1 . Humans were made for walking. With our upright posture and strong leg muscles, our bodies were actually designed with walking in mind which makes it such perfect exercise. It’s kind to our bodies and great for our waistlines.
Maybe you already love to walk, but you’re getting tired of tracing the same old route day after day, or maybe you’re new to walking and aren’t sure how to get started.
If making friends and socializing is your goal, call up your friends and schedule walks with them.
From the benefits to your heart to your overall happiness, walking is just plain good for you.
| A．Headed to a new city? |
| B．This month, pick up a map and start walking. |
| C．Ask your friends where they like to walk and just go there. |
| D．Either way, it's time to accept the idea of walking with a purpose. |
| E．And best of all, it’s a great way to see new things and meet new people! |
| F．Recently, science has proved that walking is good for your body shape. |
| G．If you're after walking alone, ask about local hikes that get you out of town and into the countryside. |
2 . A LAZY GIRL’S GUIDE TO STAYING IN SHAPE
You know exercise is important. But how much exercise is enough? There ’s so much buzz around boxing, spin, and other high-intensity workouts that exercise can become intimidating for many Americans.
Fitness can be fun! You’re much more willing to stick to a routine you enjoy, anyway.
▲ Stand up at least every hour.
▲ Exercise during TV commercials.
Turn on your favorite show, and time your workouts to the ads. Do some planks, push-ups, squats and burpees when the commercials come on. Lift some dumbbells or flow through a few yoga poses.
▲ Sleep it off.
Sleep is so important. Rest and recovery are key components of any fit life, so aim for at least eight hours of sleep each night. Get deep, restorative sleep by practicing sleep hygiene.
▲
Fitness doesn’t have to feel like a chore. Join a club soccer team, or take up tap dancing! Your new sport can become a fun hobby you enjoy. You ’ll meet new people while hitting your health goals. You could also have a “fitness friend.” Go hiking together on a Saturday afternoon, or motivate each other to take a HIIT class. Friends make everything better, including fitness!
| A．Make as many friends as possible. |
| B．Americans hit the gyms to do routine sports. |
| C．Check out this three-minute workout for some inspiration. |
| D．Make exercise part of your social life. |
| E．You could light some candles and cozy up with a great book. |
| F．You can work a desk job and still squeeze in those 10,000 steps. |
| G．We rounded up some lazy girl fitness tips because hitting the gym can be tough. |
3 . Reasons to Love Sports
There are some truly inspiring stories every day in the world of athletics. All of the followings are parts of reasons for people to love sports.
An Optimistic Attitude Towards Life
While Chris Moulding was receiving treatment for cancer, he saw an Ironman race on TV. At that moment, he told himself that he would compete once chemo(化疗) was over. Twelve marathons and several half-Ironmans later, he successfully completed a full Ironman race.
Keeping on Running and Sharing Your Stories .
Solving Problems
With a family history of Alzheimefs(老年痴呆症), Boston local Carrie Allen wants to be a young female who appeals to the concern on this disease. Her surprising tool? Cleats(防滑钉鞋). She brought a women football league, which is in its 10th year of raising money and awareness of Alzheimer's research across the country, to her city. Last year, a team called Blondes was technically the winner in Carrie's league.
| A．He continues to live an impressively active life |
| B．You may worry that your privacy will be invaded |
| C．While it seems like phones make us disconnected |
| D．But the Alzheimer's Association clearly came out on top |
| E．Read stories and get your sneakers ready to do sports together |
| F．Though it took efforts to get into the habit of doing sports every day |
| G．Besides, the app offers a built-in social community for other master runners |
4 . This activity will melt away the pounds, build your body and leave you on an emotional high. Yet the form of exercise, the fitness trend of the year, does not require gym membership or a personal trainer. All you need to do is walk.
“Walking is a refreshing alternative to complicated aerobic (氧) routines and overpriced gym membership,” says personal trainer Lucy Knight, author of a new book on the exercise. “It is free, enjoyable and already a part of everyday life. All you need to do is correct your technique, walk faster and for longer and you will lose weight.”
