next year or far into the future.”
Our brains tend to avoid wanting to lose things more than they try to get the benefits from gaining them, Patel explained. “It makes people think like the money is theirs to lose from day one.”
In addition, in most programs, many participants will drop out quickly and only the motivated will stay involved, Patel said.
“In ours, we were pleasantly surprised that 96 percent stayed.” he added.
The study provides evidence that what matters is not only the money incentive （激励）, but also how you think about them. This is important to how effective they are. The evidence could have a big effect on health promotion programs in the future, according to the study.
“Incentives themselves are not all you need,” Stephanie Pronk, a health and wellness consultant with the Aonplc corporation, told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s really important to change up the incentive design and keep people on their toes.”
1. According to Dr Mitesh Patel, the third group did better than the other two groups mostly because______.| A．they were satisfied with being paid immediately |
| B．they did not want the money they had gained to be taken away |
| C．they were able to get more money than the other two groups |
| D．they were given money at first while the others were not |
| A．prove that their program has been more successful |
| B．show that motivation mattered more in other programs |
| C．stress that they didn’t expert the result |
| D．make a further comparison between these programs |
| A．Incentives are of little importance in the process of getting fit. |
| B．Incentives and ways in which they are given are key to fitness programs. |
| C．People should keep fit actively instead of being motivated by incentives. |
| D．There are many ways to get people to feel motivated to work out more. |
| A．more benefits than losses should be obvious for participants |
| B．direct profits should be given rather than long-term ones |
| C．designers need to consider how people think about incentives |
| D．designers need to work out the right from of motivation |
