1 . Exercising regularly not only helps you keep slim, but also improves your overall health and well-being. Different exercises produce different results, as they focus on alternate parts of the body. There are four broad exercise categories: endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance. Many people often only focus on one exercise type, but including all four in your workout will produce better results and reduce your risk of injury.
Endurance
Endurance exercises increase your breathing and heart rate. By doing endurance exercises, you are working to keep your heart, lungs, and blood-flow system healthy while improving your total fitness. Over time these activities will make everyday activities seem easier.
Strength
If you want to build up your muscles, then strength exercises, which are also known as “resistance training”, are right for you. Even the slightest increase in strength can make a huge difference in your ability to carry out daily tasks. Developing strong muscles also reduce your risk of weak bones.
Flexibility
Flexibility exercises help stretch your body’s muscles. This allows for more freedom of movement for other exercises and can also improve your range of motion, posture, ability to breathe deeply, and blood flow. Also, it reduces the muscle tension caused by stress.
Balance
Balance exercises help prevent falls and are especially important to older adults, helping them stay independent. Most good balance exercises are ones that keep you constantly moving with your feet on the ground. Heel-to-toe walking and standing on one foot are simple ways to improve balance.
1. How can a person benefit most from their exercise routine?A.By combining different exercise types together. |
B.By having enough rest between their workouts. |
C.By concentrating on one training aspect at a time. |
D.By increasing the frequency of their training gradually. |
A.Strength and Balance. | B.Flexibility and Balance. |
C.Endurance and Strength. | D.Endurance and Flexibility. |
A.Arms. | B.Legs. | C.Waist. | D.Neck. |
2 . Although a gym membership can be nice, you don't have to have one to get into great shape! All you need is a little bit of time and space at home for yourself.
Spend 5 to 10 minutes warming up before every workout.
Set achievable goals that you can break into smaller tasks. It's one thing to say you want to get fit, but that means something different for everyone.
A.Not sure what to do? |
B.Want to build muscle without buying equipment? |
C.Do strength training twice a week to build muscle. |
D.If you're struggling to fit in workout time, don't worry. |
E.Spend five to ten minutes cooling down after each workout. |
F.Figure out what you plan to achieve and make that your goal. |
G.But before everything, you need to create an at-home fitness routine. |
3 . 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. |
4 . The 25-year-old African student in Cangzhou Technical College, north China’s Hebei Province, has practiced Tai Chi for two years. He is now a huge fan of the slow-speed martial art.
As a child in his own country, the Tanzanian was already a fan of kung fu stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen. He understood Chinese kung Fu to be a fast-paced attack and defense art.
“Tai chi is different from the Chinese kung Fu that I knew. It is slow. But as I practice it, I have realized that the slow moments are far from being simple,” Abdi said.
The school provides a Tai Chi course for all foreign students. Abdi has already learned to practice Tai Chi moves with balance and deep rhythmic breathing, which allows him to feel the charm of the exercise. It brings peace and calmness to his mind, while building his muscles.
The International Exchange Center of the college has had more than 300 international students from more than 50 countries since 2016, mainly countries along “the Belt and Road.”
“My parents wish me to study international trade to better prepare me for my job in the booming trade between China and Tanzania. But it is my own dream to chase the Chinese martial arts,” said Abdi.
Practicing Tai Chi has led him to have a complete appreciation of Chinese culture. He now prefers people call him by his Chinese name Chen Yanzhi, as the name means talented and kind.
“Tai chi movements are quiet but full of power. It has inspired my understanding of China, which has the same spirit. My mother has felt the same way after she visited me here,” Abdi said.
He said his Rwandan classmate likes to post videos of them practicing Tai Chi on social media, and another Cameroonian classmate has learned from Tai Chi how to improve his boxing skills.
“When I return home, I will use my Chinese name to teach Tai Chi in my country, so that more people can benefit from this magical Kung Fu,” said Abdi. Enditem.
