【English Corner 快樂英語角Week 204】好文趣事

文章一：

Why You’re Tired After 8 Hours of Sleep

For much of the past century, people were told that feeling tired just meant they weren’t getting enough sleep. The advice was simple: Go to bed earlier. However, that assumption began to shift as doctors noticed patients who slept a full night yet woke without feeling rested. The culprit wasn’t duration, it was disruption.

“Quality is more important than quantity,” Daniella Marchetti, a clinical psychologist and board-certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist, told The Epoch Times. “Sleep may not feel restorative if you are not getting enough deep sleep or REM [rapid eye movement], or if your sleep is fragmented. Sometimes you remember waking up. Other times, there are micro-arousals between cycles that you do not recall. Those can be just as disruptive.”

Everyone has a slightly different sleep need, and what matters most is how those hours are distributed across the stages of sleep. “Deep sleep refers to the breakdown of your sleep architecture rather than the number of hours you get,” Marchetti said.

That disconnect can take a toll. A meta-analysis in BMC Public Health found that poor sleep quality, even with normal sleep duration, was linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline.

1.根據本文，何者敘述錯誤？

（A）如果睡了8小時還覺得累，可能是還睡得不夠久。

（B）睡覺應該是重質不重量。

（C）睡得不好容易焦慮或憂鬱。

（D）每個人對睡眠需求會略有不同。

2. 根據本文，為何經過較長睡眠後，身體仍感覺疲累？

3. 您有過長時間睡眠後仍感疲倦的經驗嗎？閱讀完本文後，您會試著做些什麼改變嗎？

為什麼睡了8小時還覺得累？「睡眠品質比睡眠時長更重要，」。（123RF）

文章二：

Best Exercises for People With High Blood Pressure

A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed 270 research reports, covering approximately 16,000 subjects, and evaluated the impact of diverse types of exercise on lowering blood pressure. The results showed that isometric exercise has a significant effect on lowering blood pressure.

In this respect, systolic and diastolic blood pressures (the two measures of blood pressure) were reduced by about 8 and 4 mmHg, respectively. Isometric exercise’s blood pressure-lowering effect was almost on par with the average effect of taking antihypertensive drugs, in which systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased by approximately 10 and 5 mmHg, respectively.

Isometric exercise is a static but continuous muscle contraction exercise. Common examples are bridge pose, balancing stick pose, and wall squats. The mechanism for lowering blood pressure is that during the workout, the continuous exertion of muscles will increase the concentration of nitric oxide, which can dilate blood vessels. With the muscles continuing to tighten and exert force during exercise, it stimulates and dilates the blood vessels and helps lower blood pressure further.

It should be noted that when performing isometric exercise, do not hold your breath to avoid an instantaneous increase in blood pressure.

1.根據本文，下列何者有誤？

（A）在諸多運動中，Isometric exercise是降低血壓最有效的運動。

（B）Isometric exercise的效果幾乎跟吃降血壓藥差不多。

（C）仰臥起坐是Isometric exercise常見的一種。

（D）肌肉在持續用力的過程中會增加一氧化氮濃度，進而擴張血管，降低血壓。

2. 根據本文，什麼是Isometric exercise？

3. 哪些運動屬於Isometric exercise？試分享與嘗試看看。

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

【解答】：

文章一

1.（A）

2. Sleep may not feel restorative if you are not getting enough deep sleep or REM [rapid eye movement], or if your sleep is fragmented.（如果深層睡眠不夠，或快速動眼期缺乏，或睡眠斷斷續續，睡眠就無法使精神恢復。）

文章二

1. （C）

2. Isometric exercise is a static but continuous muscle contraction exercise.（「等長運動」是指肌肉呈靜態但持續收縮的運動。）

文章來源：英文大紀元時報◇