1 . House work might seem a drag, but researchers have suggested tasks like dusting, sweeping floors and washing the windows might help adults to stay healthy into old age. Writing in the journal BMJ Open, a Singapore-based team of researchers said regular physical activity “improves physical and mental health, and relieves the risks and effects of chronic diseases among older adults”.
The team randomly chose adults from the town of Yishun in Singapore, and asked them to complete cognitive function tests as well as activities to assess their physical capabilities, such as standing up from a chair as quickly as they could. Participants were also quizzed on their levels of physical activity, including the amount of light housework and heavy housework they did, and were assessed for their risk of having a fall based on measures such as knee extension strength. The study involved 249 participants aged 21-64 and 240 participants aged 65- 90. Most of those who reported doing high levels of heavy or light housework were women.
After taking into account factors including age and sex, the team found cognitive scores and attention scores were 8% and 14% higher respectively for older adults doing high amounts of heavy housework— on average 131 minutes a week— compared with low levels, which appeared to amount to none at all. Sit-to-stand times were lower for older adults reporting high amounts of heavy housework compared with low amounts，while they were also assessed as being at lower risk of having a fall.
Dr Shiou-Liang Wee, the co-author of the research, said health messaging on staying active should not just be about recreational physical activities. “Housework is a purposeful activity performed by many older adults. Independent of recreation, commuting and other work-related physical activity, heavy housework is linked to sharper memory and better falls protection in older adults,” he said.
1. What does the team find?| A．Housework is a drag to the aged. |
| B．Health is connected with regular exercise. |
| C．Only doing housework can the aged stay healthy. |
| D．Regular physical activity is dangerous for the aged. |
| A．The research procedure. | B．The research result. |
| C．The research purpose. | D．The research institution. |
| A．Intelligence and age. | B．Education and sex. |
| C．Age and sex. | D．Family and income. |
| A．Commuting is linked to sharper memory. |
| B．Heavy housework equals recreational activity. |
| C．People only need recreational physical activity for health. |
| D．Recreational physical activity shouldn’t replace housework. |
2 . Even light activity such as housework might help to keep the brain young, researchers say, adding to a growing body of evidence that, when it comes to exercise, every little helps.
Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, the international team of researchers report how they came to their findings by studying at least three days of activity-tracker data from 2,354 middle-aged adults from the US, together with the participants' brain scans.
From the latter, the researchers worked out individuals' brain volume, a measure linked to ageing: about 0.2% of the volume of the brain is lost every year after the age of 60. Loss or shrinkage (萎缩) of brain tissue is linked to dementia (痴呆), Spartano noted.
After taking into account factors including sex, smoking status and age, the team found that every extra hour of light physical activity per day was linked to 0.22% greater brain volume, equal to just over a year's less brain ageing. What's more, those who took at least 10,000 steps a day had a 0.35% greater brain volume than those who took, on average, fewer than 5,000 steps a day—equivalent to 1.75 years' less brain ageing.
However, the study has limitations. It used mainly white participants, and cannot prove cause and effect. The authors add that not all time spent sedentary is necessarily "bad" for the brain—particularly if people are engaged in a task that takes a lot of thinking.
Dr James Pickett, head of research at Alzheimer's Society, said, "Don't worry if you're not hill-running, but find something you enjoy and do it regularly, because we know that what's good for the heart is good for the head."
1. What can be inferred from the statistics in Paragraphs 3&4?| A．Loss of brain tissue is linked to disease. |
| B．Light physical activity raises the brain volume. |
| C．Taking 10000 steps per day is best for our brain. |
| D．Light physical activity slows down the brain ageing. |
| A．Sitting. | B．Walking. | C．Sleeping. | D．Working. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Regular exercise makes you happy. |
| B．The more exercise, the better. |
| C．Doing what you like regularly is beneficial. |
| D．Light physical activities are the best. |
3 . In 1965, three fathers in Washington faced a dilemma familiar to beleaguered (被困扰的) parents in 2021: How to keep their restless children entertained. They threw together wooden paddles, a badminton net and a plastic ball. The sport “pickleball” was born, with its name — according to one legend — originating from a dog named Pickle, which kept running away with the ball.
