【英语语言学习】久坐伤身

From VOA Learning¹ English, this is the Health Report.

If you are sitting down listening to this Health Report, stand up. Move your legs. Touch your toes, if you can. Do anything but sit.

If you cut down on the time you spend sitting, you might live longer. New research shows that sitting less than three hours a day might extend² your life by two years.

The human body is designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely give us the chance to move around.

Just the opposite, says Peter Katzmarzyk. He is a scientist at the University of Louisiana in the southern United States. He says that sitting is ubiquitous in our lives, meaning it is something we do all the time, everywhere. But, he adds, that does not make sitting good for us.

“Sitting is ubiquitous in our lives today. You know, we sit while we’re eating, we sit in the car, we sit while we watch TV. And many of us sit for many hours at work. So on average, Americans report that they sit between four and a half to five hours a day.”

Exercise is important. But so is not sitting.

Mr. Katzmarzyk says you may exercise often. But, he says even that does not mean you can sit for the rest of your waking hours.

“We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that. But sedentary behavior is also important -- even if you exercise for 30 minutes a day. What goes on in the other 23-and-a-half hours a day is also very important.”

Mr. Katzmarzyk and his co-workers, or colleagues, are part of a new generation of researchers studying how sitting all day affects length of life. Such studies are rare.

“This is a relatively³ new area of study - studies that have assessed⁴ the relationship between sitting and mortality or television viewing and mortality are very rare. There’s only been a few of them, actually five or six now, in the last four or five years.”

Mr. Karzmarzyk and his colleagues used the few rare studies available to them. They found that cutting television time to less than two hours a day could add one-point four years to life.

New desk designs are helping⁵

Change is already coming to some offices, especially in the design of desks. A “standing⁶ desk” lets people stand while they work. Another new design is called the “treadmill⁷ desk.” A treadmill is an exercise machine that lets you walk in one place. Even some U.S. schools are beginning to experiment with desks that are part bicycle to keep children moving.

“That’s one of the strategies⁸ that many companies are using now. They may have got five standing desks for their employees or a treadmill desk. I’ve heard of other companies where they may not buy one for everybody .. but they’ll have a bank of these desks where people can go for an hour a day and answer their emails or talk on the phone.”

Mr. Katzmarzyk says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives.

“As a university professor, you know, it is a very sedentary occupation. We’re chained to a desk in terms of writing papers and doing research. We really try to limit the amount of time we spend doing that.”

Suggestions for sitting less

If you work in office job or have a sedentary job, Mr. Katzmarzyk and his team suggest a few simple changes:

-- get up from your desk as often as you can

-- take walks at lunch time

-- instead of emailing colleagues, walk to their offices and talk directly

All these activities may help you live longer.

Research on the good effects of sitting less is published in the online journal⁹, British Medical Journal Open.

And that’s the Health Report, from VOA Learning English. I’m Anna Matteo.

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 extend   

v.伸开；展开，伸展；扩大；加大

参考例句：

• Can you extend your visit for a few days more?你能把你的访问再延长几天吗？
• The examinations extend over two weeks.考试持续两个星期。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 assessed   

v.评定( assess的过去式和过去分词 )；估价；对（财产、收入等）进行估价（作为征税根据）；确定（损害赔偿金、税款、罚款等）的金额

参考例句：

• a conceptual framework within which children's needs are assessed 对儿童需求进行评估的概念框架
• They assessed the value of the house at 60, 000 pounds. 他们估价这房子值六万英镑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 treadmill   

n.踏车；单调的工作

参考例句：

• The treadmill has a heart rate monitor.跑步机上有个脉搏监视器。
• Drugs remove man from the treadmill of routine.药物可以使人摆脱日常单调的工作带来的疲劳。

8 strategies   

n.策略( strategy的名词复数 )；战略；战略学；对策

参考例句：

• Several steps and strategies have been developed to minimize these risks. 有关人士发展了若干措施和方法以减少这些风险。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Different threats require different strategies. 对付不同的威胁需要不同的策略。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

9 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。