1 . Exercise is an important part of staying healthy — both physically and mentally. Studies show that it can help strengthen the body’s natural defenses against disease.
Those who only exercise indoors might now consider moving their exercise routine outdoors.
Gyms, recreation centers and exercise studios are not open. So, some people are turning online to exercise. The physical fitness industry is also moving to online training. The Associated Press news agency contacted industry representatives and other people. Beth Berglin is the director of a charitable group in Miami, Florida. Before the pandemic, her exercise routine involved going to actual camp-style classes four mornings a week.
| A．So people fancy outdoor activities. |
| B．Now, the area where she trains is shut. |
| C．But exercise does not just keep us healthy. |
| D．Getting enough exercise at difficult times is vital. |
| E．What if people are not allowed to go out due to the pandemic? |
| F．How do people change their exercise mode from indoor to online? |
| G．This is the advice of Joe Khabbaza, a heart specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. |
2 . Small amounts of exercise could have a great effect on happiness.
According to a new review of research about good moods and physical activities, people who work out even once a week or for as little as 10 minutes a day tend to be more cheerful than those who never exercise. And any type of exercise may be helpful.
A number of past studies have noted that physically active people have much lower risks of developing depression and anxiety than people who rarely move.
Fewer past studies explored links between physical activity and upbeat emotions, especially in people who already were psychologically healthy, and those studies often looked at a single age group or type of exercise.
So for the new review, the Michigan researchers found, exercise was strongly linked to happiness. The type of exercise did not seem to matter. Some happy people walked or jogged. Others practiced yoga-style posing and stretching. And the amount of exercise needed to influence happiness was slight. In several studies, people who worked out only once or twice a week said they felt much happier than those who never exercised. In other studies, 10 minutes a day of physical activity was linked with happy moods.
But because most of the studies in this review were observational, it is not possible yet to establish whether exercise directly causes changes in happiness or if the two just happen to occur together often. In that case, exercise would not have helped to make people happy; rather, their happiness would have helped to make them exercisers
1. Who is the least happy, according to the passage?| A．People who work out once a week. |
| B．People who only run for ten minutes a day. |
| C．People who never exercise. |
| D．People who practice yoga-style posing. |
| A．The links between physical activities and happy emotion. |
| B．The relationship between exercise and depression. |
| C．Exercise can cause anxiety. |
| D．Exercise can never affect our moods. |
| A．Jogging. |
| B．Yoga. |
| C．Walking. |
| D．Any exercise. |
| A．Study whether exercise directly changes happiness. |
| B．Show the reasons for happiness. |
| C．Tell people how to exercise. |
| D．Recommend some forms of exercise. |
3 . Improving as a runner is about more than just running all of the time. You need to pay a little attention to details and make a smart training plan.
Alternate easy and hard runs to build strength rapidly. It is common for runners to push themselves about the same amount each time and gradually increasing difficulty.
| A．This helps prepare your muscles for speed |
| B．Children are often advised to start running at an early age |
| C．Keep a relaxed but strong upper body to conserve energy efficiently |
| D．There are two individual sports available, running or tennis |
| E．Use your light run to work up a light sweat. |
| F．In that case, you can make large improvements as a runner in a relatively short time |
| G．Outstanding runners, however, alternate an easy run with a very challenging one |
4 . 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-kilometre 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 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.
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. Which is the best title of the passage?| A．Race walking |
| B．Conditions of race |
| C．How tough race walking is |
| D．How to race like walking |
| A．To tell readers how strange it is. |
| B．To inform athletes of the special rules. |
| C．To prove that race walkers are conditioned athletes. |
| D．To show that race walking is physically demanding. |
| A．It is more likely to injure the chest. |
| B．It causes stress on the ankles and hips. |
| C．It’s less popular with young people. |
| D．It causes knee injuries easily. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Doubtful. | C．Nervous. | D．Objective. |
5 . 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. |
6 . Running is often tiring and a lot of hard work, but nothing beats the feeling you get after finishing a long workout around the track.
But while it’s long been believed that endorphins (内啡肽) —chemicals in the body that cause happiness—are behind the so-called “runner’s high”, a study suggested that there may be more to this phenomenon than we previously knew.
According to a recent study published by a group of scientists from several German universities, a group of chemicals called endocannabinoids (内源性大麻素) may actually be responsible for this familiar great feeling.
To test this theory, the scientists turned to mice. Both mice and humans release high levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids after exercise. After exercising on running wheels, the mice seemed happy and relaxed and displayed no signs of anxiety. But after being given a drug to block their endorphins, the mice’s behavior didn’t seem to change. However, when their endocannabinoids were blocked with a different drug, their runners’ high symptoms seemed to fade.
“The long-held notion of endorphins being responsible for the runner’s high is false. Endorphins are effective pain relievers, but only when it comes to the pain in your body and muscles you feel after working out,” Patrick Lucas Austin wrote on science blog Lifchacker.
Similar studies are yet to be carried out on humans, but it’s already known that exercise is a highly effective way to get rid of stress or anxiety. The UK’s National Health Service even prescribes (开药 方) exercise to patients who are suffering from depression. “Being depressed can leave you feeling low in energy, which might put you off being more active. Regular exercise can improve your mood if you have depression, and its especially useful for people with mild to moderate (中等的) depression,” it wrote on its website.
It seems like nothing can beat that feeling we get after a good workout, even if we don’t fully understand where it comes from. At least if we’re feeling down, we know that all we have to do is to put on our running shoes.
