1 . Back pain can make it difficult for many people to function in everyday life.
Our bodies need adequate movement throughout the day to avoid the stiffness that contributes to aches and pains. If the weather is good, don't hunt for the nearest parking spot; don't take the elevator when you have the option of one or two flights of stairs. When you need to sit for long periods, set a timer to get up every hour and be active for just a few minutes.
When we overuse our dominant side, we create muscle patterns of weakness and tension that increase pain, especially in our backs. Consider the actions you take repeatedly throughout the day that shift your weight to one side.
Psychological stress is a noted risk factor for back pain, according to research. Most mental stress is caused by focusing on the past or future.
A.Switch sides when you carry things. |
B.It affects how you move, feel and think. |
C.You should learn more about the cause of your pain. |
D.Approach the health of your back as a responsibility. |
E.So actively being mindful of the present reduces stress. |
F.You'd better take a quick break to check in with your breathing. |
G.More minutes of movement add up to big health benefits over time. |
2 . Lots of people find it hard to get up in the morning and put the blame on the alarm clock. In fact, the key to easy morning wake-up lies in resting your body clock
•
• Rethink mornings. Now that you know why you want to wake up, consider re-arranging your morning activities. If you want time to have breakfast with your family, save some time the night before by setting out clothes, shoes, and bags.
• Keep your sleep/wake schedule on weekends. If you’re tired out by Friday night, sleeping in on Saturday could sound wonderful. But compensating (弥补) on the weekends actually feeds into your sleepiness the following week, a recent study found.
• Keep a record and evaluate it weekly. Keep track of your efforts and write down how you feel. After you’ve tried a new method for a week, take a look at your record.
A.Get a sleep specialist. |
B.Find the right motivation. |
C.A better plan for sleep can help. |
D.And consider setting a second alarm. |
E.If the steps you take are working, keep it up. |
F.Stick to your set bedtime and wake-up time, no matter the day. |
G.Reconsider the 15 minutes you spend in line at the cafe to get coffee. |
3 . There is an English saying: “
Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their hearts, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise.
Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group that tolerated the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program.
A.Laughter can prolong one’s life. |
B.As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics in which they help to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. |
C.The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemicals in the brain which diminish both stress and pain. |
D.It increases blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing; it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach and even the feet. |
E.Although laughter helps cure the disease, doctors still cannot put this theory into clinic practice. |
F.Laughter is the best medicine. |
G.They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health. |
4 . What you do after studying could have a big effect on how well you learn and remember. Today on Education Tips, we will explore two no-cost ways that can help you improve your learning: wakeful rest and sleep.
When many students finish studying, they often go straight to another activity. Perhaps they look at their phone or computer. They might even play a video game or watch television. But research suggests that resting after your study may help you remember what you have studied.
The basic idea is this: by stopping your activity after the study, your brain gets a chance to rest. Resting is difficult when you are playing computer games.
While this might sound unusual to you, many studies have explored the benefits of resting after learning—what is called “wakeful rest”.
A 2019 study found that both young and older adults were able to better remember information they learned after doing wakeful rest.
If you want to give “wakeful rest” a try, here are a few simple things to do. Rest quietly for five to ten minutes. Do not look at your phone, read stories or play games. It is really that easy!
Besides wakeful rest, sleep is also important for learning. The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) notes that sleep helps people to learn in two ways. A report on the school’s website explains that “a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention well and therefore cannot learn well”. It also says, “Sleep itself helps us to memorize and that memorizing is very important for learning new information.”
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) suggests that adults between the ages of 20 and 64 get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per day. Teenagers may need a little bit more, and people over the age of 65 may need a little less.
Try to get some “wakeful rest” after a study. Then try to get a good night’s sleep. That’s it—a simple, no-cost way to help you remember what you learn.
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?A.The importance of sleep. | B.The good ways to get a rest. |
C.The reason for having a rest. | D.The types of resting activities. |
A.Reading a newspaper. | B.Playing a video game. |
C.Sitting there doing nothing. | D.Having a nice sleep at night. |
A.Less than 7 hours. | B.Just 7 hours. |
C.No more than 9 hours. | D.Around 9 hours. |
A.Low-cost Tips on Working | B.Good Things to Do After Your Study |
C.Why Do We Need to Have a Good Sleep? | D.How Long Should We Rest After Learning? |
5 . The Dangers of Secondhand Smoke
Most people know that cigarette smoking is harmful to their health. Scientific research shows that it causes many kinds of diseases.
Environmental Protection Agency reports that about 53,000 people die in the United States each year as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke.
The smoke that comes from a lit cigarette contains many different poisonous chemicals. In the past, scientists did not think that these chemicals could harm a nonsmoker’s health.
Research shows that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are sick more often than children who live in homes where no one smokes and that the children of smokers are more than twice as likely to develop lung cancer when they are adults as the children of nonsmokers. The risk is even higher for children who live in homes where both parents smoke.
