Many of us are lacing up our sneakers and starting (or restarting) exercise regimens (练身计划) in hopes of shedding unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is good. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your New Year’s resolution could very well     1    .

For starters, exercise — at least the kind most of us do — is     2     ineffective for weight loss. Take walking, for example. A 150-pound person who walks briskly for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.

Studies     3     show that doing moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as walking for 30 minutes a day, five days a week — the amount recommended for good health — typically produces little or no weight loss by itself.

When moderate exercise is added to diet, the results are equally not     4    . Pooling data from six trials, researchers found that a combination of diet and exercise generated no greater weight loss than diet alone after six months.

In studies where exercise has produced     5     weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to exert that much effort, our bodies often     6     by boosting appetite and dialing down metabolism, effects that over time limit how many pounds we shed.

Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into     7    . How many times have you heard someone say (or said yourself) “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much during the holidays or at a celebratory dinner?

The point is that we’re more likely to     8     exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight. The incentive may be an improved mood or less stress. Others may find that exercise makes them feel physically and mentally stronger.

Of course, the benefits of physical activity     9     well beyond these. It’s been shown to reduce the risk of multiple diseases. It can also improve sleep and boost energy.

By all means, striving to exercise regularly in the new year is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your health. But to improve the odds of success, focus on how movement helps you feel better physically and emotionally — and forget about how it moves the     10     on the scale.

Future Fashion: Biometric Bodysuits

A team of the Applied NanoBioscience Center at Arizona State University has built prototypes (原型) of biometric bodysuits. They can detect chemical attacks, deliver drugs to their     1    , or even perfume scents if your body temperature rises too much. The     2     version of the Scentsory Chameleon Bodysuit incorporates fuel cells to provide a lightweight source of power for the soldier’s equipment. The civilian one can monitor your heart or blood pressure, deliver interactive games or simply work as a wearable computer. You will even be able to download new colors and patterns from the Web to change your appearance according to this article from East Valley Tribune in Arizona. Both versions should     3     the market within a few years.

Frederic Zenhausern, director of the Applied NanoBioscience Center at ASU, has joined with Ghassan Jabbour, a professor at the University of Arizona, to develop two prototypes of “biometric bodysuits” that contain embedded sensors, power sources, microfluidic devices and other gadgets not normally associated with the latest Paris fashions. Such “smart” clothing could     4     future soldiers early warning of chemical attacks or automatically deliver insulin to diabetics, Zenhausemn said. “The biometric bodysuit shows how electronics and fluidics (流体学) can be incorporated into clothing to perform a wide range of     5     tasks, from highly functional to the aesthetic.” he said.

The civilian Chameleon will have somewhat different     6    . Its biometric outfit demonstrates how miniature electronics could be embedded in clothing to promote health. It is made of clear vinyl (乙烯基) and white plastics to show the placement of various electronic and fluidic devices. In the future, such an outfit could diagnose diseases and deliver medications to the wearer, monitor heart rate or blood pressure, deliver interactive games and other forms of entertainment or     7     as a wearable computer.

Another possibility would be to download different designs from the Internet so the fabric could change colors and patterns, Zenhausern said. And it could all be made to look stylish by the     8     of electronics and high-fashion designs, he said. In fact, the concept of embedding microelectronics in fabrics has     9     far beyond clothing. Sheila Kennedy, a Boston-based architect and visiting professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, sees possibilities to     10     the technology in building design. As an example, she said window shades containing organic light emitting diodes (二极管) could produce electricity from sunlight that would help generate power.

If your parents take out a loan, remind them to make the payments on time. Otherwise it will become a(n)     1     record in their personal credit reports, which are playing a(n)     2     big role in people’s daily lives. A story carried by Chongqing Morning Post in June,     3     this trend.

According to the report, a Chongqing student borrowed money from the bank to     4     his university studies. After he graduated in 2005, he went to work in Shenzhen. Later, he wanted to buy a house using loans. But several banks turned down his loan     5    . The reason was that he had not paid back 1,500 yuan he borrowed from a bank when he was at university,

A personal credit rating is becoming a(n)     6     “pass” in everyday life, as China establishes a nationwide credit database. Personal credit systems go back 150 years. In developed countries, enterprises and banks use them to decide whether or not to loan money or do other business with a person.

A credit report     7     the credit worthiness of an individual, a company, or even a country. It is a(n)     8     made by credit bureaus of a borrower’s overall credit history and his or her ability to repay debt. A poor credit rating means a high risk of defaulting on a loan, and thus leads to the     9     of a loan by the lender.

Today in China, credit history in banks is the major     10     of a credit report. But in the future, reports will include information about the payment of telephone bills, water use fees, electricity and natural gas bills, and taxes, according to officials of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank.

