1 . For people suffering from depression, there’s an all-natural treatment they should use — getting more exercise. It could help fight depression, even if people have a genetic risk, new research shows.
For the study, researchers collected information from nearly 8,000 people and found those with related genes were more likely to have depression over the next two years after examining them. But that was less likely for people who were more active at the study’s start, even if they had a family history of depression. Higher levels of physical activity helped protect even those with the highest genetic risk of depression.
Both high-intensity (高强度) exercise and low-intensity activities were associated with a reduced risk of depression. Adding four hours of exercise a week could lower the risk of a new episode (一段经历) of depression by 17%, according to the study. “Our findings strongly suggest that, when it comes to depression, being physically active has the potential to remove the added risk of future episodes in individuals who are genetically risky,” said lead author Karmel Choi. “On average, about 35 additional minutes of physical activity each day may help people to reduce their risk and protect against future depression episodes.”
Depression is a common mental illness globally, with more than 264 million people affected. “Depression is so ubiquitous, and that underlines the need for effective approaches that can impact as many people as possible,” Choi said. And mental health and primary care providers can use the findings to advise patients that there’s something meaningful they can do to lower their risk of depression.
1. How did the researchers reach their conclusion?A.By analyzing a mass of data. |
B.By conducting genetic research. |
C.By comparing various levels of activity. |
D.By tracking the subjects for many years. |
A.Physical activity betters medical treatment. |
B.Exercise is able to decrease and prevent it. |
C.Different levels of exercise intensity matter the same. |
D.Exercising 35 minutes daily is the most effective treatment. |
A.Harmful. | B.Complex. |
C.Unusual. | D.Common. |
A.To discuss a disease. |
B.To introduce a method. |
C.To analyze a genetic risk. |
D.To explain a phenomenon. |
2 . How to Teach Kids About Emotions (情绪) and Feelings
By teaching kids about their feelings and emotions, it opens up a whole new world for them. It’s like Helen Keller. In the movie Helen Keller, there’s an amazing scene where she learns that water has a name. Her world completely opened up.
Teach songs that talk about feelings
You probably know this one already—maybe even sang it yourself as a child or to your child, but there’s a great song called If You’re Happy and You Know It!
Explain other people’s emotions
Children are ego-centric (以自我为中心).
Use pictures or emojis (表情符号)
Another great way to teach children about feelings and emotions is to use pictures and emojis. I recall that on one of my visits to the hospital. I noticed different little emoji faces on a board from which a patient could choose to express their pain level.
Your children are watching you all the time. They’re like a camera. They pay very close attention. So, if your child sees you throw your phone across the room after a heated conversation, it’s noted.
A.Monkey see, monkey do! |
B.That can be done with children. |
C.The child believes that it is their mistake. |
D.They believe the world revolves (旋转) around them. |
E.Always know your feelings and how to express them. |
F.This is a good song to teach children about happiness. |
G.Here are some examples of ways in which you can begin teaching kids about emotions and feelings. |
3 . Math anxiety is far from uncommon, but too often, those who fear the subject simply avoid it. Research from the University of Chicago offers evidence for the link between math anxiety and avoidance.
Studying nearly 500 adults through a computer program called the Choose-And-Solve Task (CAST), the researchers gave participants (参加者) a choice between math and word problems labeled “easy” and “hard”. The easy problems were always worth two cents, while the hard problems were worth up to six cents. They also informed participants the computer task would change the questions in the process of testing based on their abilities, enabling them to handle about 70% of the hard problems.
Although participants attempted hard word problems when promised higher monetary prizes, they rarely chose to do the same for math problems. “We found we couldn’t even pay math-anxious individuals to do difficult math problems,” researcher Rozek says.
The findings also contradict a widely held belief that feeling anxious about math and avoiding math-related problems is rooted in being bad at math. “If you take two students good at math, the math-anxious one will do worse at math than the one that isn’t anxious.”
Such a mentality does more than stopping people from taking calculus courses or pursuing a career in STEM. It can affect everyday interactions with math-like leaving a tip in a restaurant. But all is not lost. “Reframing their anxiety from negative to positive could help math-anxious people re-engage. Giving those anxious about sitting exams guidance may lead them to perform better. Telling them if you’re anxious, this is your body getting you ready to perform and focus,” Rozek says. “Another path may be to create early positive experiences around math. For example, telling stories featuring math and tackling problems around the story may be helpful.” he adds.
