Walking is not enough to keep fit
Walking may not be enough on its own to produce significant health benefits, research suggests. A team from Canada’s University of Alberta compared a 10,000-step exercise programme with a more traditional fitness regime of moderate intensity. Researchers found improvements 1 _______________________ were significantly higher in the second group. They told an American College of Sports Medicine meeting that gentle exercise was 2 _______________________. In total 128 people took 3 _______________________. The researchers assessed influence on fitness by measuring blood pressure and lung capacity. They found out the 10,000-step programme did help to get people motivated – and was an excellent way to start 4 _______________________. But to increase the effectiveness, some intensity must be added to their exercise. “Across your day, while you are achieving those 10,000 steps, take 200 to 400 of them at a faster pace. You've got to do more than light exercise and include regular moderate activity, and don't be shy to have an occasional period of time at an energetic level.” The researchers were concerned there was too much focus 5 _______________________, rather than on its intensity.
Professor Stuart Biddle, an expert in exercise science at the University of Loughborough, said it was possible that the current guidelines on how much exercise to take were set too low. “However, you have got to find 6 _______________________. The harder you make it, the fewer people will actually do it.” Professor Biddle said there was no doubt that energetic exercise was the way to get fit, but volume rather than intensity might be more useful in tackling issues such as obesity.
A. part in the project
B. taking exercise
C. gave marked health benefits
D. in fitness levels
E. on simply getting people to take exercise
F. not enough to get fit
G. a compromise between physiology and psychology
Fire crews hunt escaped hamster
Eight firefighters have been called in to help find an escaped hamster. Two crews used a chocolate-covered camera and a vacuum cleaner 1 _______________________, called Fudgie, at the home of a six-year-old girl in Dunbar, Scotland.
The girl’s mother said: "We came down for breakfast and discovered Fudgie had opened the top lid of her cage and had made her way into the kitchen and we think she has gone 2 _______________________. "
The fire crews spent five hours trying to recover the pet after it ran down a hole in the kitchen floor. But, the hamster still refused 3 _______________________.
In the search for Fudgie, the firefighters took the family cooker and gas pipes apart. They also dropped a mini-camera coated with chocolate under the floorboards.
They then hoped to take out the hamster using a vacuum cleaner. Despite all their efforts, they failed to find Fudgie.
In the end, the firefighters put another camera down the hole 4 _______________________, connected to the screen of the family home computer, to see if Fudgie appeared. Besides, the girl and her parents regularly dropped food 5 _______________________.
At last, after eight days the hamster returned to her cage safe and sound. She crawled from the hole in the kitchen floor early in the morning. It was the girl’s father who first found Fudgie 6 _______________________.
The girl said that day it was like Christmas morning for her. Her parents added that they too felt extremely happy when Fudgie had finally returned.
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A. through a small hole in the floor
B. through the hole for the hamster
C. and locked the runaway hamster
D. to come out of the hole
E. to look after the pet
F. to try and locate the missing hamster
G. and left it under the floorboards
Speed of eating is 'key to obesity'
If you eat very quickly, it may be enough to increase your risk of being overweight, research suggests.
Osaka University scientists looked at the eating habits of 3,000 people. Just about half of them told researchers that they 1 _______________________. Compared with those who did not eat quickly, fast-eating men were 84% more likely to be overweight, and women were 100% more likely to 2 _______________________.
Japanese scientists said that there were a number of reasons why eating fast 3 _______________________. They said it could prevent the work of a signalling system which tells your brain to stop eating because your stomach is full. They said: "If you eat quickly you basically fill your stomach before the system has a chance to react, so you 4 _______________________. "
The researchers also explained that a mechanism that helps make us fat today, developed with evolution and helped people get more food in the periods when they were short of it. The scientists added that the habit of eating fast could be received from one's parents genes or 5 _______________________.
They said that, if possible, children should be taught to 6 _______________________, and allowed to stop when they felt full up at mealtimes. "The advice of our grandmothers about chewing everything 20 times might be true - if you take a bit more time eating, it could have a positive influence on your weight."
A. just overfill your stomach
B. could be bad for your weight
C. have a habit of eating quickly
D. linked to obesity
E. eat as slowly as possible
F. put on weight
G. learned at a very early age