1 . Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your sport of choice might have great influence on the environment.
Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its pitches (球场) in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortage in some local areas.
There are many environment-friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don't need any special equipment except a good pair of trainers; and you don't have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and have better weight control.
Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment-friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be “green gyms”. They are better replacements (代替物) for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it's free.
1. What do we know about golf from the passage?A.It is popular in Portugal and Spain. |
B.It causes water shortages around the world. |
C.It needs water and energy to keep its courses in good condition. |
D.It pollutes the earth with chemicals and wastes. |
A.it is free |
B.it benefits our health |
C.it gets people close to the nature |
D.it is resource-saving |
A.Working out in a gym. |
B.Cycling in a mountain. |
C.Swimming in a sports centre. |
D.Playing golf in the countryside. |
How do students spend their spare time after finishing their homework? Watch TV, play computer games, or go outside to relax? Here's a good example.
Tim and Kerry Meek are both teachers. They live in the UK with their two daughters: eleven-year-old Amy and nine-year-old Ella. Recently, the Meek family has become the focus of the whole country after they completed 100 different outdoor activities in one year.
The Meek couple didn't want their children to spend all their free time in front of the TV and become "couch potatoes". So about one year ago, the Meeks decided that watching TV and playing computer games were not permitted. Instead, they set 100 tasks for the two girls to do outside. Although Mr. and Mrs. Meek are not outdoor activity fans, they took part in all the activities to encourage their daughters. It turns out that the two sisters really had a good time joining activities.
Every holiday and weekend, whether it's sunny, rainy or snowy, the Meeks' would set off to try the activities on their list, including hiking, sailing, climbing, skiing, and so on. The two little girls not only had a wonderful time, but also learned a lot of skills from the activities. They were even able to stand up in front of their school to give a talk for charity. "Our friends spend a lot of their free time doing things which are harmful to their health. Luckily, we've had the chance to experience something different." Amy and Ella also helped their parents to draw up a new list of challenges for the next 12 months.
1. Why did the Meeks become the focus of the UK? (no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined phrase "couch potatoes" mean? (no more than 15 words)
3. When did the Meeks go out to do the activities? (no more than 5 words)
4. What did the two little girls learn from the activities?(no more than 5 words)
5. What have you learnt from the story? (no more than 25 words)
3 . Once upon a time, when you first attended a youth sporting event, your parents probably weren't expecting you to become a professional athlete.They signed up for a basketball, football or swimming course for you in the hope that you might learn lessons about winning gentlemanly, losing with dignity(尊严)and insisting on it when things get hard. Yes, playing games is good exercise, but it is the life lessons that matter most.
For many of us, instead of looking to improve our minds and spirits, we began judging progress only by the size of our muscles or the numbers on a weighing machine. The thought that athletic competition is about greater life lessons and the building of character has been further undermined(削弱)by headlines about professional athletes.
“And yet there's still strong evidence that sports strongly improve certain personal qualities,” says Angela Lumpkin, Professor of the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas. And that's true for athletes of any age.Amateur sports(业余体育运动)provide a safe place for competition. They also provide a practice ground for managing stress.
The advantages of taking part in a sport can seep(渗透)into your professional life, too. In basketball, for example, “Getting everyone to play the right role on the court is the key to success,” says Alan Arlt, the founder of the Life Time Fitness basketball program Ultimate Hoops. “That is certainly useful in the business world, where everyone understands their own role in the organization.” “In athletic events, you go through good and bad times often in the period of two hours,” says former NBA head coach Flip Saunders. “Do you have the calm manner to settle yourself down, or do you totally lose it and get thrown out of the game which hurts both you and your team?All of that oncourt experience has a real effect on how you deal with reallife situations.”
1. What would parents expect when their children joined in sports?A.To win as many games as possible. |
B.To improve their health. |
C.To make more friends. |
D.To get through difficulties. |
A.People play sports to build their character. |
B.People still hold the idea that sports can keep us fit. |
C.People keep playing sports to improve minds and spirits. |
D.People pay more attention to the news of professional athletes. |
A.support Lumpkin's idea |
B.introduce the next topic |
C.show another piece of evidence |
D.show the main idea of the paragraph |
A.how to succeed in the future |
B.how to keep calm in certain situations |
C.how to deal with reallife situations |
D.how to understand the role on the court |
4 . Running is a very popular sport. Millions of people run because they enjoy it or want to be in good physical shape. A runner does not need special skills or equipment.