1. What does the University of Chicago offer evidence for?A.The advantages of math anxiety. |
B.The link between math anxiety and avoidance. |
C.The importance of math. |
D.The link between anxiety and study. |
A.How the study was organized. | B.Why people chose easy problems. |
C.Who participated in the study. | D.What the result was. |
A.Math anxiety is the cause of math avoidance. |
B.Math anxiety causes people to be bored of math. |
C.Math anxiety is a complex phenomenon in life. |
D.Math anxiety results from poor math performance. |
A.Reframing math anxiety from negative to positive is impossible. |
B.People with math anxiety should pay attention to math less. |
C.People can deal with math anxiety through proper ways. |
D.People with math anxiety won’t perform better. |
4 . Anger may seem unappealing, but this emotion is a necessary part of your well-being. As with joy and sadness, expressing anger over a broken promise, a lost opportunity, or other inconvenience is healthy. However, if anger is frequently expressed, it will be harmful. Learning to deal with this emotion then becomes important.
Try positive exercises.
When you feel the unmistakable signs of your anger building up, try to focus on positive practices like deep breathing to calm yourself down.
Just as you open up to loved ones over the pain of heartbreak or the joy of a promotion, calling loved ones when you’re about to lose control of your anger is a healthy way of dealing with the emotion. Your friends and family can act as a support group, calming you until the worst is over.
Keep a mood journal.
A recommended way to deal with anger and recognize how frequently you embrace this emotion is keeping a journal to track your emotions.
See a therapist (治疗师).
A.Turn to your loved ones for help |
B.Share something good with your loved ones |
C.However, you can try some practices to express your anger |
D.So let’s take a look at some ways to help you manage your anger |
E.If you feel that your anger is too strong to be contained through self-help |
F.Supporting your breathing with comforting words can help to control your anger better |
G.If you note the causes that push you to outbursts and the thoughts that run through your mind |
5 . Coursework, quizzes, and activities can all get you, a high school student, too stressful sometimes.
i. Find out why you’re worried about your results.
Think you’re not prepared? Don’t know how you’re going to learn everything in time? Or do you just get nervous in test conditions?
ii. See the improvements to ease your worries.
Are you already doing hours of revision and are still worried? Maybe you’re not seeing the results of your revision.
iii.
While it’s great to realise that all people are having a hard time with revision, it’s important you don’t get used to thinking negatively about your results. Positive thinking has been shown to build up confidence and reduce anxiety. So even if you’re talking about your fear for the results, make sure you’re imagining yourself passing with success.
iv. Study now!
A.You probably have some scary thoughts about your final results. |
B.The best way to stop worrying is to take action. |
C.Talk to other people who are being negative. |
D.You may get worried about examinations for different reasons. |
E.Keep testing yourself with past papers to track how your work helps. |
F.Try to take the negative energy away from your thoughts. |
G.The good news is that these emotions are entirely normal. |
6 . We all experience stress(压力) at some point.
No one can “make” you feel anything.
The way you deal with a situation is a choice. You can ask yourself “Is this something I can change?”
Exchange attitude for gratitude(感恩).
Our attitude has a big influence on how we deal with situations.
Relax, relax, relax.
Look at your stressful situation from a “big picture” point of view. Ask yourself “How important is this?” and “Will this matter in the long run?” If the answer is no, it’s likely not worth your time and energy.
A.Look at the big picture. |
B.If so, start doing something to change the situation. |
C.When you are stuck in traffic, change your attitude. |
D.Try to find something that you enjoy and do it every day. |
E.Here are four points to consider when dealing with stressful situations. |
7 . Today, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issues in the US, affecting 30% of adults. In 2021, a survey of 8,000 children led by Oxford University Press named anxiety as the Word of the Year. “It’s the word on everyone’s lip, the challenge of the moment,” Dr. Tracy Dennis Tiwary says, a professor of psychology, immersed in research — evaluating which mental health treatment worked and why.
The idea that anxiety is something to manage or eradicate, a habit to be broken, is wrong and actually doing us harm. It’s literally a recipe for more anxiety. This is central message in Dennis Tiwary’s new book, Future Tense. She concludes that the problem isn’t anxiety itself, but our belief about it and our attempts to avoid it, which are not only destined to fail, but make us weaker and more fragile. It’s a vicious cycle.
To help reframe anxiety as an ally not an enemy, Dennis takes a deep dive into the emotion itself. Anxiety is different to fear, which is the certainty that something bad is happening to you. Anxiety is about uncertainty; it’s the feeling that something bad could happen, but might not. Unlike fear, anxiety contains hope. Anxiety can focus the mind, drive you to revise harder, to see a doctor, to seek new pathways towards your chosen career.
