阅读理解
A paper in The Lancet, shamelessly timed to coincide with the Olympic games, compares countries' rates of physical activity. The study it describes, led by Pedro Hallal of the Federal University of Pelotas, in Brazil, is the most complete portrait yet of the world's busy bees and couch potatoes.
It suggests that nearly a third of adults are not getting enough exercise. That rates of exercise have declined is hardly a new discovery. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, technology and economic growth have conspired to create a world in which the flexing of muscles is more and more an option rather than a necessity.
But only recently have enough good data been collected from enough places to carry out the sort of analysis Dr. Hallal and his colleagues have engaged in. In all, they were able to pool data from 122 countries, covering 89% of the world's population. They considered sufficient physical activity to be 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week, or some combination of the two. There are common themes in different places.
Unsurprisingly, people in rich countries are less active than those in poor ones, and old people are less active than young ones. Less obviously, women tend to exercise less than men—34% are inactive, compared with 28% of men. But there are exceptions. The women of Iraq and Finland, for example, move more than their male countrymen.
Six Americans in ten are sufficiently active by Dr. Hallal's definition, compared with fewer than four in ten Britons. In an accompanying analysis of people's habits, Dr. Hallal found equally wide differences. In South-East Asia fewer than a quarter sit for at least four hours each day; in Europe 64% do. And even neighbors may differ. Only 2% of Swiss walk to work, whereas 23% of Germans do so. These high rates of inactivity are worrying.
Paradoxically, human beings seem to have evolved to benefit from exercise while eschewing it whenever they can. In a state of nature it would be impossible to live a life that did not provide enough of it to be beneficial, while over-exercising would use up scarce calories to little advantage. But that no longer pertains. According to another paper in The Lancet, insufficient activity these days has nearly the same effect on life expectancy as smoking.
It suggests that nearly a third of adults are not getting enough exercise. That rates of exercise have declined is hardly a new discovery. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, technology and economic growth have conspired to create a world in which the flexing of muscles is more and more an option rather than a necessity.
But only recently have enough good data been collected from enough places to carry out the sort of analysis Dr. Hallal and his colleagues have engaged in. In all, they were able to pool data from 122 countries, covering 89% of the world's population. They considered sufficient physical activity to be 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week, or some combination of the two. There are common themes in different places.
Unsurprisingly, people in rich countries are less active than those in poor ones, and old people are less active than young ones. Less obviously, women tend to exercise less than men—34% are inactive, compared with 28% of men. But there are exceptions. The women of Iraq and Finland, for example, move more than their male countrymen.
Six Americans in ten are sufficiently active by Dr. Hallal's definition, compared with fewer than four in ten Britons. In an accompanying analysis of people's habits, Dr. Hallal found equally wide differences. In South-East Asia fewer than a quarter sit for at least four hours each day; in Europe 64% do. And even neighbors may differ. Only 2% of Swiss walk to work, whereas 23% of Germans do so. These high rates of inactivity are worrying.
Paradoxically, human beings seem to have evolved to benefit from exercise while eschewing it whenever they can. In a state of nature it would be impossible to live a life that did not provide enough of it to be beneficial, while over-exercising would use up scarce calories to little advantage. But that no longer pertains. According to another paper in The Lancet, insufficient activity these days has nearly the same effect on life expectancy as smoking.
单选题
11.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the first two paragraphs?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第一、二段。根据第二段第二句中的关键词hardly和该句句意“人们的锻炼比率有所下降这并不是什么新发现”可知，C项“人们惊奇地发现锻炼比率已经下降了”不符合文意，故为正确答案。
单选题
12.Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Dr. Hallal and his colleagues as part of ways of sufficient physical activity?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第三段。该段第三句提到“他们(Hallal博士和他的同事)认为，充足的体育锻炼应该是每周五天进行半小时的适量运动，或是每周三天进行20分钟的激烈运动，或者对这两者进行适当结合”，故B项、C项、D项与原文意思相符，根据题干可排除。A项“每天运动不到1小时”不符合文意，故A项为正确答案。
单选题
13.From the findings of the study, we learn that____.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干及出题顺序定位到第四段。该段第二句提到“女性通常比男性锻炼得少”，C项“女性的懒惰率通常比男性的高”与第二句相符，故C项为正确答案。
单选题
14.The comparison of rates of Swiss and Germaas walk to work is used to illustrate____.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第五段。该段倒数第三句指出“而且即使是邻国之间差别也很大”，紧接着用例子进一步说明，即“在瑞士，只有2％的人走路上班，但在德国却有23％的人这样做”，故A项就是上述比较的用意所在。
单选题
15.It can be inferred from the passage that The Lancet is a journal on___.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干关键词可知，此题要求考生推断The Lancet是关于什么的期刊。The Lancet出现在文章第一段首句“The Lancet的一篇文章对世界各国人民进行体育锻炼的比率做了一个比较”和第六段末句“The Lancet中的另一篇文章称，缺乏锻炼对寿命造成的影响几乎和抽烟差不多”，综合两处可推断出，The Lancet是医学期刊，故选B项。