Daily running improves a person's physical condition. It helps oxygen circulate (循环) through your body and makes your heart and leg muscles stronger.
Many runners like taking part in long distance races like marathons (马拉松).
There are no official world records in marathon races because courses are different all over the world.
A.He needs to be well-prepared and train a lot. |
B.Marathons are the most popular running events. |
C.During a marathon, you should keep a right pace. |
D.Sometimes the raceway is flat and runners run faster. |
E.The fastest marathon race took place in Berlin in 2018. |
F.He only needs a pair of trainers and comfortable clothes. |
G.It also helps you fight off stress after a tiring day in school or at work. |
5 . Are you trying to find the best time for exercise?
Dawn, dusk or dead of night — when’s the best time to work out? Well, that depends on when’s the best time for you, because the benefits of physical activity depend upon how consistent you are.
To stay motivated, choose activities you enjoy. If you’re a social person, do something that engages you socially. Take a group exercise class, join a recreational team or walk with a group of friends. If you prefer having time alone, walking, swimming or biking solo might be a better fit for you.
There are so many choices.
A.The truth is, it’s personal! |
B.Don’t limit yourself to just one. |
C.There are other important considerations. |
D.Use your body clock as a guide to when to go for a walk. |
E.You might have heard that the best time to exercise is early in the morning. |
F.If you’d like to spend more time with your family, find an activity you can all do together. |
G.If your schedule isn’t predictable (可预测的), you may need to be flexible and have a plan for various times of day. |
6 . You’re at your favorite sporting event, watching your team play their hardest. Then all of a sudden you hear a cheer. This really seems to get the crowd fired up. But does anyone ever stop and think about how much time and effort it takes to be a cheerleader? Do you ever wonder how much sweat and practice go into cheerleaders being out there to cheer on their home team? Do you ever think these cheerleaders really have to have a good memory also? Not only are they athletes, but they are smart athletes, and the nicest people you will ever meet. Cheerleading is a sport because cheerleaders take part in all kinds of competitions, and there is danger involved(卷入).
It is not a well-known fact that cheerleaders have to compete in a lot of different competitions. This is something a lot of people think is very easy, but in fact, taking part in the competitions is one of the hardest things that cheerleaders have to do. Competitions take a lot of time and effort. I have been to 37 different cheerleading competitions since the age of five. And in my opinion, competitions require quite a lot of physical and mental effort.
Moreover, there are many dangerous activities involved. Jump is one of the most dangerous things in cheerleading. If you were to come down from the jump incorrectly, you could break a foot,or even a leg. Tumbling(翻腾动作) is another highly risky thing. During tumbling, concussions(脑震荡) may happen when you hit the head on the floor.
I believe that cheerleading is a sport because cheerleaders compete in all kinds of competitions, there are many different skills to learn and master, and it can be a very dangerous sport. So the next time you are at your favorite sporting event listening to the cheers of the crowd, think about the preparation involved in this energetic sport.
1. What are the questions in Paragraph 1 mainly about?A.The key role of a good cheerleader. |
B.People’s expectations for cheerleaders. |
C.Little-known facts about cheerleading. |
D.The relationship between teams and cheerleaders. |
A.She gives them high praise. |
B.She is doubtful about them. |
C.She looks down upon them. |
D.She pays no attention to them. |
A.To show how cheerleading competitions work. |
B.To prove cheerleading competitions are hard work. |
C.To prove the great influence of competitions on her. |
D.To show her important achievements in cheerleading. |
A.Why is cheerleading so popular? |
B.The moment you hear a cheer |
C.Your favorite sporting event |
D.Is cheerleading a sport? |
7 . How often do you exercise? A new study finds that most kids aged 12 to 15 aren't getting enough physical activity. The results are based on about 800 kids. As part of the study, the young teens tracked and reported on their own activity levels, and took physical exams.
The US fitness guidelines recommend an hour or more of physical activity every day. According to the study, only 1in 4 kids in the US get enough physical activity.
“It's certainly very worrying to see that our kids are engaging in such a limited amount of physical activity each day,” said Dr. Stephen Pont. He is an expert on children's health.
Few kids in the survey met the guidelines for physical activity that raises the heart rate and makes them breathe harder. Overall, about 25% said they got an hour of that kind of violent exercise every day. Kids also reported on which activities they did most often outside of the school gym class--basketball for boys and running for girls.
The study found that obese(肥胖的) teens were less active than normal-weight girls and boys. Overweight girls were slightly less active than normal-weight girls, but levels were similar among overweight and normal-weight boys. The study also said that the overall obesity rate for children aged 2 to 19 is 17%, or about 12.5 million kids.