Today, pickleball, which is a hybrid (混合物) of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, is the fastest-growing sport in America. In the five years to the end of 2019, pickleball participation grew by more than 7%, while Americans’ overall activity level stayed flat, according to the Sport & Fitness Industry Association. And the sport has picked up more swing definitely, thanks to COVID-19 in 2020. Last March, when quarantines (隔离期) went into effect and gyms were closed, portable pickleball nets temporarily sold out. Players set up courts, which are half the size of tennis courts, in driveways.
The 3.5 million Americans who play pickleball are about one-tenth the number who golf and one-fifth the number who play tennis. Yet there are reasons to bet on the sport’s spread. Like many outdoor activities, pickleball is social, but it is easier to learn than tennis and faster and less expensive than golf. Country clubs and recreation centers across the country are changing some of their tennis courts into pickleball courts to meet demand. The more places there are to play, the more players will try the sport.
“Pickleball was seen as a threat in the tennis community,” says Stu Upson of USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body, who used to work for the International Tennis Hall of Fame. But now, he insists, it is viewed as an opportunity. Tennis pros are adding pickleball lessons to their list. As more people take up the sport, demand for televised matches and sponsorships will increase. “It’s reasonable that pickleball could become an Olympic sport. But to be recognized by the International Olympic Committee, we need at least 70 countries with pickleball federations (联合会), so it’s not going to be in the next four or eight years,” says Mr. Upson.
1. Why was pickleball invented initially?| A．To afford children amusements. | B．To provide special training for dogs. |
| C．To reduce parents’ pressure of work. | D．To help children build up their health. |
| A．Pickleball has achieved its dominance in sports market in America. |
| B．Playing pickleball was the most popular sport in the US during the quarantine. |
| C．Americans’ participation in sports except pickleball decreased from 2015 to 2019. |
| D．Pickleball began to regain its popularity around the world due to COVID-19. |
| A．Its playing skills are easy to master. | B．It’s the first choice for people to socialize. |
| C．It can replace other sports during COVID-19. | D．Its courts could easily be altered from tennis courts. |
| A．Pickleball is bound to have a place at the Olympics. |
| B．Tennis will fade out with the rapid spread of pickleball. |
| C．Pickleball remains to be a major threat to tennis community. |
| D．It would take great efforts for pickleball to be selected for the Olympics. |
| A．Great popularity of pickleball in America. | B．The development of pickleball in America. |
| C．The influence of pickleball on pecople’s lives. | D．The threat of pickleball in the tennis community. |
4 . Staying active and fit could help to reduce some of the bad health effects usually from bad sleep, according to a large study of 380, 055 middle-aged people who took part in the UK Biobank research project.
We all know that a healthy life means getting both plenty of exercise and enough good-quality sleep, but reality often gets in the way. The new research shows that doing enough exercise could make up for some of the unhealthy impacts of bad sleep.
While the health benefits of exercise and sleep are nothing new, it’s the relationship between them that is interesting in this particular study－it could even give doctors another way to suggest for patients dealing with sleep problems.
“We found those who had both the poorest sleep quality and who exercised the least were most at risk of death from heart disease and cancer,” says the expert, Bo-Huei Huang, from the University of Sydney in Australia. “The finding suggests an interplay(相互影响) between the two behaviors.”
The weekly amount of exercise recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 150 minutes of moderately intensive(密集的) activity, or more than 75 minutes of extremely intensive physical activity. Those with the highest risk of dying from cancer or heart disease during the study period were those with the worst quality sleep and who didn’t meet the WHO recommended guidelines for exercise. That risk went down for people with poor quality sleep but who did meet the exercise guidelines.