A.Recently, though, scientists changed their opinion after they studied a large group of nonsmokers. |
B.As a matter of fact, almost all of us breathe tobacco smoke at times, whether we realize it or not. |
C.In fact, many people who smoke get lung cancer. |
D.However, secondhand smoke is dangerous to all people, old or young. |
E.People are becoming very aware of the dangers of secondhand smoke. |
F.No one knows for sure why Mr. Gilson has lung cancer. |
G.Many people, including doctors, parents, teachers, and others, are concerned about the health risks of cigarette smoking. |
6 . Mathew White, an environmental psychologist, is on a mission to give Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of illnesses common in the world. Experimental work has demonstrated various physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments: blood pressure drops, heart rate decreases, immune function improves, and the nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.
As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments. But before doctors can start advising their patients to head to the nearest park, there is an important outstanding question, says White: How much time in nature do you need to generate these apparent benefits? Most of the research that has linked health outcomes with exposure to the natural world didn’t use frequency or duration of park visits, but rather the amount of green space within a certain distance of a person’s home, White says. But “it’s not so much where you live; it’s whether you use it or not.”
So he collected data to estimate what dose(剂量) of nature was needed to show benefits to a person’s health. White’s group found the answer he was after: Spending at least two hours in nature per week was strongly correlated with self-reports of being in good health or having high wellbeing. “I was very surprised, to be honest,” says White, who had been expecting a much longer time. “We had no idea that such a clear threshold of time per week would emerge from the data.”
He was further surprised to learn that it didn’t seem to matter how many trips to a park people took, so long as they got in their two hours per week. It could be a long visit one day, a couple of hour-long trips, three visits of 40 minutes, or four half-hour excursions. He and his colleagues speculate that, if nature’s apparent health benefits are a result of being able to de-stress, then whatever pattern of green space exposure fits one’s schedule is probably the best way to achieve that goal.
Health-care recommendations for people to spend time in nature are probably years away, but the movement has begun. Several organizations around the world are working to promote awareness of nature’s contribution to health. Some researchers have used the term “a dose of nature” to evaluate the amount of exposure needed to gain benefits. “That was kind of the deliberate medicalization of the language around nature and health,” says White.
1. White’s research focused on_______.A.required amount of green space |
B.benefits from the exposure to nature |
C.necessary time length of nature visits |
D.physical responses to outdoor activities |
A.Maximum time. | B.Minimum time. |
C.Adequate time. | D.Average time. |
A.is confident about his mission |
B.is willing to cooperate with others |
C.has persuaded others to accept his idea |
D.has adopted the term for his research result |
A.Respect for Nature | B.Nature as Medicine |
C.Present from Nature | D.Mission in Nature |
7 . Is Fresh Air Really Good for You?
We all grew up hearing people tell us to “go out and get some fresh air.”
Recently, people have begun studying the connection between the natural world and healing(治愈).
A.Fresh air cleans our lungs. |
B.So what are you waiting for? |
C.Being in nature refreshes us. |
D.Another side benefit of getting fresh air is sunlight. |
E.But is fresh air really as good for you as your mother always said? |
F.Just as importantly, we tend to associate air with health care. |
G.All across the country, recovery centers have begun building Healing Gardens. |
Nowadays a vegetarian (素食的) lifestyle is becoming more and more popular. Keeping a vegetarian diet is one of the best things we can do.
A.Growing all the crops needed to feed animals requires great amounts of water and land. |
B.This means that they are less likely to be affected by everyday illnesses like the flu. |
C.Vegetarian diets are the only diets that work for long term weight loss. |
D.All of these diseases are more likely to happen to meat eaters. |
E.Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health. |
F.It’s never too late to turn over a new page. |
G.Living on plants also saves energy. |
9 . Your house may have an effect on your figure. Experts say the way you design your home could play a role in whether you pack on the pounds or keep them off. You can make your environment work for you instead of against you. Here are some ways to turn your home into part of your diet plan.
Open the curtains and turn up the lights. Dark environments are more likely to encourage overeating, for people are often less selfconscious (难为情) when they’re in poorly lit places—and so more likely to eat lots of food. If your home doesn’t have enough window light, get more lamps and flood the place with brightness.
Mind the colors. Research suggests warm colors fuel our appetites. In one study, people who ate meals in a blue room consumed 33 percent less than those in a yellow or red room. Warm colors like yellow make food appear more appetizing, while cold colors make us feel less hungry. So when it’s time to repaint, go blue.
Don’t forget the clock—or the radio. People who eat slowly tend to consume about 70 fewer calories (卡路里) per meal than those who rush through their meals. Begin keeping track of the time, and try to make dinner last at least 30 minutes. And while you’re at it, actually sit down to eat. If you need some help slowing down, turn on relaxing music. It makes you less likely to rush through a meal.
Downsize the dishes. Big serving bowls and plates can easily make us fat. We eat about 22 percent more when using a 12inch plate instead of a 10inch plate. When we choose a large spoon over a smaller one, total intake (摄入) jumps by 14 percent. And we’ll pour about 30 percent more liquid into a short, wide glass than a tall, skinny glass.
1. The text is especially helpful for those who care about ____________.A.their home comforts | B.their body shape |
C.house buying | D.healthy diets |
A.digest food better | B.reduce food intake |
C.burn more calories | D.regain their appetites |
A.Eat quickly. | B.Play fast music. |
C.Use smaller spoons. | D.Turn down the lights. |
A.Is Your House Making You Fat? | B.Ways of Serving Dinner |
C.Effects of SelfConsciousness | D.Is Your Home Environment Relaxing? |