Life is to be enjoyed. There’s no point in giving up something you enjoy unless you get something back that’s even better. When people eat more healthfully, exercise, quit smoking, and manage stress better, they find that they feel so much better that it reconstructs the reason for making these changes from fear of dying to joy of living. The latest studies show that when you exercise and eat right:
YOUR BRAIN receives more blood flow and oxygen, so you become smarter, think more clearly, have more energy, and need less sleep. Two studies showed that just walking for three hours per week for only three months caused so many new neurons (神經細胞) to grow that it actually increased the size of people’s brains!
YOUR FACE receives more blood flow, so your skin glows more and wrinkles less. You look younger and more attractive. In contrast, an unhealthy diet, chronic emotional stress and smoking reduce blood flow to your face so you age more quickly. Smoking accelerates aging because nicotine causes your arteries (動脈) to narrow down, which decreases blood flow to your face and makes it wrinkle earlier. This is why smokers look years older than they really are.
YOUR GENES change. In May, a study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that changing your lifestyle changes your genes.
YOUR TELOMERES (染色體端粒) get longer. Telomeres are the ends of our chromosomes (染色體) that control how long we live. As telomeres become shorter, then cells age more quickly, thus shortening your life.
Besides, one of the most interesting findings in the study was that the mothers’ awareness of stress was more important than what was really occurring in their lives. The researchers gave the women a questionnaire and asked them to rate on a three-point scale how stressed they felt each day, and how out of control their lives felt to them. The women who were aware that they were under heavy stress had significantly shortened and damaged telomeres compared with those who felt more relaxed. On the contrary, some of the women who felt relaxed despite raising a disabled child had more normal-appearing telomeres.
In other words, if you feel stressed, you are stressed; if you feel fine, you are fine.
小題1:Which of the following are good for lengthening one’s life, according to the passage?
① eat healthy food ② drink plenty of water ③ take exercise ④ get up early
⑤ go to sleep early ⑥ release one’s stress
小題2:The underlined words “your skin glows” in Paragraph 3 are closest in meaning to _________.
| A．your skin becomes white as there is plenty of sunshine |
| B．your skin becomes smooth as there is much blood in it |
| C．your skin looks pink as you are healthy |
| D．your skin becomes soft as you exercise enough |
小題3:In the author’s opinion, when you exercise and eat right, you will experience some changes EXCEPT _________.
| A．brains becoming cleverer | B．faces having fewer wrinkles |
| C．arteries turning narrower | D．genes being changed |
小題4:From the last but one paragraph we learn that _________.
| A．mothers will have more damaged telomeres if they raise a disabled child |
| B．mothers don’t know how to handle stress effectively |
| C．some women were asked to fill out a questionnaire about educating children |
| D．mothers’ positive attitudes are the key to managing their stress |
小題5:The best title for the passage would be _________.
| A．Eat better, live better | B．Feel better, live longer |
| C．Less stress, fewer diseases | D．Smoke more, age sooner |
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