1 . A recent series of studies examined the role of talent in the sports world. They focused on three different sports: World Cup soccer, professional basketball, and professional baseball. The results are mixed. For soccer and basketball, the studies revealed that adding talented players to a team is indeed a (n) _______ strategy, but only up to a point. Performance _______ when about 70% of the players were considered top talent. Above that level, the team’s performance began to decline. Interestingly, this trend was not evident in baseball, where additional _______ talent continued to enhance the team’s performance. (Figure 1 and 2)

In looking for an explanation for the different results for different sports, the researchers _______one important factor — the extent to which a good performance by a team required its members to coordinate (协调) their actions. This task _______ distinguishes baseball from basketball and soccer.

In baseball, the performance of individual players is _______ teammates than in soccer and basketball. The researchers concluded that when, during the course of play, task interdependence is high, team performance will _______ when there is too much talent in the group. When task interdependence is lower, _______ individual talent will have a positive effect on team performance.

One explanation for this phenomenon is not so far from the pecking order (等级排序) situation among chickens. If a basketball star is pursuing his own personal goals,_______ trying to gather a high personal point total, he may be less ________ than team player. He may take a shot himself when it would be better to pass the ball to a team mate, thus making the team’s overall performance suffer. “There is no________in TEAM,” young children learning to play team sports are often told. Apparently stars ________ follow this basic principle of sportsman ship.

Another possibility is that when there is a lot of talent on a team, some players may begin to________ This is referred to as the Ringelmann effect. Ringelmann conducted an experiment in which he asked two, three, four, and up to 28 people to participate in a game of tug-of-war. He measured how much force each person used to pull the rope. He found that whenever he added a person to the team, everyone else pulled with less force.

________ the ideal team — for sports, business, science, or entertainment — is more complicated than simply hiring the best talent. An A-team may require a________ not just A players, but a few generous B players as well.

2 . The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate to higher-intensity physical activity each week, and it should be in ________ of at least 10 minutes each for substantial health benefits, which has led many to ________ about the inefficacy of brief activities. Why people take two minutes going up the stairs if more than 10 minutes is ________ to make it worthwhile for health?

But now a study suggests something else: go ahead, take the stairs! Every minute ________ toward reaching the 150-minute goal, whether it’s part of a 10-minute period of activity or not. The purpose of the study conducted at the University of Utah was to see if moderate to vigorous physical activity in less than 10-minute episodes was ________ to weight outcomes. The study, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, found that each minute spent ________ in some kind of moderate to vigorous physical activity — be it walking the dog, vacuuming, or taking the stairs — was associated with lower BMI and lower weight.

“The idea here is, you can do a minute at a time and that’s not a problem,” Jessie Fan, lead author of the new paper and a family and consumer studies professor at the University of Utah, told Today.

For the women who participated in the study, each minute spent in higher-intensity activity was associated with a 0.7 drop in body mass index (BMI). For a 5'4" woman, that means a ________ of nearly half a pound, which may not sound like much, but that’s just for one minute. Little by little, they add up.

The authors concluded that the current 10-minute ________ guideline was based on health benefits other than weight outcomes and that their findings showed that for weight gain ________, accumulated higher-intensity physical activity bouts of less than 10 minutes are quite ________, supporting the message that “every minute counts.”

When it comes to your brain, it also rings true. An April 2019 study in Jama Network Open looked at how exercise affected the brain, and even short bursts ________ 22% greater brain volume.

“Our study results don’t ________ moderate or vigorous physical activity as being important for healthy ageing. We are just adding to the science, ________ that light-intensity physical activity might be important too, especially for the brain,” Dr. Nicole Spartarno, first author of the study from Boston University said.

“I think it’s easier for people to ________ that message,” Fan says. “Otherwise, if they don’t have a block of time they might be ________, and they don’t do anything.”

3 . Fitness experts weigh in on whether it’s safe to skip this sometimes annoying step in your exercise routine.

One of the most important steps in your fitness routine comes at the conclusion. Many know the importance of properly warming up and preparing to exercise, but experts say that incorporating a cool down routine is just as important. According to the Mayo Clinic, cooling down allows for your body to recover and return to its normal, _________ state.

Though cooling down isn’t proven to _________ muscle stiffness or soreness, it can prevent dizziness and allow your heart rate and breathing to ease back to a normal rate, Harvard Medical School reports. Phyllis Mammarelli, personal trainer at the Shenango Valley YMCA in Sharon, Pennsylvania, works with each of her clients on a cool down routine as she says it’s a (n) _________ part of exercising.

“Cooling down allows your body to gradually return to a low-intensity activity level, slowly reducing your respiratory and heart rate until it’s equalized and back to normal” she says.