“There's always room for improvement,” said health expert Tala Fakhouri, who was the lead author of the study. She also said the results provide useful information to help with fitness campaigns such as Lets Move, which was launched by Michelle Obama in 2010. To inspire kids to eat right and get in shape, Michelle visited schools and held exercise events. She also called on schools to offer regular gym classes.
The study also suggests kids who get physical education at school may get better grades.
1. What is the result of the new study?A.It is important to take physical exams |
B.Most US kids don’t get enough exercise |
C.Kids should get physical activity every day |
D.800 kids don’t get enough physical activity. |
A.To help kids to keep fit. |
B.To hold exercise events. |
C.To offer regular gym classes. |
D.To provide useful information. |
A.do better in their studies |
B.try their best to get in shape |
C.be more willing to help others |
D.be less active than fat children |
A.visited | B.stopped |
C.started | D.improved |
8 . There are many ways to travel within a city. We can walk, cycle, or take a bus. But no matter which way we travel, we have to stick to the route(线路) the city planners laid down for us.
Parkour practitioners (跑酷爱好者), however, see the city in a completely different way. To them, there are no fixed routes. There are no walls and no stairs—since they jump, climb, roll and crawl to move across, through, over and under anything that they find in their path. The city is their playground.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has noticed that this activity is drawing more and more people to it—there are 100,000 people taking part in parkour today in the UK alone, according to the Guardian—and how it is helpful for people to be much stronger: It trains coordination(协调性) and balance. So the organization is thinking about recognizing parkour as a new sport and adding it to the Olympics by 2024.
But parkour practitioners themselves don’t seem to be happy with the idea. They see parkour as “a lifestyle”, wrote the website NextSportStar. “It’s a competition against the conditions rather than just a sport.”
Indeed, many do parkour just to “escape the daily routine(事务) and experience the city in different ways”, wrote reporter Oli Mould on The Conversation. They see parkour as a way to express themselves through relaxing moves and creative routes while freeing themselves from the pressure.
It’s great that the FIG wants to develop new sport and stay close to a new cultural form. But it would be greater if they knew that not everything in life is a competition.
1. How do the parkour practitioners do parkour?A.They move on as they wish. | B.They choose the routes the city planners laid down. |
C.They run faster than others. | D.They stick to certain routes. |
A.It’s a special way of life. | B.It draws their attention. |
C.It’s good for people to keep healthy. | D.It needs some rules and instructions. |
A.It is more formal than other sports. | B.It helps people to be creative. |
C.It’s worth adding to the sporting event. | D.It calls on people to work as a team. |
A.A new sports competition | B.Parkour practitioners |
C.Training in a different way | D.Making the city their own |
9 . Every person has time for exercise. The way is to take steps to include exercise convenient for your lifestyle. After I started getting into a habit of exercising, I was surprised by how much I could get done in a day, both physically and mentally. You can make exercise a part of your daily lifestyle.
Start small
One of the reasons exercise programs fail is that we bite off more than we can chew. Instead of telling yourself you’re going to exercise today for an hour, tell yourself you’re going to exercise for five minutes.
Break your exercise into parts.
No time for 30 minutes of exercise? No problem. Do three bouts (一回) of 10 minutes, or six bouts of five minutes each.
Devices such as Fitbit activity trackers (跟踪系统) turn exercise into a game of sorts. Each day, you can measure how many steps you’ve taken. Many people find this attractive to their competitive spirits, and they and they take great pains to meet their goals. The technology is there, and it’s very affordable.
Exercise with someone else.
A.Use technology to help. |
B.Always stay active with exercise. |
C.Yes, just five minutes and get up to walk around. |
D.Here are four steps to help you do it effectively. |
E.You’ll still get the same time, no matter how you break it down. |
F.High-tech products are becoming popular with many young people. |
G.It’s much more difficult to say “no” to exercise when you have an exercise partner. |
10 . Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?A.They must run long distances. |
B.They are qualified for the marathon. |
C.They have to follow special rules. |
D.They are good at swinging their legs. |
A.It’s more popular at the Olympics. |
B.It’s less challenging physically. |
C.It’s more effective in body building. |
D.It’s less likely to cause knee injuries. |
A.Getting experts’ opinions. |
B.Having a medical checkup. |
C.Hiring an experienced coach. |
D.Doing regular exercises. |
A.Skeptical. | B.Objective. |
C.Tolerant. | D.Conservative. |