New research suggests that cutting daily sitting time to less than three hours might extend your life by two years.

   “Humans were designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely encourage us to walk around,” says Peter Katzmarzyk, an expert at the University of Louisiana.

   “Sitting is common in our lives today. We sit while we’re driving, eating and watching TV. And many of us sit for many hours at work.” Katzmarzyk said.

   “We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of researchers showing us that.” Katzmarzyk said.

   Katzmarzyk and other researchers are trying to discover how sitting all day affext our lifespans（寿命）.

   “This is a relatively new area of study…Studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and death or television viewing and death have been very rare in the last four or five years,” said Katzmarzyk.

   Katzmarzyk and his colleagues analyzed data from these studies, which involved almost 167,000 adults. Then they turned to a government-run survey of Americans to find out exactly how much time people spend sitting and watching.

   Not only did the team find that U.S. citizens could live longer by sitting less, they found that cutting TV time to less than two hours a day could add an extra 1.4 years to their lives.

People who’ve spent half their waking lives sitting down might well ask, “Is it ever too late to make a change?”

“We would say ‘No. It’s never too late.’ Physical activity is good for you at every age.” Katzmarzyk said.

Katzmarzyk says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives. They recommend a few simple changes: frequently getting up from your desk, taking walks at lunch time, and instead of e-mailing colleagues, walking over to their offices and talking face-to-face——all activities that can be enjoyable as well as life-extending.

1.Peter Katzmarzyk seems to believe that _____.

A. we should not sit for a long time   

B. most people like to sit most of the time

C. office jobs encourage us to walk a lot  

D. modern lifestyles are good for our health

2.The underlined word “that” in paragraph 4 probably refers to _____.

A. taking physical exercise is important  

B. many researches should be carried out

C. we should exercise during working hours

D. people should focus on their health at work

3.Why did Katzmarzyk and his colleagues turn to a government-run survey?

A. To collect information for the government

B. To know how long people sit and watch TV

C. To find what citizens do in their spare time’

D. To discover how sitting for long affects their lives

4.The best title of the text would be _____.

A. What Is the Healthiest Lifestyle？

B. Sitting for a Long Time Is Bad for Us

C. Study Suggests Sitting Less Can Extend Life

D. It Is Never Too Late to Change Our Way of Life

You hear the comment all the time: the U.S. economy looks good by figures, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Wealthy Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.

The Wealthy Society is a modern classic because it helped describe a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the fear of another Great Depression gave way to an economic growth. By the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.

To Galbraith, materialism had gone mad and would cause discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unsatisfying. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people wrongly considered government only as “a necessary bad.”

It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich — overpaid chief managers, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, people feel “squeezed” because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants — for bigger homes, more health care, more education, and faster Internet connections.

The other great disappointment is that it has not got rid of insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As company unemployment increased, that part has gradually become weaker. More workers fear they’ve become “the disposable American,” as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.

Because so much previous suffering and social conflict resulted from poverty, the arrival of widespread wealth suggested utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, wealth succeeds. There is much less physical suffering than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, wealth also creates new complaints.

Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the search for growth cause new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Wealth sets free the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-accomplishment. But the promise is so unreasonable that it leads to many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown. Figures indicate that happiness has not risen with incomes.

Should we be surprised? Not really. We’ve simply confirmed an old truth: the seeking of wealth does not always end with happiness.

1.The Wealthy Society is a book ______.

A．about previous suffering and social conflict in the past

B．written by Louis Uchitelle who died recently at 97

C．indicating that people are becoming worse off

D．about why happiness does not rise with wealth

2.According to Galbraith, people feel discontented because ______.

A．materialism has run wild in modern society

B．they are in fear of another Great Depression

C．public spending hasn’t been cut down as expected

D．the government has proved to be necessary but ugly

3.Why do people feel“squeezed”when their average income rises considerably?

A．They think there are too many overpaid rich.

B．There is more unemployment in modern society.

C．Their material demands go faster than their earnings.

D．Health care and educational cost have somehow gone out of control.

4.What does Louis Uchitelle mean by “the disposable American” ?  

A．People with a stable job.

B．Workers who no longer have secure jobs.

C．Those who see job stability as part of their living standard.

D．People who have a sense of security because of their rising incomes.

5.What has wealth brought to American society?

A．Stability and security.

B．Materialism and content.

C．A sense of self-accomplishment.

D．New anxiety, conflicts and complaints.

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Ohio, a state in the
US with a l______________ population. He didn’t have much school education
【小题1】____________
because the m______________ of his teachers thought he was not clever enough,  
【小题2】 ____________
and his o_____________ of success is merely a dream. However, he became one    
【小题3】____________
of the greatest ________________ (发明家) with a list of 1,093 U.S. patents. In
【小题4】 ____________
fact, there was evidence indicating that Edison was to distinguish ____________
【小题5】 ____________
later in life. The boy had a great d____________ for knowledge and was curious
【小题6】 ____________
about things. He did a lot of reading in the library while ___________ a living by
【小题7】 ____________
selling newspapers on trains. He often __________ (实验)with different things. All
【小题8】 ____________
these made him so extraordinarily ________________ (成功). Many people think   
【小题9】 ____________
that we owe our way of life _________ his ideas and efforts.           
【小题10】____________

Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露）to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风）within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物）were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好）quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

1.The text mainly discusses the relationship between ______ .       

A. heart problems and air quality               B. heart problems and exercising

C. heart problems and smoking         D. heart problems and fatty food

2.The underlined word “modest” in Paragraph 3 most probably means ______ .    

A. relatively high                                          B. extremely low

C. relatively low                                               D. extremely high

3. What can we learn from the text?

A. Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart.

B. The EPA conducted many studies on air quality.

C. Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking.

D. Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made.

4.The author’s purpose of writing the text is most likely to _______.

A. inform          B. persuade          C. describe              D. entertain

According to sociologists(社会学家), every modern industrial society has some form of social stratification(阶层). Class, power and status are important in deciding people’s rank in society.

Class means a person’s economic position in society. A commonly used classification is lower class, middle class and upper class. While sociologists disagree on how these terms should be exactly defined, they do describe societies like the United States quite well. One study shows that 53% of Americans belong to the lower class, 46% the middle class, and 1% the upper class. Interestingly, a surgeon earning ＄500,000 a year and a bus driver earning ＄50,000 a year both regard themselves as the middle class!

Power refers to the amount of control a person has over other people. Obviously, people in positions of great power (such as governors) exercise(行使)big power, but people who take orders from others have less power. Power and class do not always go hand in hand, however. For example, the governor of a state has great power, but he or she may not belong to a corresponding (相应的)economic class. Generally, however, there is a relationship between power and class.   

To our knowledge, there aren’t too many people who aren’t millionaires in the U.S. Senate!

Status is the honor or respect attached to a person’s position in society. It can also be affected by power and class, but not necessarily so. For example, a university professor may have a high status but not belong to a high social class or have a lot of power over others.

1.What can we learn about “the middle class” from Paragraph 2?

A．People earning ＄50,000 a year belong to the middle class.

B．Nearly half Americans belong to the middle class.

C．People generally consider bus drivers as the middle class.

D．Sociologists have a clear definition of the middle class.

2.According to the text, we know that _____.

A．power and class do not always correspond with each other

B．status refers to a person’s economic position in society

C．people with high status have a lot of control over others

D．class is less important in deciding a person’s social rank

3.Which of the following shows the structure of the whole text?