Teacher’sDayaroundtheworldisno-优题课

One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions (假设) in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. I exercise all the time, but I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn’t all the exercise getting rid of it?
It’s a question many of us could ask. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly.
And yet obesity (肥胖) figures have risen sharply in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government’s definition. Yes, it’s entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don’t. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?
The popular belief that exercise is essential for weight control is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against too much exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly over-evaluated.
“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, exercise researcher at Louisiana State University. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.
The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can make one hungry. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate (使无效) the weight-loss benefits we just gained. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.
From the passage we learn that ____.

A．some Americans join a health club but never go there

B．the number of overweight people has doubled since 1993

C．more than 45 million Americans now go to the gym regularly

D．Americans waste too much money each year on sports

According to the passage, exercise ____.

A．has long been

believed to be good for older adults

B．is not properly advertised as an effective way to lose weight

C．was first recognized as an effective way to lose weight in the 1960s

D．is less effective in preventing heart disease than what doctors believe

According to the writer, people might gain weight because ____.

A．they have the habit of going to the gym regularly

B．they eat the same food when they do not exercise

C．they exercise less than required by doctors

D．they eat more after they exercise

What may be the best title for this passage?

A．Overweight Is Not Good for Your Health

B．Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

C．Gym Is Part of American Lifestyle

D．Obesity Is a Social Problem in America

Below is some advice on how to prevent colds and flu.

8 Ways to Avoid Colds and Flu
1. Wash your hands and wash them often
The US Naval Health Research Center conducted a study of 40,000 volunteers who were ordered to wash their hands five times a day. The volunteers cut their incidence of flu by 45 percent.
2. Wash your hands twice every time you wash them
Researchers at Columbia University found one hand washing had little effect, even when using antibacterial soap. So wash twice if you’re serious about preventing colds.
3. Change your toothbrush every three months
You think your toothbrush gets your teeth clean — and it does. But once you’ve finished brushing, it can be a breeding ground for germs. Most dentists recommend you change your brush every two or three months. It’s also a good idea to replace it after you’ve had a cold or flu.
4. Sneeze and cough into your arm or tissue (纸巾)
Whoever taught us to cover our mouths when we cough or sneeze got it wrong. That just puts the germs right on our hands, where you can spread them to objects — and other people. Instead, put your arm over your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough if a tissue isn’t handy. It’s pretty rare that you shake someone’s arm, after all.
5. Stop blaming yourself when things go wrong
Believe it or not, blaming yourself makes you more likely to catch a cold! Researchers found that even those who had control over their work were more likely to begin sneezing if they lacked confidence or tended to blame themselves when things went wrong. Such attitudes make people more stressed on the job, and stress, as you know, can challenge your immune system.
6. Once a day, sit in a quiet, dim room, close your eyes, and focus on one word
Meditate (冥想). It is a proven way to reduce stress. Studies have shown that stress weakens your immune system. In fact, people with high stress levels have up to twice the number of colds as non-stressed people.
7. Get moving
Ride a bike, join a dance class, or go for a walk. A study found that older women who did 45 minutes of gentle exercise, five times a week for a year, were up to three times less likely to get a cold than women who took little exercise. The researchers found that the exercisers’ immune system was strongest in the last three months of the study.
8. Leave the windows in your house open a crack
You don’t have to keep all of them open, but one or two in the rooms in which you spend the most time. This is particularly important if you live in a newer home, where fresh circulating air has been the victim of energy efficiency. A bit of fresh air will do wonders for chasing out germs.

To prevent yourself from getting colds, you should wash your hands____.

A．twice every hour	B．twice every time
C．five times every hour	D．five times every time

When you cough or sneeze, you should ____.

A．put your hands over your mouth

B．avoid shaking hands with other people

C．cover your mouth with your arm or a tissue

D．keep away from other people

Your immune system will be weakened if ____.

A．your stress level is high

B．your room is not bright

C．you have control over your work

D．you do not exercise for 45 minutes every day

If you live in a new house, it is particularly important to ____.