The garden path

Imagine a plate holding two strawberries, identical in appearance. One came out of a supermarket box. By the time it reached the plate it may have been off the vine for two weeks. The other strawberry was picked from a garden minutes before being eaten.

The first one will probably taste like a slightly sour cucumber, with a(n)     1     hint of berry taste. The second is likely to be sweet and floral. Supermarket strawberries are not     2     without advantages: they are convenient and available in the northern hemisphere in February. But the two berries are distinct from each other in the same way that hearing music in a concert hall     3     from listening to it on a worn-out cassette. The home-grown fruit is an edible case for cultivating a home garden.

Those who long dismissed gardening as a waste of time     4     this argument with great passion. They think a garden can yield peas that taste like the vibrant, green essence of spring; tomatoes and carrots of incomparable sweetness; and lettuces and herbs that taste like themselves rather than the plastic they are usually packaged in. Growing your own vegetables, exotic or routine, ensures a reliable supply, offering quality seasonal     5     .

That attitude misrepresents the ultimate     6     of gardening: it mistakes the product for the purpose. On the other hand, a garden, especially in the easy years, can also yield little but     7     . Novice gardeners may plant the wrong crops for their soil. And even expert gardeners can lose a season’s harvest to     8     weather.

No matter. The real joy of gardening is the time spent doing it. The deepest pleasure — as with cooking writing, bringing up children or almost anything worthwhile - is in the work itself. A gardener’s memories center not on the food produced, but on long summer afternoons with hands in the dirt, surrounded by family, if the garden is at home, or deepening     9     with friends and neighbors in a community garden. To garden is to     10     help life flourish with love and patience, in the ground and above it.

All Change in Curitiba!

Like many other major world cities, Curitiba in southern Brazil has had to deal with issues such as pollution, poverty, and limited public funding. However, the architect and three-times mayor of the city, Jaime Lerner, has introduced some     1     solutions.

As part of his ‘Master Plan’, Lerner hoped to make the city more environmentally friendly. He initiated a recycling scheme. In return for delivering recyclable rubbish to specified     2     points, residents receive a bag of vegetables or bus tickets. As a result, Curitiba now has one of the highest recycling rates in the world. Lerner also ordered the     3     of 26 urban parks. As well as preventing pollution, these control flooding.

Lerner did not win over all the city’s residents immediately, however. When his plans to     4     part of the centre were passed, local businesses were up in arms, fearing a reduction in profits. Realising he needed to act quickly, Lerner had the     5     of six blocks completed within three days. When a group of motorists attempted to drive through the new pedestrian area, Lerner arranged for local primary schools to hold a painting workshop on the streets. The drivers were forced to turn back. Luckily for Lerner, this rebellion was     6    . The increase in profit rapidly persuaded shop owners to change their minds.

Lerner’s determination helped     7     the Curitiba of today. The average income per capita has risen from a level that was below the Brazilian average in the 1970s to 66% above the average, and surveys indicate high levels of resident satisfaction.

So, is it all just one big success story? In some respects, Curitiba may have been too successful for its own    8    . People and businesses have come to the city, which now has more than 1.8 million residents. This has put the city under enormous stress. Forty years ago, buses transported 54,000 passengers a day. Now the number is 2.3 million. According to some experts, the transport system has reached its     9     efficiency capacity. Following a rise in complaints about the noisy and     10     buses, the service is in decline.

For the first time, scientists have mapped the whole surface of Titan, the largest moon around Saturn. The map confirms existing data showing that Titan has many Earth-like     1     that might be able to support life.

The data was collected by Cassini, a spacecraft operated by the U.S. space agency NASA. The spacecraft studied Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017. Astronomers used images and radar measurements from Cassini to create the     2     map of Titan.

The map shows Titan as a mixture of flat plains, hills and mountains, windblown sand areas, valleys and lakes. The mapping operation is     3     in a report published in Nature Astronomy.

Rosaly Lopes led the project. She is a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Lopes told the publication that the many similarities between Earth and Titan make the Saturn moon a great choice for     4     exploration.

“Titan has an atmosphere like Earth's. It has wind; it has rain; it has mountains,” Lopes said.

Titan is the only planet in our solar system besides Earth to have known     5     of liquid on its surface. But Titan's seas and lakes are filled with liquid methane (甲烷) rather than water.

At cold temperatures, methane goes through similar     6     as rain does on Earth. It falls to the surface across the planet to form rivers and lakes and can then evaporate (挥发) to form clouds again.

The map found that nearly two-thirds of Titan's surface is made up of flat plains, Nature reported. About 17 percent is covered in sandy hills     7     by the wind, mostly around the equator.

