Keeping a busy social life among lots of friends may keep people thinner than spending hours doing some exercises, according to scientists. They say that socializing and meeting with friends help increase levels of brown fat in the body which burns calories to produce heat.

Living in an exciting social environment was found to reduce fat in mice's belly by half over four weeks, even if they ate more. US researchers say that social excitement aids weight loss by turning white fat into brown. White fat stores calories and makes us fatter, while brown burns energy to produce heat. Turning white fat into brown is extremely difficult, normally requiring long- term stay in cold conditions or exciting part of the body's nervous system.

However, scientists from Ohio State University now think that having a busy social life is an even more effective way of changing white fat into brown. The team came up with their theory by studying the effects of various living environments on mice. Those, who lived alongside a greater number of mice, had more space and toys to excite themselves and then lost far more weight over the course of the study than their “couch potato" fellows.

Study author, Dr Matthew During, whose team’s findings appear in the journal Cell Metabolism, said, “I'm still amazed at the degree of fat loss that occurs.” explaining how new technology had threatened face-to-face socializing, he added, “It's not just a sedentary(久坐的) lifestyle and high calorie foods, but an increasing lack of social activities.” Co-author Dr Lei Cao said,“Loneliness is a potential factor for cancer and death; it's equal to cigarette smoking to a certain extent. Social activities are very vital.”

1.What information can we get from the first two paragraphs?

A. Brown fat stores calories and makes us fatter.

B. It doesn’t take long to turn white fat into brown.

C. Brown fat can burn energy to produce heat.

D. Social excitement helps gain more weight.

2.Which of the following statement does the text support?

A. The mice lacking social life lose more weight.

B. Levels of brown fat can be increased by socializing.

C. The research findings haven’t been published so far.

D. Dr Matthew During wasn’t convinced of the result.

3.We can conclude from the text that _______.

A. the fat in mice’s belly was reduced because of the relaxing environment

B. a sedentary lifestyle and high calories foods influence people’s social life

C. surfing the Internet may influence people’s face-to-face communication

D. cancer and death are mainly caused for lack of social life

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A. Socializing contributes to people's losing weight

B. Socializing is unnecessarily important in people’s daily life.

C. White fat can be changed into brown fat.

D. Brown fat is beneficial to people’s health.

根据短文内容,从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

What Is Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger. __1.__ Have you ever finished a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while preparing for a big test? But when done a lot — especially without realizing it — emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.

Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.

__2._ One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it’s caused by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine’s Day or the celebration of a holiday feast. Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce. __3.__

Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. __4.__ It’s not easy to “unlearn” patterns of emotional eating. But it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what’s going on.

We’re all emotional eaters to a degree. But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems. The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. __5.__ That’s why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.

Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.

A. Believe it or not, we’ve all been there.

B. If a crying boy gets some cookies, he may link cookies with comfort.

C. One study found that people who eat food like pizza become happy afterwards.

D. And you often may feel worse about eating the amount or type of food you like.

E. Understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it.

F. Boys seem to prefer hot, homemade comfort meals, while girls go for chocolate and ice cream.

G. More often, though, it’s the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort in food.

Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?

You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared — that it’s just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.

Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. “Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it’s not about being mentally alone,” Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there’s growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.

In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.

The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system(免疫系统), which protects the body from diseases.

Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers(志愿者) through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.

“Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor(慢性增压器) — a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time, ” explained Jaremka, who led the study.

The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won’t work to just “tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you”, said Jaremka. “We need to create support networks.”

1.If people feel lonely for a long time, ________.

A. they won’t feel happy anymore

B. they are more mentally harmed than physically

C. they will find the feeling goes away by itself

D. they are more likely to fall ill

2.What was the purpose of the stress test carried out by Jaremka’s team?

A. To find out how people fight diseases.

B. To prove loneliness hurts people’s immune systems.

C. To find out the relationship between loneliness and stress.

D. To see how people’s emotions change when they give unprepared speeches.

3.We can conclude from the article that ________.

A. loneliness has become the No. 1 killer in the world

B. loneliness is increasing due to advanced technologies

C. websites must be set up to help people deal with loneliness

D. much more work needs to be done to fight loneliness

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