1. What is it that Tai Chi is different from Chinese kung fu?A.Tai Chi is a defense art. | B.Tai Chi is a fast-paced attack. |
C.Tai Chi is slow. | D.Tai Chi is simple. |
A.It builds his muscles. |
B.It helps him regain a healthy lifestyle. |
C.It brings peace and calmness to his mind. |
D.It allows him to feel the charm of the exercise. |
A.Because he liked slow-moving exercise. |
B.Because Tai Chi was easy for him to learn. |
C.Because Tai Chi helped him burn more calories to aid in weight loss. |
D.Because Tai Chi has helped him have a full understanding of Chinese culture. |
A.Tai Chi has become a sport event. |
B.Tai Chi is active only in central China. |
C.Tai Chi becomes more and more popular in the world. |
D.Tai Chi opens a window for Chinese people to know about the world. |
5 . 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 |
6 . Once Popular Sports in Ancient Capital Xi'an
The ancient capital Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province is holding the National Games. As the capital of 13 dynasties throughout Chinese history, the ancient city has never been far from sports. Starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the city has held many sports events.
Cuju: Origin of modern soccer
Cuju was an ancient Chinese competitive game involving kicking a ball through an opening into a net. As the ancestor of soccer, it first appeared in the renowned ancient Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce(“Strategies of the Warring States”), which describedCuju as a form of entertainment among the general public. Later, cuju was commonly played in the army for military training purposes, during the Han Dynasty.
Jiaodi: Chinese-style wrestling
Sumo, known as Japan's “national sport”, actually started in ancient China. Sumo was called jiaodi or jiaoli in ancient times. Ancient jiaodi,a Chinese-style wrestling, was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other imitating wild oxen. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, jiaodi was highly favored by emperors. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaodi was part of military training and a kind of entrainment and athletic sports.
Jiju: Ancient polo
Jiju is a sport which uses a stick to hit balls while riding on a horse, pretty similar to modern polo. It was popular in the royal court and among common people in the Tang Dynasty. There were many fields for playing polo in the court and it was also a major military training program in the army. In the Tang Dynasty capital, there were formal polo courts, such as the stadium pavilion in Chang' an palace.
Archery
During ancient times, the origin of archery was closely related with hunting and defense. Ancient archery was not only an athletic event,a military training program, and an entertainment activity, but also part of education. As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the archery was listed as one of the six practical disciplines, also called the Six Arts, becoming an important and competitive form.
1. Which was popular in the army during the Han Dynasty?A.Cuju. | B.Jiaodi. |
C.Jiju. | D.Archery. |
A.Only by riding a horse. |
B.By hitting balls wearing ox horns. |
C.By kicking a ball through an opening into a net. |
D.By hitting balls while riding on a horse with a stick. |
A.They were only for entertainment. |
B.They all disappeared late gradually. |
C.They were military training programs. |
D.They all originated from Han Dynasty. |
7 . There's more evidence that what's good for your heart is good for your head. A new study shows that people who run, swim or do other moderate intensity (中等强度)exercise have brains that look, on average, 10 years younger than the brains of couch potatoes.
“Our study showed that for older people, getting moderate intensity exercise may be protective, helping them keep their brains work better," said Dr. Clinton Wright of the University of Miami, who led the study. But it's not necessarily easy. Walking, golf, bowling and yoga don't count, and people need to start before they begin showing memory loss, Wright' s team reported in the journal Neurology.
The study of nearly 900 people who exercise regularly showed that 90 percent fell into the low-intensity group. These people are part of a larger group taking part in a bigger study called Northern Manhattan Study. They were asked how long and how often they exercised during the past two weeks. Five years later, they were tested for memory and thinking skills and got a brain MRI. Seven years after that, they took the memory and thinking tests again. The 10 percent who said they took part in moderate intensity exercise scored better on the tests. These included running, climbing, swimming, riding bicycles and so on.
“We found that those with moderate intensity activity had higher scores and slower decline than inactive people when comparing the results," the study team wrote.
Many studies have shown that exercise may not prevent Alzheimer's disease but may delay it. The findings fit in with a study that found two years of exercising, eating healthier food and brain training can promote people's memory function.