1. What did scientists from German universities recently discover?| A．Working out is a highly effective way to treat depression. |
| B．The runner’s high could be caused by endocannabinoids. |
| C．Endorphins may contribute to one’s high spirits after running. |
| D．The level of endorphins and endocannabinoids could affect one’s mood. |
| A．To find what reduces the runner’s high symptoms. |
| B．To see the specific symptoms of the runner’s high. |
| C．To identify what is responsible for the runner’s high. |
| D．To test what influences the level of endocannabinoids released. |
| A．Effect. | B．Goal. | C．Opinion. | D．Question |
| A．They can help ease depression symptoms. |
| B．They are the best way to treat depression. |
| C．They only work for those with serious depression. |
| D．They can help people completely recover from depression. |
7 . Physical education, or gym class, 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 (肥胖症). 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 video games and computer activities, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. Physical education classes act as a public health measure to encourage activity and help teens have healthy weights.
Inactivity increases teens’ risk 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 hindered 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 activity 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．Helping teens learn to make good plans. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Making teens attach importance to exercise later. |
| A．Measured. | B．Shown. | C．Prevented. | D．Caused. |
| A．Helping students do better in their studies. |
| B．Helping students make good use of all their time. |
| C．Helping students adjust to their studies better. |
| D．Making students choose between sports and studies. |
| A．How high school students can live a better life. |
| B．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| C．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| D．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
8 . In an ideal world, we would be able to devote as much time to sports as we feel we need. But in reality, with growing demands in both work and family, we can only jump at the chance for our physical exercise when we can. Making the most of that time to practice Yin Yang yoga, which mixes the dynamic and slow-paced elements of yoga, helps keep you active and relaxed.
Yin and Yang are the Taoist concepts representing a balance of opposite forces which are also interconnected. Yin is inactive, cooling, and negative, associated with the female force. Yang is active, warming, and positive, associated with action and movement. They are complementary to one another, as one cannot exist without the other.
Yin Yang yoga is a combination (结合体) of high-energy movement which builds energy, increases strength and promotes stamina (耐力), followed by the more restful practice of Yin to give us a deeper stretch (拉伸) and calm the nervous system.
If you have a busy and active life you may feel more in Yang, so taking some cooler, slower Yin yoga practice into your routine may help you feel calmer and more balanced.
If you are practicing for an hour, divide the time in half. Warm up with sun salutations (拜日式瑜伽), continue into a dynamic flow and then move on to some standing postures. After half an hour your heart will be pumping, muscles tighten up and you are hopefully feeling energetic, but ready for a rest. Then pick five Yin postures to hold for 3-5 minutes, or even longer if you are enjoying them!
As ever with yoga, if you are a beginner or have health issues, always attend a class with a trained instructor first to guide you safely through the yoga practice and avoid injury.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．Most of our sports time should be spent on Yin Yang yoga. |
| B．We’d better devote as much time to physical exercise as we can. |
| C．Busy schedule makes it impossible for us to do any form of sports. |
| D．Yin Yang yoga can be a choice of physical exercise when we are busy. |
| A．Independent from one another. |
| B．Competitive against one another. |
| C．Similar to each other but unable to work together as a whole. |
| D．Different from each other but together making a good combination. |
| A．Relaxing muscles. | B．Building stamina. |
| C．Strengthening the body. | D．Quickening the heartbeat. |
| A．Hold each Yin posture for longer than 5 minutes. |
| B．Do not practice yoga when you are not in good health. |
| C．Start your yoga practice with an expert trainer. |
| D．Spare half an hour for five Yin postures in every yoga practice. |
9 . Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern, to which physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong, and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr.Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers: “Firstly, you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”
Dr Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle. “Overweight” means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities, but is not seriously overweight. “Active” refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities, but do not have a high fitness level.
According to Dr Lopez, overweight teenagers should keep active to keep healthy. Ride a bike, play volleyball or basketball for a while, and go for a twenty-minute walk each day. All these will help to burn up calories. Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, starting with twenty of each a day. “Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger,” said Dr Lopez. The same principle applies to active teenagers.
Dr Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise, together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities. “These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr Lopez said. Some weight-training and other body-strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the personˈs strength.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Active people always have a high fitness level. |
| B．Overweight people always take more exercise. |
| C．Inactive teenagers are not seriously overweight. |
| D．Keeping fit means changing teenagers’ lifestyle. |
| A．It can make the teenagers grow taller. |
| B．It can help teenagers become healthier. |
| C．It can help to burn up calories. |
| D．It can increase teenagers’ strength. |
| A．walking | B．stretching and bending |
| C．riding | D．weight-training |
| A．Doing exercises | B．Teenagersˈ fitness |
| C．Different lifestyles | D．Overweight teenagers |
10 . Many hear endlessly how good exercise is for our health,but you might be surprised to know just how good.
It helps you breathe better.
Frequent exercise improves the volume of oxygen you can use in your body.This is what makes you fit and the benefits aren’t limited to sport.
Physical activity enhances your mental health.
Doing something active releases “happy” brain chemicals that make you more positive.The more you do it,the better you’ll feel.But you do need to work up a sweat.If you’ve had a bad day,treat yourself to a little bit of exercise.
The way your guts (内脏) feel often impacts on your mental and physical health.Walking,running and yoga strengthen abdominal (腹部的)muscles,increase the heart rate and encourage your muscles to move digestive waste through your body more efficiently and digest food more quickly.
Keeping active keeps you young.
There may not be an elixir (灵丹妙药) of youth just yet,but keeping fit comes close.Just 15 minutes of exercise a day for eight years can increase your lifespan by three years.The more you do,the longer you could live.
| A．It aids your digestion. |
| B．It gives you a better appetite. |
| C．Increased muscle strength helps too. |
| D．Here are the benefits you can get from exercise. |
| E．This is because physical activity delays cell ageing. |
| F．People think this will catch our attention and inspire our action. |
| G．Power walking or rope skipping is a brilliant stress reliever. |
