Have you ever noticed that your fingertips are winked when you’ve just finished swimming or washing dishes? It seems as if your hands have aged 30 years in a second. But is this an accident? Or is it something that nature has built into our bodies?

If your finger’s wrinkling up had no use at all, “ it wouldn’t need to.” Professor Tom Smulders from Newcastle University, UK, told BBC News. By studying wet fingers closely, Smulders and his partners found that the wrinkles looked a bit like the patterns on the car tire or on the bottom of the running shoes. So they made a guess that wrinkles on fingers might be able to help the hand hold things more tightly.

To test this, researchers asked 20 people to pick up marbles from water with their hands. But before they started, some of the people had to keep their hands in water for half an hour.

The researchers found that the people with wrinkled fingers completed the task the task faster than those with dry hands. But when they were asked to move dry marbles, all the people performed equally well, no matter they had the wrinkled fingers or not.

Our ancestors might not have played with marbles, but wrinkled fingers could have made it easier for them to climb around in the wet forests and catch fish from rivers, researchers say.

Similarly, our toes also get wrinkled in water. This may have developed from our ancestor’s need to run on wet ground.

But the question is, if wrinkled fingers are so helpful, why don’t our hands just stay that way all the time? Researchers explained that wrinkling has its disadvantage: wet fingertips are far less sensitive than smooth ones, reducing our sense of touch.

1.What does the underlined world “this ” in the third paragraph refer to?

A. Whether fingers have wrinkles after they are put in water.

B. Whether wrinkled fingers can hold things more tightly.

C. Why keeping things in water makes them wrinkled.

D. Why wrinkles help hands hold things more tightly.

2.The test shows that ________.

A. winkled hands hold dry things more tightly than dry hands do.

B. dry hands hold dry things more tightly than wrinkled hands do.

C. winkled hands hold wet things more tightly than dry hands do.

D. dry hands hold wet things more tightly than wrinkled hands do.

3.What might be the disadvantage of wrinkled fingers?

A. They are too sensitive to be touched.

B. They might be more likely to get hurt.

C. They cannot hold things tightly enough.

D. They are not so sensitive as dry fingers.

 

The keys to reaching or staying at a healthy weight are regular exercise and good eating habits. Teens should get 60 minutes or more of physical activity a day. Note the word “activity”. As long as you’re getting your body moving, it doesn’t have to mean doing difficult exercise or going to the sports hall every day. All that matters is that each week you get the right balance of activity, including aerobics (有氧运动), strength building, and flexibility (柔韧) exercise. Make exercise a habit by arranging some time every day.

On days when you have soccer practice or an aerobics class, you may have no trouble exercising for an hour or more. But most of us are busy, and 60 minutes a day for exercise seems like a lot of time. The good news is that it’s OK to divide it into shorter exercise breaks throughout the day.

Just as you might have a healthy snack to stop yourself from getting hungry, exercise snacks can keep energy levels high. So get up 15 minutes early and do some stretching (伸展) activity. Walk fast or run slowly for 15 minutes after lunch. Do the same thing after school — or walk or bike home. Add to that taking the stairs, PE class, and walking between classes during the day, and you’ve probably reached your 60 minutes.

Here are five simple ways to make an exercise lifestyle change:

1.The writer thinks many people probably misunderstand the word“activity” to be “_______”.  

A.physical activity

B.body movement

C.sports hall exercise

D.outdoor exercise

2.When exercising, the most important fact is ________.

A.the time spent on exercise

B.the intensity of activity

C.the difficulty of exercise

D.the right balance of activity

3.The author advises dividing activity into shorter exercise breaks because ___.

A.exercising for a long time is bad for people’s health

B.it has the same effect as soccer practice

C.people usually haven’t much time to exercise

D.no one can spare lots of time to exercise

4.What’s the best title for this passage?

A.Regular exercise.

B.School exercise.

C.Indoor exercise.

D.Difficult exercise

 

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