Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A—F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.
An interview with Benno Nigg, the sports scientist
A. What kind of technology might we see in sports shoes of the future? B. What should people look out for when buying a new pair of sports shoes? C. Will a more expensive shoe make me run faster or jump higher, as the ads suggest? D. Is it true that expensive shoes are no better at preventing injury than cheap ones? E. Some people say we should run just as well without shoes. What’s your opinion? F. You helped develop the unstable Masai MBT shoes. Does this design actually work? |
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Nigg’s Answer: That is a little bit overstated. But the literature shows that shoes are a minor player in injury development. If you take a group of people and want to injure them, send them out every day for a 20-kilometre run. A lot of them will be injured in three weeks. The major factors are the distance run, the intensity and recovery time, not the shoes.
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Nigg’s Answer: The problem is that if you go to a store and want to find your best shoes, you don’t know what to do. Things that are sometimes done, like video analysis of your rear foot movement, may not help. The only way to assess whether a shoe is right for you is how it feels. If you feel comfortable in a shoe, it’s likely to be good for you.
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Nigg’s Answer: A shoe may act as a training device, making some muscles to function more effectively for a majority of users. Or it may use materials that last longer. That may have something to do with its price. However, for the average runner it is difficult to distinguish between actual functional designs and unnecessary features. Generally, the more a shoe controls movement, the more it acts like a cast, which means you lose some muscle strength, and your feet are more likely to be injured.
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Nigg’s Answer: Yes, for about 80 per cent of people. The major benefits are training the small muscles crossing the ankle joint, and a reduction of knee and lower back pain. However, some claims for these unstable shoes are overstated, such as the general muscle strengthening that they are claimed to produce.
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Nigg’s Answer: There are claims that there are fewer injuries when you run barefoot, but there is not yet enough evidence, or enough research, to prove that. If you look at performance, most papers suggest an advantage of 3 to 4 per cent. With a few exceptions, people don’t run barefoot, so it may be that it’s not an advantage, or it may be that we’re just not used to it.
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. poisoned B. destruction C. survived D. increased E. especially F. chemicals G. concern H. decline I. occasionally J. sensitive |
More recent research has shown that many kinds of amphibians(两栖动物) are declining or have become extinct. Amphibians are animals, such as frogs, that live partly in water and partly on land. And they have been around for over 350 million years. They have 41 three mass extinctions, including the extinction of the dinosaurs. Why are they dying out now?
The most serious aspect of amphibian loss, however, goes beyond the amphibians themselves. Scientists are beginning to think about what amphibian 42 means for the planet as a whole. If the earth is becoming unlivable for amphibians, is it also becoming unlivable for other kinds of animals and human beings as well?
Scientists now believe that amphibian decline is due to several environmental factors. One of these factors is the 43 of habitat, the natural area where an animal lives. Amphibians are very 44 to changes in their habitat. If they cannot find the right conditions, they will not lay their eggs. These days, as wild areas are covered with houses, roads, farms, or factories, many kinds of amphibians are no longer laying eggs.
There are a number of other factors in amphibian decline. Pollution is one of them. In many industrial areas, air pollution has 45 the rain, which then falls on ponds and kills the frogs that live there. In farming areas, the heavy use of 46 on crops has also killed off amphibians. Another factor is that air pollution has led to 47 levels of ultraviolet (UV) light. This endangers amphibians, which seem to be 48 sensitive to UV light.
All these reasons for the disappearance of amphibians are also good reasons for more general 49 . These factors affect human beings, too.