Below are some smart ways to stay healthy suggested by some American experts.

Drink More Coffee

When was the last time you heard a doctor use the word miracle? Well, wake up and smell the coffee: “It’s amazing,” says liver specialist Sanjiv Chopra, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Coffee is truly a lifesaving miracle drug.”

Though he says it’s still a “scientific mystery” how a simple cup of coffee works its wonders in the body, large epidemiological studies have repeatedly proved its astonishing benefits.

“Drink it black, or at most put a little skim milk in it” to minimize calories, Dr. Chopra recommends. He drinks at least four cups a day himself, though most people should limit themselves to two. And no, he jokes, “I’m not sponsored by Starbucks.”

Take a Walk for Your Memory

Aerobic (有氧运动的) exercise is good for your body, great for your mind, according to the latest research from brain-fitness pioneer Arthur Kramer. Every year, an area called the hippocampus, which is key to memory, shrinks by about 1 to 2 percent, increasing the risk of dementia (脑衰) as the years roll by. However, Kramer’s new investigations reveal that the hippocampi of adults who walked briskly for about 45 minutes three times a week grew by about 2 percent over the course of a year, preventing age-related shrinking.

It’s never too late to start exercising, Kramer says; volunteers in his research were between 55 and 80 years old and hadn’t exercised at all. And it doesn’t need to be backbreaking. “Anything that raises your heart rate seems to work,” he says. “Walking is fine. Just find something you like and do it.”

Early to Bed, Early to Eat

“Being a night owl might increase your waistline,” says sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD. People who stay up late and sleep late tend to eat more fast food and consume more of their calories after 8 p.m. than do normal sleepers.

“One of the easiest things that anyone on a diet can do to improve her results is go to bed and wake up at the same times every day,” Breus says. “This way, your body knows when to sleep and is much more efficient. Organize your eating, too, by trying to eat meals at the same times every day. Avoid eating after 8 p.m., and don’t miss morning meals by sleeping in.”

Use the 20-Second Rule

What’s the difference between having a goal and actually accomplishing it? Just 20 seconds, says positive-psychology specialist Shawn Achor. Researchers have learned that if we can cut 20 seconds off the startup time required for a task, we’re much more likely to follow through. So, for example, if you want to work out in the morning, place your shoes and exercise clothes next to your bed the night before. If you want to praise people more, put thank-you notes and a pen on your desk.

Imagine the Worst to Feel Better

Don’t count your blessings; subtract (扣除) them. “Consciously spend a few minutes imagining what your life would be like without the good things,” says Timothy Wilson, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. You’ll experience stronger feelings of love, gratitude, and happiness when you think about what life would be like without the people and things you love. “And they’ll seem surprising and special again,” he adds.

1. According to Sanjiv Chopra, most people should not drink more than ______ cups of coffee a day.

A. two????????????? B. three????????????? C. four????????????? D. six

2.Which of the following may help people on a diet to improve their results?

A. Raising their heart rate.????????????? B. Taking a walk for their memory.

C. Eating at fixed times.????????????? D. Sleeping in every morning.

3.According to Shawn Achor, if people place their shoes and exercise clothes next to their bed at bedtime, they’re more likely to ______ the next morning.

A. do exercise????????????? ????????????? ????????????? B. set a goal?????????????

C. cut 20 seconds off????????????? D. sleep 20 minutes more

4. Why should people spend a little time imagining their life without good things?

A. To experience surprise.????????????? B. To feel better.?????????????

C. To consider their own blessings.????????????? D. To prepare for the worst.

 

My heart sank when the man at the immigration counter gestured to the back room. I was born and raised in America, and this was Miami, where I live, but they weren’t quite ready to let me in yet.

  “Please wait in here, Ms. Abujaber,” the immigration officer said. My husband, with his very American last name, accompanied me. He was getting used to this. The same thing had happened recently in Canada when I’d flown to Montreal to speak at a book event. That time they held me for 45 minutes. Today we were returning from a literary festival in Jamaica, and I was shocked that I was being sent “in back” once again.

  The officer behind the counter called me up and said, “Miss, your name looks like the name of someone who’s on our wanted list. We’re going to have to check you out with Washington.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “Hard to say…a few minutes,” he said, “We’ll call you when we’re ready for you.” After an hour, Washington still hadn’t decided anything about me.

“Isn’t this computerized?” I asked at the counter, “Can’t you just look me up?”

“Just a few more minutes,” they assured me.

  After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. “No phones!” he said, “For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information.”

  “I’m just a university professor,” I said. My voice came out in a squeak.

  “Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day.”

  I put my phone away.

  My husband and I were getting hungry and tired. Whole families had been brought into the waiting room, and the place was packed with excitable children, exhausted parents, and even a flight attendant.

  I wanted to scream, to jump on a chair and shout: “I’m an American citizen; a novelist; I probably teach English literature to your children.”

After two hours in detention (扣押), I was approached by one of the officers. “You’re free to go,” he said. No explanation or apologies. For a moment, neither of us moved. We were still in shock. Then we leaped to our feet.

  “Oh, one more thing,” he handed me a tattered photocopy with an address on it, “If you aren’t happy with your treatment, you can write to this agency.”

  “Will they respond?” I asked.

  “I don’t knowI don’t know of anyone who’s ever written to them before.” Then he added,” By the way, this will probably keep happening each time you travel internationally.”

