单选题
Is it possible to be both fat and fit--not just fit
enough to exercise, but fit enough to live as long as someone a lot lighter? Not
according to a 2004 study from the Harvard School of Public Health which looked
at 115,000 nurses aged between 30 and 55. Compared with women who were both thin
and active, obese (overweight) but active women had a mortality rate that was
91% higher. Though far better than the inactive obese (142% higher), they were
still worse off than the inactive lean (5% higher). A similar picture emerged in
2008 after researchers examined 39,000 women with an average age of 54. Compared
with active women of normal weight, the active but overweight were 54% more
likely to develop heart disease. That's settled, then. Or is
it? Steven Blair, a professor of exercise science at the University of South
Carolina, describes the official focus on obesity as an "obsession ... and it's
not grounded in solid data". Blair's most fascinating study, in
the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2007, took 2,600 people aged
60 and above, of various degrees of fatness, and tested their fitness on the
exercise device, rather than asking them to quantify it themselves. This is an
unusually rigorous approach, he claims, since many rival surveys ask
participants to assess their own fitness, or ignore it as a factor
altogether. "There is an 'association' between obesity and
fitness," he agrees, "but it is not perfect. As you progress towards overweight,
the percentage of individuals who are fit does go down. But here's a shock:
among class Ⅱ obese individuals [with a body mass index between 35 and 39.9],
about 40% or 45% are still fit. You simply cannot tell by looking whether
someone is fit or not. When we look at these mortality rates in fat people who
are fit, we see that the harmful effect of fat just disappears: their death rate
during the next decade is half that of the normal weight people who are
unfit." One day--probably about a hundred years from now--this
fat-but-fit question will be answered without the shadow of a doubt. In the
meantime, is there anything that all the experts agree on? Oh yes: however much
your body weighs, you'll live longer if you move it around a bit.
单选题
It can be learned that the 2008 research ______.
A. posed a challenge to the 2004 study
B. confirmed the findings of the 2004 study
C. solved the problems left behind by the 2004 study
D. had a different way of thinking from the 2004 study
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】
单选题
Steven Blair probably describes the previous studies as ______.
A. unreliable
B. uncreative
C. unrealistic
D. untraditional
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】
单选题
The major difference between Blair's study and the previous research
is that ______.
A. Blair excluded the participants' fitness as a factor
B. Blair guessed the participants' fitness after weighing them
C. Blair required the participants to assess their own fitness
D. Blair evaluated the participants' fitness through physical
tests
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】
单选题
Blair's study proves that ______.
A. the weight problem should be taken seriously
B. weight and fitness are strongly connected
C. it is possible to be both fat and fit
D. fat people have a higher death rate
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】
单选题
It can be seen from the description of these studies that the author
______.
A. shows no preference for any researcher
B. finds no agreement between the researchers
C. obviously favors the Blair study
D. obviously favors the Harvard study
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】
单选题
The purpose of writing this passage is to ______.
A. call on people to pay attention to weight problem
B. present the different findings of various weight studies
C. compare the strength and weakness of different studies
D. offer suggestions on how to remain fit and live longer