The research has been published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To give examples. |
| B．To lead to the topic |
| C．To attract readers’ attention. |
| D．To compare two things. |
| A．factors | B．effects | C．quality | D．reality |
| A．150 minutes daily | B．More than 75 minutes weekly |
| C．150 minutes weekly | D．More than 75 minutes daily |
| A．A medical journal | B．An entertainment magazine |
| C．A sports textbook | D．A travel brochure |
5 . A world-champion body builder has no more muscles than does a 90-pound person who is physically weak. So what makes him so strong? What other qualities does he need?
Muscles are made of thousands of stringy fibers-a number that is fixed during childhood-which contract(收缩）when doing work. Strength does not depend on the number of fibers but on the function of their thickness and how many of them contract at the same time.
Exercise actually damages the muscles. During the recovery stage, the muscle fibers increase in size. Exercise also trains more muscle fibers to work at one time. If a muscle is weak or untrained, for example, only 10 percent of its fibers will contract, whereas up to 90 percent of the fibers in a weight lifter's biceps(二头肌）will contract.
Aside from the strength, two other factors go into making an athlete: fitness and endurance. Fitness is related to the condition of the heart. During exercises, there is an increase in the amount of blood returning to the heart from the muscles. A typical volume for a runner at rest is about 5 quarts a minute, compared with 30 quarts during a vigorous trial(运动测试). This greater volume means more work for the heart-a muscular balloon that expands and contract is to take in blood and push it out. Like any other muscle, the heart enlarges and gets stronger with routine exercise.
Endurance, or the length of time muscles can work, depends in part on how much fuel－in this case sugar-the muscles can store. A muscle that is continually exercised until it runs out of sugar tends to store more when it refuels at the next meal. And more sugar can translate into greater endurance the next time the muscle is put to the test.
1. What determines the strength of a world-champion body builder?| A．The thickness of fibers and the number of those contracting contemporarily. |
| B．The number of fibers and the amount of exercise he does at the same time. |
| C．The function of fibers and their thickness. |
| D．The function of fibers and their recovery. |
| A．It helps fibers more easily to contract. |
| B．It makes fibers increase quickly in size. |
| C．It makes more fibers weak or untrained. |
| D．It helps more fibers to work at one time. |
| A．The heart bears the task of making more blood during a vigorous trial. |
| B．The heart needs to bear the fast heart beating during a vigorous trial. |
| C．The heart takes in more blood and pushes it out during a vigorous trial. |
| D．The heart enlarges and becomes stronger routinely during a vigorous trial. |
| A．The more sugar muscles store, the thicker the fibers in them become. |
| B．The more sugar a muscle consumes, the less it tends to store next time. |
| C．The more sugar the muscles of an athlete store, the longer time they can work. |
| D．The amount of sugar in muscles largely depends on when they refuel at the nest meal. |
| A．Strong Heart and World-champion | B．Strength, Fitness and Endurance |
| C．Body Building and Muscles | D．Resources of Strength |
6 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.
Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all. doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.
High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.
The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure (措施) to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.
Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?| A．Making teens attach importance to ęxercise later. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Helping teens learn to make good plans |
| A．Happiness. | B．Risk. | C．Safety. | D．Sadness. |
| A．means making students choose between sports and studies |
| B．helps students make good use of all their time |
| C．means students adjust to their studies better |
| D．helps students do better in their studies |
| A．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| B．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| C．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
| D．How high school students can live a better life. |
7 . A study has found that when people burn extra calories by working out, the body starts to compensate by reducing the amount of energy spent on functions to stay alive, such as sleeping or digestion. About a quarter of the calories burnt during a workout are then budgeted for later on, meaning that overall the total number of calories burnt is less than expected. For overweight people, it is estimated that about half of calories burnt during periods of higher activity were later compensated for.