  “What can I do to keep it from happening again?”

  He smiled the empty smile we’d seen all day, “Absolutely nothing.”

  After telling several friends about our ordeal, probably the most frequent advice I’ve heard in response is to change my name. Twenty years ago, my own graduate school writing professor advised me to write under a pen name so that publishers wouldn’t stick me in what he called “the ethnic ghetto”a separate, secondary shelf in the bookstore. But a name is an integral part of anyone’s personal and professional identityjust like the town you’re born in and the place where you’re raised.

  Like my father, I’ll keep the name, but my airport experience has given me a whole new perspective on what diversity and tolerance are supposed to mean. I had no idea that being an American would ever be this hard.

1.The author was held at the airport because ______.

A. she and her husband returned from Jamaica

B. her name was similar to a terrorist’s

C. she had been held in Montreal

D. she had spoken at a book event

2.She was not allowed to call her friends because ______.

A. her identity hadn’t been confirmed yet

B. she had been held for only one hour and a half

C. there were other families in the waiting room

D. she couldn’t use her own cell phone

3.We learn from the passage that the author would ______ to prevent similar experience from happening again.

A. write to the agency?????????? B. change her name??

C. avoid traveling abroad??????? D. do nothing

4.Her experiences indicate that there still exists ______ in the US.

A. hatred???????????????????? B. discrimination?????

C. tolerance?????????????????? D. diversity

5.The author sounds ______ in the last paragraph.

A. impatient?? B. bitter???????? C. worried??????????? D. ironic (具有讽刺意味的)

 

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.

1.In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.        c. Travelled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.      f. Learned to write stories.

A. c. e. b. d. f. a    B. e. c. f. b. d. a       C. e. b. d. c. a. f.   D. c. b. e. d. a f.

2.People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because

A. they had surprise endings    B. they were easy to understand

C. they showed his love for the poor          D. they were about New York City

3.O. Henry went to prison because        .

A. people thought he had stolen money that was not his

B. he broke the law by not using his own name

C. he wanted to write stories about prisoners

D. people thought he had taken money from the newspaper

4.What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

A. He was well-educated.  B. He was not serious about his work.

C. He was devoted to the poor. D. He was very good at learning.

5.Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?

A. His life inside the prison.       B. The newspaper articles he wrote.

C. The city and people of New York.  D. His exciting early life as a boy.

 

Prince Roman was a Polish nobleman, a captain in the army of Czar Nicholas of Russia. When his young wife died, the prince left the army and returned in sorrow to his native Poland.

In time, love for his country and its people took the place of his lost love. He joined a Polish rising against the Russians. The rising was crushed, and Prince Roman was taken prisoner. His relatives and friends begged the military court to have mercy on him.

The president of the court received these appeals kindly. He was a good Russian, but he was also a good-natured man. Russian hatred of Poles was not as fierce at that time as it became later; and the Russian felt sympathetic as soon as he saw the prince's thin, tired, sun-burnt face.

The court of three officers sat in a bare room, behind a long black table. Some clerks sat at the two ends, but no one else was there when the guards brought in the prince.

Those four walls shut out from Prince Roman all sights and sounds of freedom, all hopes of the future, all comforting thoughts. How much love for Poland remained in him then? How much love of life? He stood before his judges alone, having refused their permission to sit. He answered their first formal questions — his name and so on — clearly and politely although he felt too weary to talk.

Then the president of the court seemed to suggest how the young man could best help himself. He asked questions in a way that almost put the right answers in the prisoner's mouth.

“Didn't your wife's death drive you to despair? Wasn't your mind unbalanced by that sad event ?”

Prince Roman was silent.

"You were not fully responsible for you conduct, were you?"

Prince Roman was silent.

"You made a sudden blind decision to join the rising. You didn't realize that your actions were dangerous and dishonourable. Isn't that the truth of this unfortunate matter?"

The judges looked at the prisoner hopefully. In silence the prince reached for a pen and some paper. He wrote, "I joined the rising because I believe it was just." He pushed the paper towards the president, who took it and read it in silence.

Prince Roman was sentenced to hard work for life in the Siberian salt mines. It was a sentence of delayed death.

When Czar Nicholas read the report and sentence, he added in his own handwriting, "Make sure that this prisoner walks in chains every step of the way to Siberia."

1.What does the passage tell us of Poland at the time?

A.Polish officers in the Russian army had to return to Poland.

B.Russia was at war with Poland, so the Poles were enemies.

C.The Russians were very cruel rulers of Poland.

D.It was ruled by Russia, and Poles served in the Russian army.

2.How much love for Poland remained in the prince when he stood trial?

A.Not much, probably, after the failure of the rising.

B. More than he had ever felt before.

C.As much as he had ever felt.

D.The passage doesn't suggest an answer to the question.

3.The questions which the president asked show that ______.

A.he was trying to find excuse for the prince's conduct

B.the court wanted the prince to admit his own guilt

C.he wanted to learn the truth about the Polish rising

D.Prince Roman was a weak person

4.In the trial, Prince Roman ______.

A.was afraid to be responsible for his actions

B.blamed others for his actions

C.accepted responsibility for his actions

D.admitted his guilt

5.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A.The judges were less sympathetic than Czar Nicholas.

B.Czar Nicholas was as kind as the judges.

C.Czar Nicholas was not as sympathetic as the judges.

D.The judges were as cruel as Czar Nicholas.

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网