Anxiety helps us forge forwards with creative solutions, but there are times when there is little we can do to address a future uncertainty. Dennis suggests many ways of coping with it. Connecting with friends and family is a soothing first step. Cultivating things that immerse you in the present moment is also helpful. Our emotional systems are like immune systems. If it isn’t exposed to germs, it remains weak. It’s only by feeling our anxiety, listening and acting on it that we cope better next time.
1. What is a common misunderstanding of anxiety?A.Anxiety is wrong and doing us harm. |
B.Anxiety is the challenge of the moment. |
C.Anxiety is difficult to change, as a habit. |
D.Anxiety is something to manage or eradicate. |
A.Panic. | B.Complex. | C.Difficult. | D.Severe. |
A.By giving an example. | B.By making a comparison. |
C.By making a definition. | D.By making a suggestion. |
A.How to Cope with Anxiety. |
B.Anxiety can be Good for You. |
C.Anxiety should be managed |
D.Dennis Tiwary’s New Book — Future Tense. |
8 . What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger.
Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.
Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done.
We’re all emotional eaters to a degree. But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems. The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. And you often may feel worse about eating the amount or type of food you like.
Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.
A.Believe it or not, we’ve all been there. |
B.One study found that people who eat food like pizza become happy afterwards. |
C.Understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it. |
D.Boys seem to prefer hot, homemade comfort meals, while girls go for chocolate and ice cream. |
E.That’s why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. |
F.More often, though, it’s the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort in food. |
G.If a crying boy gets some cookies, he may link cookies with comfort. |
9 . Anger is the most destructive emotion. When you are angry, you make ill-considered decisions that you will probably regret.
You need to change your attitude to the way the world works. You have to accept that sometimes things go wrong and that people are not always lovely and perfect.
It is beneficial to stop trying to manage your anger. Anger management used to be promoted as a way of dealing with anger.
Don’t take the easy way when you get angry. We would like to throw something, hit something, or scream when we are angry. A reaction like that is the easy way. It is much harder to stay calm, walk away and act normally. That, however, is what you must do if you are to stop anger from becoming your master. By learning control, you can become a much calmer and less violent person.
A.Don’t regard anger as a bad emotion. |
B.The trick is to manage your anger well. |
C.Recognize that anger is something you can control. |
D.However, all that happens is that anger is overcontroled. |
E.You will also regret the language spoken without thought. |
F.You will be better liked and better placed to influence others. |
G.The actions of other people can be a significant cause of anger. |
10 . Gravy started working as a comfort dog at Grand Ledge High School in Michigan in September. She showed off tricks in the hallways with her handler (驯兽员), Capra, and made students laugh aloud. When students learned that Gravy’s first birthday fell just before Thanksgiving break, they asked Capra if they could throw a party. Capra said sure, thinking there wouldn’t be many people interested. However, on the big day, there were several hundred students in this gym.
The pandemic (大流行病) has been hard on students across the United States. Many young people experienced loneliness and the loss of loved ones. To solve the problem, schools have hired social workers and increased the number of their social-emotional learning classes.In some cases, they bought dogs.
Undoubtedly, the dogs make kids happy.“He’s kind of like a rock star; when the kids see him coming, they smile,“ said Traci Souva, an art teacher at North Huron Schools who trains Chipper, another comfort dog. “A lot of times the kids will tell Chipper what’s wrong rather than adults, and that’s pretty amazing.”
There are possible blemishes of having dogs in school. These include cleanliness, and student fears. But school officials say these are all manageable. The dogs are highly trained and always with a handler, so no student is forced to communicate with the dogs if they don’t want to.
Since the pandemic, demand for trained dogs in schools“has just increased,“ said Nikki Brown, a dog trainer and the director of Canines for Change, a nonprofit that trains dogs for work in schools. Over the last year, her organization has provided dogs to at least seven areas in Michigan, including Grand Ledge. “The dogs are highly trained to be in a school environment,” she added.“They are trained to work with kids with emotional problems. They sense stress. By the dogs’ behaviour they might warn a teacher of a kid who is struggling emotionally.“
1. Which of the following best describes Gravy as a comfort dog?A.Tricky. | B.Popular. | C.Humorous. | D.Caring. |
A.Requirements. | B.Disadvantages. | C.Influences. | D.Suggestions. |
A.Working on campus brings a lot of pressure to dogs. |
B.There is a high global market demand for trained dogs. |
C.School environment can affect dogs’ behaviour greatly. |
D.The dogs have the ability to notice students’ mental illness. |
A.How dogs relieve students’ mental problems |
B.How dogs ensure students’ safety on campus |
C.How dogs enrich students’ after-school activities |
D.How dogs develop students’ sense of responsibility |