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03-12
很多人BMI指数(身体质量指数)“超重”，实际上却健康苗条。如果你也是其中的一员的话，那么下面的这个新研究可能会让你觉得很中听。因为一种新的测试体重的指数诞生了。
If you're one of the legions of slim, fit and healthy people whose BMI (Body Mass Index) makes them ‘technically' overweight, this story will be music to your ears. A new test is about to launch - called the ABSI.
很多人BMI指数(身体质量指数)“超重”，实际上却健康苗条。如果你也是其中的一员的话，那么下面的这个新研究可能会让你觉得很中听。一种新的测试体重的指数诞生了。
BMI is calculated by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by your height (in metres) squared. It has been widely criticised for years.
BMI指数(身体质量指数)的测量方式是：体重(千克)/身高(厘米)的平方。而近年来，这一指数受到的非议颇多。
‘The BMI is flawed because it doesn't take into account where you carry fat or how muscularyou are,' says Sue Baic, a dietician from Bristol University. ‘A woman with a fat stomach, thickwaist and skinny arms and legs could be deemed a healthy weight - yet people who carry fat around their mid-section are more at risk of heart disease, diabetes and even certain cancers.'
来自布里斯托大学的营养学家Sue Baic表示，“BMI指数是有缺陷的，因为它没有办法说明人体内有多少脂肪或多少肌肉。比方说，一名女性她肚子肥大却四肢纤细，而她的BMI指数有可能显示的就是健康。然而，腰腹部肥胖的人群患心脏病、糖尿病和某些癌症的危险性更大。”
To calculate your ABSI you take your waist measurement (in centimetres) and divide that by the square root of your height (in centimetres) multiplied by the square of the cube-root of your BMI.
而新推出的ABSI指数是这么计算得出的：腰围(厘米)/[身高(厘米)的平方根乘以BMI的立方根的平方]。
‘It's a very complicated formula!' says Sue. ‘But...
03-12
一般来说，我们都知道肥胖的人体型不美观，还有可能有一些血脂和血压方面的问题，但是，我们大概不知道，肥胖的人比一般人更容易患痴呆。
最新一项研究显示，肥胖会加速人的认知能力衰退，从而增加患痴呆症的风险。这项研究对6000多名年龄在35到55岁的英国公务员进行了为期十年的跟踪调查，并且在十年期间对他们进行了三次记忆力和认知技能测试。结果显示，身体肥胖且伴有不健康代谢变化的被试者认知技能退化速度比其他人要快。不过，专家强调，该研究关注的知识被试人群的认知功能，而不是痴呆症。正常老化、轻微认知障碍以及痴呆症之间的界限很模糊，但并不是所有的认知障碍都会导致痴呆症。研究人员表示，目前还不清楚为何肥胖和代谢异常与大脑功能退化相关，不过怀疑可能与高血糖及高胆固醇等因素有关。
Being overweight is not just bad for waistlines but for brains too, say researchers who have linked obesity to declining mental performance.
Being overweight is not just bad for waistlines but for brains too, say researchers who have linked obesity to declining mental performance.
Experts are not sure why this might be, but say metabolic changes such as high blood sugar and raised cholesterol are likely to be involved.
Obesity has already been tipped as a risk factor for dementia.
The work, published in Neurology, tracked the health of more than 6,000 British people over a decade.
The participants, who were aged between 35 and 55, took tests on memory and other cognitive skills three times over a 10-year period.
People who were both obese and who had unhealthy metabolic changes showed a much faster decline on their cognitive test scores compared to others in the study.
Delving deeper
The experts stress that they only looked at cognitive function, not dementia.
The boundary between normal ageing, mild cognitive impairment and de...
03-12
在很多办公室里，都是寂静一片，然而你知道吗?这种过于安静的状况，反而会增加员工的压力，降低工作效率。
我们描述某个地方特别安静的时候，通常会说“安静得连针掉到地上的声音都能听到”。英语中也用类似的表达。如果说某个地方，尤指办公室，特别安静，我们就可以说这地方有pin-drop syndrome(过度安静综合症)。
Pin-drop syndrome describes extreme quietness in an office, which leads to worker stress because the significance of even the smallest noises is magnified.
Pin-drop syndrome(字面意思为“掉针综合症”)描述的是办公室内极度安静的状况，在此状况下，员工感受到的压力可能会更大，因为任何微小的声音都有可能被放大。由此，pin-drop syndrome也可译为“过度安静综合症”。
According to the experts, too-quiet offices are a growing problem. Almost complete silence in office is unhealthily stressful. It may make workers feel lonely and, on the rare occasions when the silence was shattered by the telephone, all the workers would down pens to eavesdrop on the conversation.
专家表示，过度安静的办公室环境成为日渐突出的一个问题。完全安静的办公环境会产生过大压力，会让员工感觉孤单。以至于当这种安静被铃声打破之时，所有员工都会放下手中的工作偷听这通来电。
...03-12
女生们大都喜欢指甲油，那或鲜艳或神秘的颜色，给心情增加了不少斑斓。不过，这小小的指甲油，也有平价和天价之分。
珠宝品牌Azature推出号称“全世界最昂贵的指甲油”，成分含有267克拉的黑钻石，一瓶售价高达25万美元。
流行品牌Models Own两年前推出一款名称为“淘金潮”(Gold Rush)的金黄色指甲油，要价13万美元，且宣称是“全世界最昂贵的指甲油”，受到媒体瞩目。
这款指甲油内含约14克拉的钻石粉末，手工打造的瓶子含有将近4盎司黄金，并镶着1118颗碎钻。
如今珠宝品牌Azature更上一层楼，推价25万美元的黑钻石指甲油，指甲油内含有276克拉的黑钻石，堪称“全世界最昂贵的指甲油”。
The most expensive nail polish in the world has been unveiled.