Unlike Earth, Titan's sand is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. Around 14 percent of the surface is considered hilly or mountainous. Seas and lakes filled with liquid methane cover a(n)     8     1.5 percent of Titan. The liquid exists mainly closer to the planet's poles, while the equatorial areas remain drier.

Rosaly Lopes says organic materials --- those containing carbon --- in Titan's atmosphere are     9     for the growth of living organisms. “Organics are very important for the possibility of lifeon Titan, which many of us think likely would have     10     in the liquid water ocean under Titan's icy crust (硬的表面),”she said.

Self-Silencing Is Making Women Sick

In the late 1980s, Harvard-trained psychologist Dana Jack identified a recurring theme among female patients suffering from depression: a tendency to self-silence, defined as “the tendency to engage in uncontrollable caretaking, pleasing the other, and restriction of self-expression in relationships in an attempt to achieve intimacy and meet relational needs.” He found that this learned behavior,     1     rooted in gender norms, was linked to an increased risk of depression.

Since then, considerable evidence has revealed that female self-silencing isn’t just tied to psychological issues like depression and eating disorders, but also to physical illness. Most worryingly, it has also been linked to higher risk of premature death. This was true even when     2     such as age, blood pressure, and smoking were taken into account.

When women push their feelings down and     3     their needs aside, their health suffers. But it can be difficult for women to do otherwise in cultures that     4     these self-silencing practices. Moms are praised for being painstakingly selfless to the point of self-sacrifice. These     5     standards establish a vicious (恶性的) cycle. For many women, it feels easier—beneficial, even—to silence their needs at the expense of their own health, rather than     6     against the prevailing cultural current.

In his best-selling book, The Myth of Normal, physician and author Gabor Mate writes that many of our society’s most “normalized ways of being” are, in fact,     7     toxic. “That ‘not listening to self’ in order to prioritize others’ needs is a significant source of the health-impairing roles women     8    ,” Mate explains. “It is among the medically     9     but extremely harmful ways in which our society’s ‘normal’ imposes a major health cost on women.”

To reshape the virtues of womanhood, a new “    10    ” needs to emerge—one in which we honor our emotions, prioritize our needs, and actively communicate our boundaries. Such a shift requires change on both the individual and societal level, and will by no means be easy. But it’s certainly worth it—after all, women’s lives depend on it.

Jack London: A Fascinating Character

When one mentions Jack London, the most common contemporary references that pop to mind are The Call of the Wild and White Fang. However, upon a closer look at the author, the true depth of how varied and interesting his life and works were can really be     1    .

London is considered America’s best author by many. Most successful and at ease writing short stories, he was also the first author to become genuinely wealthy during his lifetime from selling his work. However, this did not happen overnight: in fact, London received 600     2     before his first story was published for a spread out payment of $5.

During his 40 years, London seemed to have lived 1000     3    . By the age of 18, he had already worked as a coal miner, worked on sealing ships and can factories, and been in a(n)     4     of beggars. At 17, he went to jail in Buffalo, NY for 30 days due to the latter, an experience which proved to be one that even the productive writer himself called     5    .

When he did return to his formal education, he completed high school and then attended UC Berkley, which had been a major dream for him. However, he stopped after just one semester as he ran out of money and carried on to     6     the Klondike Gold Rush with his brother-in-law. That would later be the       7     for some of his most famous works. It was also in the Yukon that London became very ill and began writing. When he returned home, he     8     to become a commercially successful writer and began to write 1000 words daily. He wrote of adventure, politics, humanity, survival, often     9     from a large number of him personal experiences.

London died at the age of 40, from a drug overdose. It is not known whether it was     10     or not, as he made many references to suicide throughout his works.

Antarctica is the highest, driest and coldest place on Earth. It is also the remotest, a fact which     1     for its unspoiled environment. It is widely described as the last     2     on our planet. The cold climate is     3     for maintaining the continent’s year-round ice fields. Even though Antarctica receives more sunlight than the equator(赤道), the temperatures are lower because the ice sheet     4     the heat back into space.

For centuries, Europeans wondered about the     5     of a South-Polar continent, but no one actually knew for certain Antarctica was there until 1820 when European explorers “discovered” it. Since then, men have gone to Antarctica in search of     6    . Testing their abilities, several teams of explorers set out in 1911 to be the first men to stand at the South Pole.

Once completely     7    , Antarctica has more recently been playing host to adventurers seeking for excitement, scientists interested in experimenting, and companies looking to     8     this wild area for profit.

Yet, Antarctica’s fragile and complicated eco-system is threatened by its human visitors. Damage to the environment occurs as people come looking for resources beneath the ice, or     9     leave their garbage behind. Currently, countries are working to ensure that the damage to Antarctica’s environment is     10    , and that Antarctica will remain an unspoiled place.