Researchers at the University of Roehampton found that the calories the body burns to keep ticking over decrease by 28 per cent during periods when daily exercise levels are consistently high. This means the more we exercise over the long-term, the less calories our bodies bum for the most rudimentary activities. The results show that only 54 per cent of the calories used by exercise or activity among people who have the highest body mass actually translated into calories burnt at the end of the day, due to their bodies reducing the energy spent on the most basic of functions. In contrast,70 percent of calories burnt during activity by those with the lowest body mass translated into more calories burnt at the end of the day.
Professor Lewis Halsey, of the department of life sciences, said: “Around the world, national guidelines tend to recommend a 500—600 calorie deficit through exercising and dieting to lose weight. However, they do not take into account the reduction of calories being burnt in the most basic of human functions as the body compensates for the calories burnt on the exercise as shown in our research, and the variation in this compensation between people with different levels of body fat.”
In this study they found no differences between men and women in the energy lost during activity. But since the research shows overweight people who exercise burn significantly fewer calories on day-to-day functions, there is a need for greater personalisation of exercise plans depending upon body mass.
1. Why are calories burnt by exercise less than expected according to the study?| A．Time spent on exercise is limited. | B．Exercise levels are not high enough. |
| C．People tend to overeat after exercise. | D．They are compensated for by the body. |
| A．By analyzing causes. | B．By raising examples. |
| C．By providing statistics. | D．By explaining concepts. |
| A．They are worth recommending. | B．They are supposed to be revised. |
| C．They neglect gender differences. | D．They take body mass into account. |
| A．Overweight Exercisers Burn Fewer Calories | B．Ways to Keep Fit by Exercising and Dieting |
| C．Sleeping and Digestion Function to Stay Alive | D．Personalized Exercise Plans on Losing Weight |
8 . In high school, my husband was placed last in both swimming and cross-country running. “At that time, I decided to check out the theater department,” he often jokes. More than a decade later, he’s active — he takes a long daily walk, and spends his workdays moving heavy camera equipment around movie sets — but not athletic. The closest he’s come to running is meeting me at the finish line of a 5K.
According to a new study, his experience is somewhat common. People who have low sports aptitude as children are less likely to be active as adults, according to a new research from the United Kingdom.
The study involved more than 12,000 UK residents that experts have been tracking since 1958. These people filled out forms at ages 33 and 50 about their physical activity habits. Experts from the UCL Institute of Child Health in London compared the midlife survey results to data from the participants’ childhoods to see what early-life factors make someone more or less likely to work out as an adult.
Of all the factors they studied, including things like social status and parental divorce, being bad at sports as a child had the greatest influence on inactivity as an adult. Low sports aptitude increased the likelihood of being inactive by about 50 percent. “To our knowledge, no other study has considered such a wide variety of early-life factors,” the study’s authors write.
The study also found that about 18 percent of people started exercising more between ages 33 and 50. That means if you want to start working out more, it’s never too late to start.
“If you’re new to physical activity, try to find something that you have found interesting,” says fitness manager Anita Golden. He suggests power walking or DVD workouts at home if exercising around other people makes you nervous. Jogging, hiking and bike riding are other good individual activities to try. If you like working out with other people but are worried about your coordination (协调), try group fitness classes that stick to simple moves and basic equipment, like indoor cycling.
“Don’t compare yourself to others — you are your only competition,” Golden stresses.
1. What do we know about the author’s husband?| A．He participated in the study. |
| B．He hardly excels at sports. |
| C．He runs with the author. |
| D．He’s into photography. |
| A．It is the first one on the topic. |
| B．It has involved a great many people. |
| C．It has been carried out non-stop for years. |
| D．It has considered various early-life factors. |
| A．Work out with fitness instructors. |
| B．Don’t engage in workouts with others. |
| C．Take part in an activity that interests you. |
| D．Don’t wear yourself out when exercising. |
| A．To analyze a phenomenon. |
| B．To arouse an interest in sport. |
| C．To expose her man’s weakness. |
| D．To show the accuracy of the study. |
9 . It will come as no comfort to a child shivering (打哆嗦) on a playing field on a cold winter’s day. But regular organized school sport helps children in their academic studies in years to come. The researchers said other “structured” activities such as music or religious activities were not as beneficial for attention as taking part in a games lesson. The difference in academic ability was noticeable even at age ten, with those who had taken in sports since the start of junior school performing better than those who hadn’t.
