1 . “I was captivated by weightlifting during the London 2012 Olympic Games,” says Fiona Clements, a software developer working in London. “I think it’s partly because the effort is so obvious—you can see every flash of doubt, pain and happiness of success on the athletes’ faces.”
Clements was 48 at the time. She thought she’d left it far too late to even consider trying it, but then she kept thinking about it. “It took until September 2022, but I finally went for it.” Clements signed up for a beginner’s class with Sally Moss, a strength coach who is an expert in Olympic lifting, and loved it from her first class. Now 58, Clements can lift 50kg and push 21kg overhead. She says she has never felt stronger.
Resistance training, to use the term for any type of exercise where you’re working against weight, whether it’s using dumbbells(哑铃), exercise bands or just your own body weight, is extremely beneficial.
“I just thought that it would be impossible to make a difference to my body as an older woman,” says Joann a Blacker, a small business owner, who took up strength training at 53. “I’d gained weight and felt awful. I certainly didn’t think that weightlifting would be the way I would change my body.”
Blacker can now lift 40kg for 10 repetitions and feels more than ready to deal with training alone. Clements, at the same time, has already signed up with her local gym, for the days she’s not training with Moss. “I can feel these bands of hard muscle when I move my arms and legs that I’m pretty sure weren’t there before,” she says. “But the best part is that I’m actually able to understand the sport I love. It still feels like magic when that bar goes overhead.”
1. What does the underlined word “captivated” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Uninterested. | B．Attracted. | C．Upset. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．She was fearful of the pain. | B．She found it hard to get a top coach. |
| C．She was doubtful about its lasting effects. | D．She thought she was too old to have a go. |
| A．She increased her willpower. | B．She improved her body shape. |
| C．She found a part-time job in this field. | D．She had her busy daily life changed. |
| A．She has a deeper understanding of it. | B．She suggests starting it at a local gym. |
| C．She enjoys muscle-building most of all. | D．She finds it more magic than hard work. |
2 . I’m a walker, logging an average of 9000 steps a day several times a week around my neighborhood. On recent trips to Copenhagen and Stockholm, I noticed tall, fit Scandinavians (斯堪法尼亚人) walking along on city streets with poles, as if they were cross-country skiing without any snow.
It was a surprise to learn that the addition of the poles makes it a more vigorous, full-body exercise than simply walking – and, as a 76-year-old looking to stay healthy while enjoying the outdoors, I decided to give it a try.
There’s plenty of help online for the new Nordic (北 欧的 ) walker: stand tall, swing your arms out as if to shake hands, and plant your poles with vigour. Then there’s the little matter of the strap (带子) on the pole. This allows the walker to grip the pole when thrusting forward and then relax that hand as the other hand pushes forward – a skill of coordination that builds stronger muscles.
For a warm-up, I started slow: Nordic walking down the hall that extends from my front door to the deck. Keeping balance wasn’t my only problem. The novel use of my arms and upper body was surprisingly demanding. After half an hour, my heart was pounding and I was sweating, but I still wasn’t much good.
Still, I carried on because there’s no arguing with the exercise’s benefits. Nordic walkers’ upper-body exercise increases their heart rate significantly more than walking without poles. And according to cardiologist Dr Aaron Baggish, with poles “you’re engaging 80 to 90 per cent of your muscles.” It also helps people with Parkinson’s, says Burrill. “We put poles in their hands and it’s amazing because they start walking with real rhythm.”
After a few clumsy days of being convinced I would never succeed, suddenly everything clicked. Not only was I able to coordinate the movements, I was aware that my heart, arms and core were getting a workout. Nordic walking is a form of exercise I expect to enjoy for years to come.
1. What inspired the writer to try Nordic walking?| A．Enjoying the outdoor skiing. | B．Observing Scandinavians walking. |
| C．Getting tired of simple walking. | D．Fancying a healthy lifestyle. |
| A．Building strong muscle in the arms. |
| B．Using arms and upper body harmoniously. |
| C．Sweating with heart pounding. |
| D．Feeling discouraged for lack of progress. |
| A．The great benefits of Nordic walking. | B．The wide practice of Nordic walking. |
| C．The urgency to promote Nordic walking. | D．The promising future of Nordic walking. |
| A．To persuade readers to try Nordic walking for fun. |
| B．To share the experience of trying a new fitness activity. |
| C．To emphasize the great difficulties of Nordic walking. |
| D．To compare Nordic walking with simple walking. |
3 . Many of us start exercising in the hope of losing unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is a good thing. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your resolution could very well come to nothing.
For starters, exercise is typically futile for weight loss. Take walking for example. A 150-pound person who walks for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.
When exercise is added to a diet, the results are equally unimpressive. Researchers found that a combination of dieting and exercising brought no greater weight loss than dieting alone after six months. At 12 months, the diet-and-exercise combination showed an advantage, but it was slight — about 4 pounds.
In studies where exercise has produced meaningful weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, a 150-pound person would need to walk a minimum of 90 minutes or run 30 minutes per day. In short, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to make that much effort, our bodies often compensate (抵消) by eagerness for more food and slowing down metabolism (新陈代谢), effects that over time limit how many pounds we lose.
When exercise fails to meet our weight-loss expectations, we often stop working out. Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into punishment — a price we have to pay for a slimmer body. How many times have you heard someone say “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much? We treat exercise as a form of self-punishment for being “bad.” In this case, we’re unlikely to keep doing it for very long.
The conclusion is that we’re more likely to treat exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight.
1. What does the underlined word “futile” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Necessary. | B．Popular. | C．Dangerous. | D．Useless. |
| A．You will burn 140 calories every day. |
| B．You will lose 4 pounds in a month. |
| C．You might have a higher metabolic rate. |
| D．You might eat more than usual. |
| A．They are unlikely to really enjoy it. |
| B．They find it too challenging physically. |
| C．They have difficulty resisting (抵抗) delicious food. |
| D．They turn their attention to their well-being. |
| A．How long should you exercise a day to lose weight? |
| B．What are the best exercises for losing weight? |
| C．Weight loss: why exercise is the wrong path |
| D．Exercise and weight loss: a pair of brothers |
