If you are sitting down listening to what I’m going to say, stand up. Move your legs. Touch your toes, if you can. Do anything but sit.
If you cut down on the time you spend sitting, you might live longer. New research shows that sitting less than three hours a day might extend your life by two years.
Just the opposite, says Peter Katzmarzyk. He is a scientist at the University of Louisiana in the southern United States. He says that sitting is ubiquitous in our lives. "We sit while we're eating; we sit in the car; we sit while we watch TV. Many of us sit for many hours at work. " But, he adds, that does not make sitting good for us. The human body is designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely give us the chance to move around.
Exercise is important. So is not sitting.
"We can't throw away physical activity. It's extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that. Even if you exercise for 30 minutes a day, what goes on in the other 23-and-a-half hours a day is also very important."
Mr. Katzmarzyk and his co-workers are part of a new generation of researchers studying how sitting all day affects length of life. This is a relatively new area of study—studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and mortality(死亡) or television viewing and mortality.
Making uses of the few studies available to them, they found that cutting television time to less than two hours a day could add one-point four years to life.
New desk designs are helping
Change is already coming to some offices, especially in the design of desks. A "standing desk" lets people stand while they work. Another new design is called the "treadmill desk." A treadmill is an exercise machine that lets you walk in one place. That's one of the strategies that many companies are using now. Some companies may equip their employees with a "standing desk" or a "treadmill desk". Other companies may not buy one for everybody, but they'll have a bank of these desks where people can go for an hour a day and answer their emails or talk on the phone. Even some U.S. schools are beginning to experiment with such desks to keep children moving.
Mr. Katzmarzyk says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives. "As a university professor, you know, it is a very sedentary occupation. We're chained to a desk in terms of writing papers and doing research. We really try to limit the amount of time we spend doing that."
Suggestions for sitting less
If you work in office job or have a sedentary job, Mr. Katzmarzyk and his team suggest a few simple changes:
get up from your desk as often as you can take walks at lunch time walk to your colleagues’ offices and talk directly instead of emailing them All these activities may help you live longer.
1.What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Take exercise, keep fit.
B. Change more, achieve greater.
C. Talk directly, improve relationship.
D. Sit less, live longer.
2.The word “ubiquitous ” (in Para. 3) means “_______”.
A. common B. normal
C. individual D. specific
3. Mr Katzmarzyk holds the view that _______.
A. the study doesn’t benefit him at all
B. it’s unnecessary to limit television time
C. emailing colleagues is better than a face-to-face talk
D. those taking exercises 30 minutes a day still can’t sit long
4. The passage is most likely to be _______.
A. a medical research B. a book review
C. a health report D. a sports feature
The first day of school always goes wrong. For many students in the United States, however, this year it was even more so. It was all due to one extra school policy – they are now required to follow a new standardized dress code.
According to the handbooks of all high schools in Allentown, Pennsylvania, students must wear short- or long-sleeve polo shirts and khaki (卡其色) or black pants. Skinny jeans, leggings and open-toe shoes are not allowed.
Allentown schools are not alone. At Edgewater High School in Florida, shirts must have collars or sleeves, and pants must not sag (下垂) and reach at least mid-thigh (大腿中部). No see-through shirts or T- shirts with references to sex on them are allowed.
Overall, more than half of US public schools now enforce dress codes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. About 57 percent of schools now have a “strict dress code”, up from more than 47 percent a decade earlier, USA Today said.
Among young people, there are mixed emotions. Some don’t mind wearing similar clothes every day while others aren’t happy. Despite dress codes in many school districts, some students still come to school – even on their first day – in skirts that are too short, necklines that are too low and sagging pants that don’t stay up on their hips.
But there are punishments. If they are out of dress code, students can be removed from the classroom until they fix the problem. In Florida, wearing sagging pants is illegal for youths according to a state law issued in 2011. Breaking the rule results in not being able to do after-school activities, and even being forbidden to attend class.
Some US schools go further and require students to wear uniforms. Many say that they simplify their jobs, saving teachers from having to punish students for wearing skirts or shorts that are too short, for instance. They can also prevent feelings of competition and envy among students.
“It takes away the daily fashion show and helps level the playing field a little bit with the haves and have-nots,” longtime school safety consultant Ken Trump told USA Today.
Critics of uniforms say they rob students of individuality. But for some people, that’s a lazy argument.
“Clothing isn’t the only form of self-expression. Students should know that it’s what they do that counts,” commented a parent named Beth Kassab in The Orlando Sentinel in Florida.
1.According to the new standardized dress code, students in the US are allowed to wear .
A. knee-length pants
B. shirts without sleeves
C. transparent T-shirts
D. jeans sticking to skin
2.What is the main idea of Para 5?
A. What the new dress code is.
B. How students dressed themselves.
C. What punishments students may receive.
D. How students responded to the code.
3.Students in some US schools are required to wear uniforms Not to .
A. pay less attention to their appearance
B. prevent comparison among students
C. bring out the best in students
D. spare teachers from punishing students for their improper dress
4.What do Beth Kassab’s words imply?