There is much evidence of the benefits of walking. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh recently discovered that overweight people who walked briskly (快) for 30 to 60 minutes a day lost weight even if they didn’t change any other lifestyle habits. Another American study found that people who walked for at least four hours a week gained less weight than couch potatoes as they got older. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts medical school found that people who walked every day had 25 percent fewer colds than those who sat a lot. Best of all, walking makes you feel good about yourself. “For people suffering from depression, walking three to four times a week for 30 minutes has been shown to lift their mood,” says Knight.
But how to walk your way to weight loss and wellness? Health experts recommend that we should walk 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy. Actually you would probably need to walk at least 16,000 steps a day to lose weight. “Your workout plans depend on your level of fitness. You should aim to progress by increasing your walking time by five minutes every two weeks, and walk a bit faster. In just three months, the results should speak for themselves,” says Knight.
1. What is the latest fitness trend according to the passage?| A．Brisk walking. |
| B．Losing weight. |
| C．Working out in a gym. |
| D．Exercising with a personal trainer. |
| A．is gaining increasing popularity |
| B．benefits people in different aspects |
| C．is an enjoyable way to lose weight |
| D．involves different groups of people |
| A．1600 steps a day is needed for weight losses |
| B．the effect of walking is noticeable over time |
| C．your fitness level depends on your health experts |
| D．changing the walking time every day is necessary |
5 . All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy, happy and help them to live longer.
Sports change with the season. People play different games in winter and summer. Games and sports often grow out of people's work and everyday activities. The Arabs use horses or camels in much of their everyday life; they use them in their sports, too.
Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for them. Football, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers.
Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese boxing, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time.
People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game they often become good friends. Sports help to train a person's character (性格). One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace (优雅).
1. According to this passage, which of the following isn't true?| A．Sports help to train a person's character. |
| B．People swim only because there are a lot of rivers in their country. |
| C．People from different countries may not be able to understand each other before a game. |
| D．Sports and games can develop the friendship between peoples all over the world. |
| A．basketball was invented in America |
| B．sports change with the seasons |
| C．games and sports often grow out of people's work and everyday activities |
| D．football is played all over the world |
| A．sports and games are unimportant things that people do |
| B．sports and games should be treated (对待) only as amusement (娱乐活动) |
| C．sports and games are only useful to the old |
| D．none of the above is true |
6 . When it comes to making healthy lifestyle changes, which should come first-changing your diet or becoming more physically active?
Previous studies suggested that providing people with too much information about nutrition and physical activity at once tends (趋向) to be discouraging. That has led to the popularity of advising people to make changes gradually, and set smaller goals.
So the scientists divided 200 inactive participants who were 45 or older into four groups. One group was instructed in making diet and fitness changes at the same time; the second group was taught about diet changes first, and then fitness changes four months later; the third group changed their exercise habits first and made changes in their eating habits four months later; and the final, control group was not instructed in either diet or fitness changes but in how to manage their stress.
The researchers followed the groups for a full year. Compared to the control group, the three intervention (干预) groups made healthy changes in their diet. Those who changed their fitness habits first significantly increased the amount of exercise they received daily compared to the other groups after four months. However, at the end of the year, the group that changed both diet and exercise at the same time was the only one that met the nationally recommended targets for both exercise and nutrition levels, while those who worked on improving their nutrition first were unable to meet the recommended levels of fitness after a year. The researchers suspect that changes to diet are easier to make than changes to physical activity.
The findings show, however, that pairing diet and exercise changes may help to overcome some of the barriers people face in adding more physical activity into their lives. If folks change diet and exercise orderly, the scientists say, they may end up placing more importance on the first set of behavior changes and feel less pressured to address the second set.