The Canadian study looked at children aged six and then ten. Professor Linda Pagani said:“We worked with information provided by parents and teachers to compare kindergarteners’ activities with their classroom activities as they grew up. By the time they reached the fourth grade, kids who played structured sports were clearly better at following instructions and remaining focused in the classroom. There is something special to the sporting environment — perhaps the sense of belonging to a team to a special group with a common goal — that appears to help kids understand the importance of respecting the rules and honoring responsibilities.”
Researchers began studying 2,694 Canadian children around the age of six, with teachers filled in questionnaires about their behavior in school. Meanwhile, the children’s parents were interviewed by phone or in person about their home life. The exercise was the repeated four years later to test what effect the behavior had.
Professor Pagani said: “We found children who had better behavior in the kindergarten class were more likely to be involved in sport by age ten. Nevertheless, we found those children who were specifically involved in team sports at kindergarten scored higher by the time they reached the fourth grade.” The researchers believe sporting activities and attention skills go hand in hand. Professor Pagani added: “The results should be encouraging for schools looking to cut childhood obesity rates and low attainment in schools.”
1. What kinds of children may do better in their academic study according to paragraph one?| A．Those who join in structured activities. |
| B．Those who don’t shiver on a cold winter’s day. |
| C．Those who don’t like school sports. |
| D．Those who take part in game lessons. |
| A．The classroom activities. | B．The results of the exams. |
| C．The performance at kindergarten. | D．The time spent in classrooms. |
| A．understand each other better | B．follow the rules |
| C．respect the teachers | D．give up |
| A．How scientists carried out the research. |
| B．Why parents were interviewed by phone. |
| C．How kids behaved at home or at school. |
| D．How many sports kids did at school. |
| A．The research will be of great benefit. |
| B．It’s necessary for children go to kindergartens. |
| C．Childhood obesity rates can lead to low attainment. |
| D．Team sports will be reduced at kindergartens. |
10 . The benefits of regular exercise are well documented but there’s a new bonus to add to the ever-growing list. New researchers found that middle-aged women who were physically fit could be nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia in later life, and as they did, it came on a decade later than less sporty women.
Lead researcher Dr. Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said : "These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people's cardiovascular （心血管的）fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia. "
For the study, 191 women with an average age of 50 took a bicycle exercise test until they were exhausted to measure their peak （最大值的） cardiovascular capacity. The average peak workload was measured at 103 watts.
A total of 40 women met the criteria for a high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less, or having their exercise tests stopped because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.
These women were then tested for dementia six times over the following four decades. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. Five percent of the highly fit women developed dementia, compared to 25 percent of the women with medium fitness and 32 percent of the women with low fitness.
"However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important. " She also admitted that a relatively small number of women were studied, all of whom were form Sweden, so the results might not be applicable to other groups.
1. What is on the ever-growing list mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．Positive effects of doing exercises. |
| B．Exercises suitable for the middle-aged. |
| C．Experimental studies on diseases. |
| D．Advantages of sporty woman over man |
| A．To predict their maximum heart rate. |
| B．To assess their cardiovascular capacity |
| C．To change their habits of working out |
| D．To detect their potential health problems |
| A．It aimed to find a cure for dementia. |
| B．Data collection was a lengthy process. |
| C．Some participants withdrew from it. |
| D．The results were far from satisfactory. |
| A．More Women Are Exercising to Prevent Dementia |
| B．Middle-Aged Women Need to Do More Exercise |
| C．Fit Women Are Less Likely to Develop Dementia |
| D．Biking Improves Women's Cardiovascular Fitness |