A. Uniforms limit the individuality of students.
B. Students should pay more attention to their behavior.
C. Clothing is of no importance to students.
D. Students should concentrate more on their study.
Night after night, she came to tuck me in(掖好被子), even long after my childhood years. Following her longstanding custom, she'd lean down and push my long hair out of the way, then kiss my forehead.
I don't remember when it first started annoying me — her hands pushing my hair that way. But it did annoy me, for they felt work-worn and rough against my young skin. Finally, one night, I shouted at her: "Don't do that anymore — your hands are too rough!" She didn't say anything in reply. But never again did my mother close out my day with that familiar expression of her love. Lying awake long afterward, my words rang in my mind. But pride overwhelmed my conscience, and I didn't tell her I was sorry.
Time after time, with the passing years, my thoughts returned to that night. I missed my mother's hands, missed her goodnight kiss upon my forehead. Sometimes the incident seemed very close, sometimes far away. But always it appeared in the back of my mind.
Well, the years have passed, and I'm not a little girl any more. Mom is in her mid-seventies, and those hands I once thought to be so rough are still doing things for me and my family. She's been our doctor, reaching for medicine to calm a young girl's stomach or ease the pain of a boy's injured knee. She cooks the best fried chicken in the world…gets stains out of blue jeans like I never could…and still insists on dishing out ice cream at any hour of the day or night.
Through the years, my mother's hands have put in countless hours of toil, and most of hers were before automatic washers!
Now, my own children are grown and gone. Mom no longer has Dad, and on special occasions, I find myself drawn next door to spend the night with her. So it was that late on Thanksgiving Eve, as I drifted into sleep in the bedroom of my youth, a familiar hand hesitantly stole across my face to brush the hair from my forehead. Then a kiss, ever so gently, touched my brow.
In my memory, for the thousandth time, I recalled the night my surly young voice complained: “Don't do that any more —your hands are too rough!” Catching Mom's hand in hand, I blurted out how sorry I was for that night. I thought she'd remember, as I did. But Mom didn't know what I was talking about. She had forgotten —and forgiven —long ago.
That night, I fell asleep with a new appreciation for my gentle mother and her caring hands. And the guilt I had carried around for so long was nowhere to be found.
1.Why was the author annoyed with her mother?
A. Her mother disturbed her rest by tucking her in.
B. She felt uncomfortable with her mother’s non-smooth hands.
C. Her mother leant down and kissed her forehead.
D. She was not accustomed to her mother’s action.
2. Which of the following best describes the author’s mother?
A. devoted and hardworking
B. caring and intelligent
C. thoughtful but stubborn
D. optimistic but careless
3. We can learn from the passage that __________.
A. The author lived separately from her mother
B. The author’s father has passed away
C. The author alone took care of her children
D. The author’s mother never kissed her again since that night
4. What’s the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?
A. To thank her mother’s help
B. To express her regret
C. To appreciate her mother’s love
D. To call up memories of her childhood.
The hardest arithmetic(算术) to master is how to count our blessings.
According to legend, a young man while crossing the desert a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was sweet that he filled his leather canteen he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey he the water to the old man who took a deep , smiled warmly and his student greatly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a heart.
Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He , saying it was awful. It had become sour because of the old leather container.
The student his teacher: “Master, the water was . Why did you pretend to like it?”
The teacher replied, “You tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was only the container for an act of loving-kindness and could be sweeter.”
I think we understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of from young children. it’s a greeting card or a bunch of flowers, the natural and proper is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we treasure the idea the gift.
Gratitude doesn’t always come . Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given the feeling reflected in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.
1.A. went through B. came across C. fell into D. watched over
2.A. very B. too C. enough D. so
3.A. so that B. for fear that C. in case D. on condition that
4.A. provided B. sent C. presented D. threw
5.A. drink B. bite C. look D. breath
6.A. comforted B. forgave C. blamed D. thanked
7.A. frightened B. satisfying C. happy D. grateful
8.A. drank it up B. let it out C. brought it up D. spat it out
9.A. apparently B. probably C. immediately D. eventually
10.A. doubted B. replied C. challenged D. charged
11.A. delicious B. sweet C. terrible D. clear
12.A. obviously B. simply C. entirely D. certainly
13.A. anything B. something C. everything D. nothing
14.A. sympathy B. love C. respect D. care
15.A. Either B. Neither C. If D. Whether
16.A. response B. conduct C. behavior D. performance
17.A. beneath B. within C. beyond D. about
18.A. naturally B. normally C. commonly D. universally
19.A. other than B. rather than C. more than D. less than
20.A. expression B. attraction C. possession D. explanation
He was unable to come himself, but he sent his daughter, who is also an experienced doctor, to get my body examined him.
A. in need of B. in place of
C. in search of D. in case of
The Spanish young man was arrested in Rome after a dispute with the Italian Police. Five hours later he was referred to the Spain Embassy based in Italy.
A. illegally B. formally
C. briefly D. logically