1. How is Paragraph 3 developed?| A．By giving examples. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By analyzing causes. | D．By making classifications. |
| A．The first group. | B．The second group. |
| C．The third group. | D．The control group. |
| A．Changing eating habits first may be reasonable. |
| B．Diet and exercise changes should be made orderly. |
| C．Diet and exercise changes are equally hard to make. |
| D．Diet and exercise should be processed at the same time. |
| A．Changing your habits for better health |
| B．Ways to lead a healthy and balanced life |
| C．Making healthy lifestyle changes really counts |
| D．Timing matters in making diet and exercise changes |
7 . Brazil is the greatest football nation in the world. There are 170 million Brazilians. How many of them are football fans? 100 million! All of them think that they know all about football. This makes life very difficult for the Brazilian team managers. When things go bad for the Brazilian team, the newspapers would demand that the team manager should leave his job. “If we win, they put me in heaven,” a manager once said. “If we lose, they put me in hell (地狱).”
You can’t escape football in Brazil. There are football matches on every street and beach. On television, the results of football matches come before the main news programs. There are six television channels (频道) in Rio de Janeiro. On Sundays each channel shows a different football match.
Brazil is not the richest country in the world, but the government spends lots of money on football. It cost more than one billion pounds to prepare for the 1978 World Cup. That’s 10 pounds for every Brazilian man, woman, and child. And many Brazilians don’t earn as much as 10 pounds a week. Is it worth it?
“Brazil must have a great football team,” says one journalist. “If it costs one billion pounds, that’s all right. If the government doesn’t give us a good team, then it will become unpopular. Football is more than a game in Brazil.”
Football is more than a game in Brazil. This is certainly true in its largest city, San Paulo. The most popular team is Corinthians. Corinthians’ fans are the most loyal and emotional in Brazil. When Corinthians win, production in the Sao Paulo car factories increases by fifteen per cent. When they lose, it drops. At one time Corinthians won the national championship for the first time. For four days fans danced and sang in the streets.
Why are people so loyal to one football team? What makes a football fan? One man says, “Without Corinthians my life would be sad. Corinthians bring some joy and excitement into my life. We all need that, don’t we?”
1. In paragraph 1, what the manager said means _______.| A．he is respected by newspapers | B．he will probably be killed by fans |
| C．he is judged on his team’s results | D．it’s difficult for him to get good scores |
| A．all the Brazilians know all about football |
| B．football has an influence on politics(政治) in Brazil |
| C．the Brazilians spend a lot of money on football |
| D．Corinthians’ fans are always supporting their team |
| A．production in the Sao Paulo car factories increased |
| B．Corinthians won a national football championship |
| C．Corinthians won the World Cup |
| D．the newspapers put a team manager in heaven |
8 . The latest sports craze is not even a sport. According to a recent article, “e-sports” are attracting a large number of audience.
In e-sports, players and teams compete in popular video computer games such as Dota 2 and Ovenvatch. Fans fill arenas to watch the action live on huge television screens.
The games have gone way past kids playing against each other while sitting on a sofa at home. The International, a major competition for players of Dota 2, awarded $24 million in prizes, with the winner taking home almost $11 million. A recent e-sports competition attracted more than 80,000 fans to the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China.
I have to admit that I am not a big fan of computer games. I know that some games can be educational, but I think too many kids spend too much time sitting in front of a screen shooting space aliens. I think it would be better if kids spent more time reading or playing real sports such as basketball, baseball and soccer.
And please don’t tell me that competitive gaming is real sport because it requires hand-eye coordination. According to my American Heritage Dictionary, a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill.” I don’t think anyone works up much of a sweat playing video games.
Too often, regular sports send kids a kind of message. Competition starts early, when lots of kids are not ready for the ups and downs of games. Tryouts and travel teams come next, giving too many kids the message they are “not good” at sports. So lots of kids quit sports and start playing more video games.
Maybe everyone in youth sports, including coaches, parents and kids, should think more about the advantages of real sports.
1. What are “e-sports” according to the text?| A．Sports events on television screens. |
| B．Video computer game competitions. |
| C．The latest sports in the Olympic Games. |
| D．Easy sports games for kids. |
| A．They are not instructive. |
| B．They should be banned in school. |
| C．They need too much time and money. |
| D．They have some negative influence on children. |
| A．Growth. | B．Fitness. |
| C．Effort. | D．Energy. |
| A．To introduce a new kind of sport. |
| B．To introduce a competition held in Beijing. |
| C．To explain the importance of playing sports. |
| D．To call on people to pay more attention to traditional sports. |
9 . Playing tennis regularly could help keep people off death, but football, rugby and running may not help people to live longer, a study suggests.
