Would you eat a ready meal from the fridge rather than cook? Have you been doing internet shopping rather than going to the stores? What can’t you be bothered to do?

    A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of adults are so idle（闲散的）they’d catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs.

    Just over 2,000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain’s largest health charity. The results were shocking. About one in six people surveyed said if their remote control (遥控器)was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.  More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus. Worryingly, of the 654 questioned people with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them.  This led the report to conclude that it’s no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classifted as obese（肥胖）before they start school.

Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said: “People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families， too. If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the simplest tasks.”

    And Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the laziest city in the UK, with 75% surveyed admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67%.

The results pose serious challenges for the National Health Service, where obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year.  _O

According to the researchers at Nuffield Health, about ________ people who were surveyed would not run to catch a bus.

A. 10            B. 150             C. 330              D. 660

One in six children in the UK are classified as obese before they start school because ________.

A. they stay too long a time with their pets   B. they spend too much time watching TV

C. their parents don’t play with them much   D. they suffer from obesity-related illnesses

________ is the second laziest city in the UK.

    A. Scotland       B. Glasgow         C. Birmingham       D. Nuffield

What’s the writer trying to tell us?

    A. Parents have much to do with their children’s obesity-related illnesses.

    B. British people are getting lazier, which can cause serious social problems.

    C. The National Health Service has to face a lot of serious challenges every year.

    D. A study into how lazy British people are has been carried out at Nuffield Health.

Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.

The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.

“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. w.w.w.k.s.5.u.c.o.m

“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”

What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.

“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.

The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.

1. The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to “________”.

A. health B. long life  C. ageing   D. effect

2. The text mainly talks about ________.

A. men’s heart cells                

B. women’s ageing process、

C. the gender difference             

D. hearts and long life

3. According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.

A. women have more cells than men when they are born

B. women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat

C. the female heart loses few of the cells with age

D. women never lose their pumping power with age

4. If you want to live longer, you should ________.

A. enable your heart to beat much faster       B. find out the reason for ageing

C. exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy 

D. prevent your cells from being lost

5. We can know from the passage that ________.

A. the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out

B. scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells

C. the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss

D. women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20

阅读下面短文，从各题A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。
People who smoke could lose around one third of their daily memory, researchers say.
A study by a team at Northumbria University showed that smokers lost more of their memory when compared to non-smokers.
And the research also found that those who kicked the habit saw their ability to recollect information restored to almost the same level as non-smokers.
The study involved more than seventy 18-to-25-year-olds and included a tour of the university’s campus. Those who took part were asked to recall small details, such as a list of songs played at a campus concert and tasks completed at various points－known as real world memory test. Smokers performed badly, remembering just 59 percent of tasks. But those who had given up smoking remembered 74 percent and those who had never smoked recalled 81 percent of tasks.
Dr. Tom Heffernan, who leads Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group, said the findings would be useful in anti-smoking campaigns. He said, “Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in the United States, it's important to understand the effects smoking has on everyday cognitive（认知的）function-of which prospective memory is an excellent example. ”
“This is the first time that a study has set out to examine whether giving up smoking has an impact on memory. We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive functions too. ’’
The research will now investigate the effects of passive smoking on memory, while Dr. Heffernan and Dr. Terence O’Neil will look into the effects of third-hand smoking－toxins left on curtains and furniture.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the passage?

阅读下面短文，从各题A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

People who smoke could lose around one third of their daily memory, researchers say.

A study by a team at Northumbria University showed that smokers lost more of their memory when compared to non-smokers.

And the research also found that those who kicked the habit saw their ability to recollect information restored to almost the same level as non-smokers.

The study involved more than seventy 18-to-25-year-olds and included a tour of the university’s campus. Those who took part were asked to recall small details, such as a list of songs played at a campus concert and tasks completed at various points－known as real world memory test. Smokers performed badly, remembering just 59 percent of tasks. But those who had given up smoking remembered 74 percent and those who had never smoked recalled 81 percent of tasks.

Dr. Tom Heffernan, who leads Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group, said the findings would be useful in anti-smoking campaigns. He said, “Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in the United States, it's important to understand the effects smoking has on everyday cognitive（认知的）function-of which prospective memory is an excellent example. ”

“This is the first time that a study has set out to examine whether giving up smoking has an impact on memory. We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive functions too. ’’

The research will now investigate the effects of passive smoking on memory, while Dr. Heffernan and Dr. Terence O’Neil will look into the effects of third-hand smoking－toxins left on curtains and furniture.

1.What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Smoking does harm to health.

B．Smokers take a tour to the University’s campus.

C．Smoking can affect one’s memory.

D．Smokers are compared to non-smokers.

2.How did those who took part in the study perform when asked to recall small details?

A．Smokers did the worst among the participants.

B．Non-smokers could recall about half of them.

C．Smokers could recall nothing at all.

D．Those who gave up smoking did best.

3.According to Dr. Tom Heffernan, the findings_______.

A．would be really a surprise to the public

B．would contribute to fighting against smoking

C．would be used in real world memory test

D．would be nothing new to the researchers

4.What does the underlined word “impact’’ most probably mean?

A．order            B．impression         C．expression         D．effect

5.What will Dr. Heffernan and Dr Terence O’Neil do?

A．Investigate the effects of third-hand smoking.

B．Do research on how smoking affects passive smokers.

C．Find ways to persuade people to quit smoking.

D．Study whether giving up smoking affects memory.

Long school day = More learning? Not necessarily

Recently we talked about how some American schools have made changes in the traditional school year. Their goal is to improve student learning.

Some have extended the school year, or reorganized it to avoid a long summer break. Another choice is to extend the school day. A new report from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University examines research into how effective this is.

The traditional school day has not changed much in more than a century. Activities or special programs might mean a longer day. But younger children usually go to school from about nine o'clock in the morning until about three in the afternoon. Older ones are traditionally in school from about seven a. m. until around two p. m.

Some high schools have changed to later start times because of findings that teenagers learn better that way. But the new report says results have been mixed. Teachers say students are more awake. But students say the changes interfere with after-school activities or jobs.

By 2001, almost one-third of all secondary schools had some form of block scheduling（区段时间表）. The idea is to provide longer periods in the school day to teach basic subjects.

More class time should mean better results. This is the thinking, at least. Yet a 2001study found that secondary schools with traditional schedules had higher test scores by comparison. Schools with block scheduling did have higher scores in science, though.

In any case, the study agreed with earlier findings that students feel better about their schools in systems with nontraditional scheduling.

So how useful is a longer school day? Not surprisingly, the policy experts at Indiana say it is what educators do with the extra time that has the largest effect on student learning. They note a criticism that education leaders often make scheduling changes without changing the learning environment of a school.

The experts say teachers must be trained to use the added time effectively. Professional development is needed. The report notes that simply adding time to a program that is not very good or very interesting will not increase student learning.

Community（社会） support is also valuable for any changes. And there is another consideration. Schools may need a lot of extra money to pay for an extended day.