A．leave all the windows open a crack

B．leave only one or two windows open to save energy

C．keep one or two windows open in the rooms where you spend the most time

D．keep all the doors and windows open to let in more fresh air when you are at home

Some people would go through anything just to achieve their dream. Kasia Siwosz is proof. For the final year student on the university women’s tennis team, the road to Berkeley, University of California was met with poor advice and misinformation from her home country and twounsuccessful stops along the way that fell short of expectations.
Born in Poland, Siwosz began playing tennis at seven years old and developed the skills that helped her earn a top-50 ranking among the ITF Junior division (国际网球联会青少年赛).. Siwosz wanted to do more with her life than just play tennis, which led her to seek chances that would also allow her to obtain a top education. While most who grow up in the U.S. are naturally accustomed to the American tradition of collegiate (大学的) sports, such a custom is not as familiar in a country like Poland. “There’s no collegiate sports in Poland and no culture of sports and academic (学术的) study there. You can only do one, not both,” Siwosz said.
Her desire to have a quality education led her to America to follow her dream. While Siwosz was talented enough to begin her collegiate tennis career, she could only attend community college because she missed the deadline to apply to four-year schools, mainly due to misinformation provided in her home country of Poland.
When she had earned all her credits and was able to transfer (转学), Siwosz made the decision to attend Baylor in Texas. Her friends from Poland put in a good word for the university, saying that it was a good fit because there were many international players at Baylor. “I thought it would be a good idea, but it really wasn’t what I thought it would be,” Siwosz said. “I wasn’t happy at Baylor. The level of tennis was high, but the academic standards were no match and I just wanted more.”
After one year at Baylor, Siwosz’s luck finally began to change when she made the decision to transfer to Berkeley, which was due in large part to Lee, a former Berkeley student. Lee, who is a keen tennis player himself, met Siwosz four years ago in Texas. “I knew she was unhappy there,” he said. “I saw the opportunity for her to come here.” Siwosz visited Lee in Berkeley. “I ended up loving this place and this school,” Siwosz said. “I came here a lot over the summer, I gave it a shot and I ended up with a Berkeley education and a spot on one of the best college tennis teams in the country.”
What does “two unsuccessful stops” (Paragraph 1) refer to?

A．Poland and the U.S.

B．Baylor and Berkeley.

C．The community college and Baylor.

D．The ITF Junior division and the Berkeley tennis team.

Why did Siwosz want to leave her homeland for America?

A．Poland had no culture of sports.

B．Berkeley had always been her dream university.

C．She wanted to play tennis and have a good education.

D．She wanted to improve her tennis skills and get a higher ranking.

Why did she leave Baylor?

A．The level of tennis there was not high.

B．It was not suitable for international students.

C．She couldn’t get along with her friends there.

D．She was not satisfied with the education level there.

What is the main idea of the passage?

A．How Siwosz left Poland.

B．How Siwosz realized her dream.

C．How Siwosz became a top tennis player.

D．How Siwosz transferred from Baylor to Berkeley.

I keep hammering this because I keep seeing people who don’t do it.
1. Look up English to Elvish.
2. Look up the Elvish word in the best Elvish dictionary you have, and, preferably, find out the context（上下文） in Tolkien’s language dictionary.
3. Change the word to suit rules of grammar: singular or plural, mutations, verb tenses, etc.
You cannot leave out any of these steps. If you do, you’re almost certain to have errors. Why you have to do step 2:
Languages never match up one- to-one. English and Elvish are closer than usual, but there are still problems. And English has strange idioms: why are there no baths or beds in public bathrooms or restrooms? You can’t translate literally（逐字地）. You have to understand the meaning behind each word.
In Elvish this is even more true, since our dictionaries contain more or less questionable reconstructions, and words that Tolkien later threw away or replaced. Find the best one you can.
Consider the word “fair”. We tend to use it to mean “just”. Tolkien tends to use it to mean “beautiful”. In Elvish, these are two entirely different words. So when you look up “fair”, you’ll have to go to the Elvish dictionary to see that you’ve got the right one.
Consider the nightmare（噩梦）of He left the bar. Is “left” the opposite of “right” （which also has two meanings） ? Is “bar” extruded steel（型材钢）, or something to do with law? You have to know what words mean in both languages.
And you’d be amazed at how many people ignore step 3, forgetting that language is more than a string of words, and there are rules about how to fit those words together. You can’t simply look up the word “I” and use it everywhere. Sometimes you need “me” or “my”. There’s a reason it takes a while to learn a language: you have to learn the rules.
It drives me completely mad when people give a questionable translation they insist is right because “it’s in the dictionary”. A dictionary is a tool, a resource. but its entries（词目）should not be mistaken for a finished product. They are raw materials.
The underlined word “this” in paragraph 1 refers to .