A study followed more than 80,000 people for an average of nine years to find out if certain sports protected them against early death. It found that people who played racket sports regularly were the least likely to die over the study period, reducing their individual risk by 47 percent compared with people who did no exercise. Swimmers also reduced their chance of death by 28 percent, aerobics (有氧运动) fans by 27 percent and cyclists by 15 percent. Yet running appeared to have no impact at all on dying early, and neither did playing football or rugby.
Scientists say the difference may lie in the social aspect which goes alongside sports like tennis and squash (壁球), which often involve clubs and organized activities outside of the game. It means that people often have larger social net-works and tend to keep up activities into later life, both of which are proven to be good for health.
In contrast, people who play team sports often do not move onto a new sport once their teams break up for family, or injury reasons. They become watchers rather than participants in their chosen activity.
The researchers found that playing racket sports was associated with a 56 percent lower risk from heart death. Similarly, swimmers lowered their heart disease or stroke risk by 41 percent, and people who took part in activities like aerobics, dance or gymnastics lowered their risk by 36 percent. But again running, football and rugby had no significant impact on heart deaths.
However, other experts argue that this study must not be misinterpreted as showing that running and football do not protect against heart disease. In this study both runners and footballers had a lower rate of death from heart disease.
1. Which sport has hardly any impact on protecting people against early death?| A．Cycling. | B．Swimming. |
| C．Rugby. | D．Tennis. |
| A．Playing basketball with their friends occasionally. |
| B．Watching football games every day. |
| C．Taking up gymnastics and joining a club. |
| D．Doing running in the park every day. |
| A．Social networks. | B．Staying at home. |
| C．Physical examinations. | D．Setting up families. |
| A．Thousands of people participated in a 9-year research. |
| B．Study finds playing tennis helps people live longer. |
| C．It is wrong to say running has no impact on heart disease. |
| D．There are differences between racket sports and team games. |
10 . For some people, walking or running outdoors is a great way to work out. What may not be so pleasant is seeing trash all over the ground. Well, some people are doing something about it. They are logging!
“Plogging” began in Sweden. The name combines the Swedish word “plocka” which means to pick up, and the word “Jogging”, which means to run slowly. A Swedish man named Erik, started the movement in 2016. On the World Environment Day website, Erik says that he moved to Stockholm from a small community in northern Sweden. Each day he would ride his bike to work.
Concerned about the amount of trash and litter he saw each day on his way to work, he took matters into his own hands.
Flogging, by that term, may have officially begun in Sweden. But many people who exercise outdoors have been doing this for years. Take Jeff Horowitz, for example. He is a personal trainer in Washington D.C. He often picks up trash while running outside. He even has turned it into a game. He will try to pick up the trash without stopping. “I didn’t know it was a thing really. This is just my personal ethics (道德标准) where I go for a run and if I happen to see a piece of garbage lying around and it’s within reach — it is a kind of a little test for me to see if I can grab it and throw it in a near trash can without stopping. And that way, I think, it gives me a little exercise and a little focus for my run. And it helps clean up the neighborhood,” he announced.
Today, logging is an official activity, one that is becoming increasingly popular. Cities around the world now hold plogging events. “I would just hope people would think twice before dropping a garbage on the ground. We have containers…seems on every block. So, it’s easy to put your garbage in the trash cans. I just think people should think about it a little bit more. I do hope one day there will not be a need for logging.” said an interviewee.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined phrase “took matters into his own hands”?| A．began to pick up the trash. | B．appealed to people to go green |
| C．called on people to join him. | D．had the collected trash recycled |
| A．deliberate | B．automatic | C．arbitrary | D．temporary |
| A．Jogging is truly beneficial. | B．Trash cans should be within reach. |
| C．Communities should be kept clean. | D．Littering is not acceptable. |
| A．New Exercise Trend Also Helps Environment |
| B．New Exercise Enjoys unbelievable popularity |
| C．Plogging — a Fashionable Way to clear waste |
| D．Plogging — an Exercise Originating in Sweden |