_________ the recovery phase of a workout isn’t proven to be harmful to your body, but Mammarelli warns that without cooling down, the body will take longer to return back to the low-intensity level activity level you began your workout with.

There are also non-threatening side effects that could occur as a result of forgoing a cool down. Mammarelli warns that blood can gather or pool in your lower extremities and lead to dizziness and _________. Additionally, ACE says to keep an eye on your _________ soreness and stiffness. While soreness after a workout is to be expected, _________ onset muscle soreness can occur 24 - 28 hours after your workout and cause “uncomfortable debilitating pain”. Side effects are mostly seen in the elderly or those with cardiovascular disease and can be _________ by warming up and cooling down. Here are some other signs that you might be working out too much.

Allow five to 10 minutes at the _________ of your workout for a cool-down routine. During this period, continue your workout session, but at a much reduced rate. If you’re __________ for time during your workouts or unsure how to allow your body to recover, Mammarelli suggests stretching muscles in a pain-free range of __________. Here’s an easy stretch __________ to try.

Tacking on a few __________ minutes to your workout for cooling down may seem like a(n) __________, but the benefits outweigh the cost of finding extra time in your __________. If you need inspiration for scheduling the time to workout and cool downlook to these women who work out every day.

4 . How Exercise may tame our anxiety

To better cope with all the dispiriting news this winter about rising Covid-19 _________, you might want to get out and play in the snow, according to a new report. The large-scale study of almost 200,000 cross-country skiers found that being physically active _________ the risk of developing anxiety over time.

Science already offers plenty of encouraging evidence that exercise can lift our _________. Experiments show that when people (and lab animals) start _________ they typically grow calmer, happier and less apt to feel sad, nervous or angry than before. Studies that focus on the links between one type of activity or behavior and various aspects of health or longevity, likewise find that more exercise is linked with substantially lower chances of developing severe depression; conversely, being _________ increases the risk for depression. A remarkable neurological study from 2013 even found that exercise _________ reductions in rodent anxiety, by prompting an increase in the production of specialized neurons that release a chemical that soothes over-activity in other parts of the brain.

_________, most of these studies were small, short term or mainly relevant to mice, leaving _________ many questions about what kinds of exercise might help our mental health, how long mood enhancements might potentially last, whether men and women _________ equally and whether it is possible to work out too much and perhaps increase your likelihood of feeling emotionally worse off.

So, for the new study, which was published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, exercise scientists at Lund University in Sweden and other __________ decided it would be worthwhile to __________ the long-term mental health of the thousands upon thousands of men and women who have raced Sweden’s famous Vasaloppet cross-country skiing event over the years.

The Vasaloppet, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this winter, is the largest series of cross-country ski __________ in the world, with crowds of racers annually lining up in the woods of central Sweden to fastly move and glide through races __________ in length from 30 kilometers, or almost 19 miles, to 90K, about 56 miles. Because this kind of endurance event requires abundant health, stamina and training, researchers previously have used data about Vasaloppet racers to study how exercise influences cancer risks, heart __________, and longevity.

The skiers, the researchers found, proved to be __________ calmer over the decades after their race than the other Swedes, with more than 50 percent less risk of developing clinical anxiety. Their results indicate the link between exercise and reduced anxiety is strong.

5 . Whether it is tossing the Frisbee (掷飞盘) on the campus or representing your town in the local baseball league, sports remain prevalent in American society.

Athletics begin at a young age. As they learn to walk and talk, kids in America also learn to run, throw and kick. They are _________ to sports at a young age so that they form a habit of remaining _________ and fit, while also _________ themselves. Most towns offer a “Parks and Recreation” program, which sponsors various educational physical activities, such as sports summer camps or monthly hikes. _________, towns often create youth leagues that _________ children to complete against other towns. These programs, run by volunteers, stress not only skill development, but also values of _________ and enjoyment no matter what the outcome.

Athletics continue at more _________ levels throughout elementary school to university, with extracurricular programs playing a development role and training students to perhaps even eventually become _________.

At the professional level, spectator sports have become a staple (重要部分) of American tradition and culture. Families and friends gather around the television or endure hours of _________ to support their favorite teams, while these athletes are made into international celebrities.

Professional sports in the U.S. are largely __________ by the Big Four Leagues: the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). With teams __________ major cities, these spectator sports draw large crowds and are followed almost __________ by some fans.

Soccer has __________ to rise to prominence in America; however, with their performance in the 2010 World Cup and more exposure to Europeans teams through the arrival of star such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, Major League Soccer (MLS) in America as a spectator sport has certainly __________.

International competition is rare and often considered not as __________ as the domestic leagues. However, during the Olympics and the World Cup, Americans do rally around their countrymen to perform at the international level.