1. What's true about the study?A.Most people surveyed took low-intensity exercise. |
B.Only 900 people took part in the bigger study. |
C.High-intensity exercise is better. |
D.Ten people scored best on the tests. |
A.By observing people exercise. | B.By using examples. |
C.By making a comparison. | D.By doing a brain MRI. |
A.Exercise will definitely strengthen people's memory. |
B.Alzheimer's disease may be held back by moderate intensity exercise. |
C.Exercise can put off the beginning of memory decline. |
D.The findings fit in with the study of healthy food. |
A.How to keep health. |
B.Ways to make your brain work better. |
C.To exercise or not. |
D.Moderate intensity exercises keeps your brain younger. |
8 . A lot of teenagers in middle school want to do more sports.
Watching TV and playing video games are becoming more and more popular among teenagers.
One of the biggest problems in our society today is obesity,and it's not just a problem with adults. More and more kids are becoming overweight.
Encouraging teenagers to do more sports also benefits parents. It is a great way for parents to show they love their kids.
Doing sports is a great way for teenagers to get out of the house,get moving,make friends and keep healthy. So why not join in and get into sports today?
A.They may find new friends in this way |
B.Doing sports helps teenagers grow faster |
C.They prefer to stay at home rather than go out |
D.Joining in a team sport will help teenagers get some exercise without feeling pressured to lose weight |
E.Teenagers want to be stronger through doing sports |
F.Parents can play with them and help them practice sports |
G.Many do it because they think it will make them become more popular |
9 . The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included on December 17, 2020 China's Tai Chi on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision was announced during the online meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held from December 14 to 19 in Kingston, capital of Jamaica.
“Born in the mid-17th century in a small village named Chenjiagou located in Central China's Henan province, Tai Chi is not only a kind of traditional Wushu integrated with slow movements and deep breathing, but is also deeply rooted in many areas of Chinese culture, such as medicine and philosophy,” Zhu Xianghua says, who is the son of the famous Tai Chi master Zhu Tiancai.
Although it has spread to more than 150 countries and regions, attracting more than 100 million people to practice, the idea that Tai Chi is for the elderly has stopped many young people practicing the ancient Wushu. They think of it as a slow exercise, which is specially made and better suited for their grandparents. Instead, many young people are turning to the Indian practice of yoga to relieve stress, which was placed on the UNESCO's List in 2019.
In order to promote Tai Chi, joint efforts have been made from individuals and the Chinese government in the last decades. Xi'an Jiaotong University requires students to learn Tai Chi. Wang Yunbing, a professor in the university's sports center, stressed that Tai Chi is not only good physical exercise-researchers from the American College of Rheumatology find that it can help manage several diseases but is also conned ted to ancient Chinese civilization. Since 2014, the World Tai Chi Championships have been held every two years by the International Wushu Federation. It provides a platform for communication and learning between the Tai Chi masters and Tai Chi lovers around the globe. In January 2020, Tai Chi became an official event in the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games.
1. What does Zhu Xianghua say about Tai Chi in paragraph 2?A.It originated from fast Kung Fu action. |
B.It was born around the 1750s in a village. |
C.It is related to other cultural fields of China. |
D.It integrates Chinese medicine and western philosophy. |
A.They think it easier to practice yoga to keep fit. |
B.The elderly stop young people practicing Tai Chi. |
C.They consider Tai Chi is custom-built for old people. |
D.Yoga was included in the world culture earlier than Tai Chi. |
A.To promote contemporary Chinese civilization. |
B.To show many efforts made to popularize Tai Chi. |
C.To stress the importance of Chinese Tai Chi masters. |
D.To advise people to practice Tai Chi to cure diseases. |
A.Tai Chi Steps on the UNESCO's List. |
B.Tai Chi is Competing against Yoga. |
C.Tai Chi Has Regained populate Globally. |
D.Opinions Greatly Differ on Tai Chi and Yoga. |
10 . The Biggest Stadiums in the World
People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.
These days, safety regulations-not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and comfortable seat — tend to keep stadium capacities (容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.
For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.
All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.
·Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang D.P.R. Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1,1989.
·Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.
·Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, U. S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.
·Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7,1922.
·Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U. S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24, 1927.
1. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?A.104,944. | B.107,601. | C.About 150,000. | D.About 250,000. |
A.Michigan Stadium. | B.Beaver Stadium. | C.Ohio Stadium. | D.Kyle Field. |
A.They host big games. | B.They have become tourist attractions. |
C.They were built by Americans. | D.They are favored by architects. |