Containing 267-carats of black diamonds, the tiny bottle of varnish, by Los Angeles-based luxury jeweler Azature, has been priced at $250,000 (157万元).
Models Own, a British company, released a Gold Rush Couture nail polish last year. The product, which contained 1,118 diamonds, was priced at $132, 800 (84万元), which set a new record for the most expensive nail polish in the world.
It also featured a hand-crafted lid made from yellow gold.
Just last month, beauty fans showed their passion for nail polish by taking to the auction site eBay in order to purchase the almost impossible-to-get Black Spotted polish by OPI.
Because it only sells in France, French owners of the product are able to price the varnish for up to $70 (440 元) per bottle.
以上就是今天的材料，大家可以积累其中的高分词汇及句型，并且练习提升阅读速度，迅速找到托福阅读的主题句和出题点。
...03-12
如果可以选择，你愿意去哪个城市生活呢?据统计，墨尔本获评最宜居城市，这也难怪有些学生仅因为环境的问题，选择了去澳大利亚留学。
Australia may have been trounced by Britain at the Olympics but its dejected sports stars can take some comfort from the fact that their cities have been judged far better places to live.
Melbourne is the best city in the world to live in while Sydney, Adelaide and Perth also make the top 10 and Brisbane comes in at number 20, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit global “liveability” study.
By contrast there is not a single British city in the top 50. London, basking in the afterglow of the hugely successful Games that saw Team GB reach third place in the medal table, is judged to be just the 55th most desirable place to live in the world and has fallen in the rankings after last summer’s riots.
Manchester remains Britain’s best city according to the study, which looks at crime levels, education, health care, culture and infrastructure, but it also dropped points to reach number 51 following the widespread looting and disorder that reached its shopping centres last August.
The EIU first began ranking cities to test whether or not companies should pay staff a hardship allowance if they make employees relocate to a different country.
Its researchers look at how “tolerable” it is to live in a particular place given its crime levels, threat of conflict, quality of medical care, levels of censorship, temperature, schools...
Vicky Tuck: 'I believe women should only go to university if they have a genuine interest in learning'.
Young women are losing faith in the university system with nearly half believing it is not worth getting a degree.
Tuition fees and little chance of landinga good job make higher education an unattractive prospect for them, a study suggests.
It found that nearly half of female graduates would not go to university if they had the chance again.
The research will cause concern because it was carried out before the Government announced that fees will almost treble to ā9,000 in 2012.
The findings have prompted warnings that a generation of ambitious young women will miss out on a high-flyingcareer and the opportunity to continue their education.
Louise Court, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, which conducted the survey, said young women seem to think university ‘a waste of time’.
‘It’s never been harder to be a young woman with ambition,’ she said. ‘Understandably, women are angry and frustrated about their future and this is having a damaging affect on their self-esteem.
The survey of 1,353 women also looked at the career prospects and financial outlook for women in 2011.
Two thirds of those questioned said they thought it would be ‘almost impossible’ to get their dream job and a ...
06-16
托福阅读的关键是在于多看多练，为了帮助广大考生更好的复习，小编为大家整理提供托福阅读材料:达芬奇的成功源于阅读障碍.以供各位考生复习参考，生活中有很多事情需要大家细心观察和发现，阅读文章不仅可以锻炼能力还能了解各方面的知识。在托福阅读练习中大家要多找些托福文章练习，小编也会经常找些文章让大家参考的，下面开始今天的托福阅读吧。
这篇托福阅读材料的主要内容是科学家预计在2030年，由于人类的运用地球资源的方式，也许人类需要两个地球才能满足对资源的需求量。真的有这么严重吗，我们一起来看看。
Humans are overusing the planet's resources and will need two Earths by 2030，a new report warns.
一份新报告警示：由于人类过度的使用地球上的资源，到2030年人类将需要两个地球。
According to the Report， human demands on natural resources have doubled in under 50 years and are now outstripping what the Earth can provide by more than half; and humanity carries on as it is in use of resources， globally it will need the capacity of two Earths by 2030.
该报告指出，人类对自然资源的需求量在不到50年内翻了一番，目前已超出地球供应能力的一半。如果人类继续以这种方式消耗资源的话，到2030年，人类需要两个地球才能满足对资源的需求量。
Wildlife in tropical countries is also under huge pressure， with populations of species falling by 60 per cent in three decades.
热带国家的一些野生动植物也承受着巨大的压力，在30年内，动植物的种类已经下降了60%.
And the report， from the WWF， the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network， said that British people are still consuming far more than the Earth can cope with.
该由世界自然基金会、伦敦动物学会和环球足迹网络共同完成报告指出，英国人资源的消耗量远远仍然超出了地球的的供应量。
If everyone lived such a lifestyle， humans would need 2.75 planets to survive.
如果每个人都过这样的生活方式，人类恐怕需要2.75个行星来维持生存。
The study's authors look...
托福阅读备考材料推荐访问