A．consulting the dictionaries when translating between language

s

B．finding out the true meaning in context

C．ignoring the rules of grammar

D．leaving out some of the three steps the author mentions

According to the author, you have to do step 2 because .

A．you have to understand the meaning behind each word

B．Elvish and English are quite different in forms

C．there are no baths or beds in public bathrooms

D．Elvish has some words which are hard to find

Grammar is also very important because it .

A．helps fit the words together

B．takes a while to learn a language

C．is a rule to obey

D．is often forgotten in translating

In the last paragraph, the author shows .

A．his impatience to those who insist their wrong translation is right

B．his puzzle to the questionable translation

C．the importance of the correct use of dictionaries

D．the mistaken entries in the dictionaries

The passage is mainly about how to .

A．learn a foreign language with a dictionary

B．avoid errors when looking up a dictionary

C．understand the meaning of a strange word

D．use a dictionary to translate between languages

Have you ever heard a news reporter talk about DNA? Reporters talk about DNA found at the scene of a crime. They talk about police finding DNA “fingerprints.” Police sometimes use DNA as a clue to find out who committed the crime.
DNA is a substance（物质） that makes up genes. Everything alive has genes. Plans have genes. Animals have genes. You have genes.
Genes are the basic units of heredity（遗传）. Heredity means all the characteristics you inherit from your parents. You get your genes from your parents. You inherit half of your genes from your mother. You inherit half of your genes from your father.
Genes are a kind of code. A tree’s genes tell what shape its leaves will be. A cat’s genes tell what color its fur will be. Your genes tell what color your eyes will be. Your genes tell what color your hair will be. Everything about you comes from the code in your genes.
Genes line up on strands（链） called chromosomes（染色体） in cells. Everything alive is made up of cells. Chromosomes are in the center, or nucleus, of cells.
Different parts of you are made of different kinds of cells. Your muscles are made of muscle celIs. Your skin is made of skin cells. The code in your genes tells your body to make different kinds of cells. The genes in each cell tell the cell how to work. They tell the cell when to make new copies of itself.
An Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel first saw inherited patterns in pea plants. He experimented with pea plants in the 1860s. One of the things, or traits（特质）， Mendel studied was what makes some pea plants tall and some short. He said that the traits must come from units of heredity passed from the parent plants. These units were later called genes.
In the mid-1900s, scientists discovered that genes are made of DNA. In the 1970s, scientists learned how to change DNA with genetic engineering. Scientists also learned that problems with certain genes cause diseases. Muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and hemophilia are some genetic diseases-diseases caused by problems in genes. Today, scientists are looking for ways to cure genetic diseases by changing genes through a process called gene therapy.
What is DNA?

A．DNA is a kind of gene.

B．DNA is a substance that makes up genes.

C．DNA is the basic unit of heredity.

D．DNA is a measure to protect crime.

Which of the following about genes is correct according to the passage?

A．Plants, animals and human beings have the same genes.

B．Half people inherit all genes from their mother, others from their father.

C．Genes decide the trees shapes, the cats’ fur color and our eyes’ color as well.

D．Genes will give you a code when you need them.

Where are genes?

A．Genes lining up on strands called chromosomes are in the center of cells.

B．Genes hide in everything alive in your body.

C．Genes can be nowhere but in your mind, controlling all your actions.

D．Genes travel in your body and help cope skin, muscle, and eyes.

An Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel .

A．first saw inherited patterns in people

B．was interested in why plants were different

C．first called the units of heredity from parents genes

D．was the first who discovered genes

We can conclude that .

A．scientists were less intelligent than monks in 1900s

B．some genes are bad and can cause diseases

C．we don’t need to worry about genetic diseases any longer

D．the discovery of genes may be of great help in our daily life

A．Iran.	B．India.
C．Russia.	D．Thailand.