Fitness bands like the Apple Watch and the Fitbit aim to track something like heart rate.
But early models weren’t all that accurate. We thought of them a little bit like random number generators(生成器). They really didn’t seem to be providing anything that bore any relationship to heart rate.
Euan Ashley, a cardiologist(心脏病专家), studies wearables at Stanford University. He and his colleagues have now tested seven newer fitness bands, from brands like Apple, Fitbit and others and he says those heart rate statistics have gotten much better. "Yeah we were pleasantly surprised actually by how good the accuracy of the heart rate monitoring was."
For most of the devices, the error rate was less than 5%, which is good enough for your doctor. But where all the devices failed to measure up was estimating calories burned. Even the most accurate devices were off by 30%, compared to lab measurements of energy consumption. One device was off by more than 90%.
If you think about going to the gym and working out for an hour and maybe that’s around 400 calories, then in reality that could be anything from 200 to 800. And that’s a big difference if you’re thinking about somebody who’s incorporating those estimates into their lifestyle and particular thinking about what to eat that evening based on the workout they did that afternoon.
The results are in the Journal of Personalized Medicine. The reason for the discrepancy, Ashley says, could be that we all burn energy at different rates and that’s hard to calculate from simple input statistics like weight and height.
Some people are incredibly efficient and look incredibly elegant when they run. And others really clearly look like they’re burning a lot more calories to cover the same amount of ground. So if you own a wearable, it’s probably safe to trust the heart data. But what it can’t tell you is whether your time on the treadmill(跑步机) really justifies that chocolate bar.
【小题1】What does Euan Ashley say about the newer models of wearables?

A．They were all useless	B．They were hardly effective
C．They were too expensive	D．They were mostly accurate

【小题2】What can we learn from Paragraph 4 and Paragraph 5?

A．For measuring heart rates, most fitness bands are not reliable

B．For measuring calories in exercise, most fitness bands are not reliable

C．We can base our lifestyle and diet on advice from doctors

D．We can base our lifestyle and diet on data from wearables

【小题3】What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To remind readers to use fitness bands wisely

B．To promote the sale of popular wearables

C．To discuss the advantages of some popular wearables

D．To introduce some famous-brand fitness bands

We increasingly rely on social media to talk to friends, GPS to navigate and the web for information. But is that wise?
Google is making you stupid, your iPhone’s making you anxious and your social networks are making you anti-social. Modem technology is driving each of us into a cognitive (认知的) disorder, and if we aren’t careful we’ll be beaten into a stupor (麻木).
Of course, the real story isn’t as clear as all that But stories continue because the sense that something is eroding our mental abilities feels right We struggle to remember our own phone number, while only a few years ago we could recall dozens. Online, readers prefer short, simple stories to long, subtle pieces, and we all know someone who breaks out in a sweat when separated from their smartphone.
So what’s really happening? The first thing to consider is that this kind of ‘neuro-anxiety’ about the tools we use is nothing new. In 370 BC, Plato warned that the Greeks’ “trust in writing77 would “discourage the use of their own memory”. Sound familiar?
The reality is that our brains do change when we use a smartphone or computer — but they also change when we use a pen, a screwdriver, or any other tool for that matter. They change when we mow the lawn, play golf or cook dinner. Our experiences continually shape the way the brain works So the question isn’t really ‘is tech changing our brains?’ but ‘how are our brains adapting to living in today’s screen-first, always-online, networked world?’
Scientifically speaking, we’re a long way from definitive answers, but we looked at the latest research and talked to leading experts in their fields to discover how they think our brains are being affected….
【小题1】In Paragraph Two, the author tries to tell us       of modern technology.

A．the bad effects	B．the benefits
C．the overuse	D．the diversity

【小题2】The author takes Plato for example in Paragraph Four to       .

A．warn people not to use writing tools

B．present the development of technology

C．show people’s anxiety about technology always exists

D．explain writing tools have an influence on people’s memory

【小题3】From the last two paragraphs, we can infer that       .

A．modem technology has the greatest effect on our brains

B．our brains are always changing no matter what we do

C．it’s easy to find out how our brains adapt to the modem world

D．the latest research about modem technology is quite helpful

【小题4】What’s the author’s attitude toward modem technology?

A．indifferent	B．opposed
C．doubtful	D．objective

How much weight a baby gains during its first month could determine its IQ, as a new research suggests. The study found that children who gain more weight, and whose heads grow quickly during the first month of life, tend to have a higher IQ when they start school.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide, in Australia^ studied 13,800 children who were born at full-term. They found that those who put on 40% of their birth weight in the first four weeks had an IQ 1.5 points higher than those who only put on 15% of their birth weight. Those who experienced the biggest growth in head circumference (头围) also had the highest IQs by the age of six.
“Head circumference is an indicator of brain volume, so a greater increase in head circumference in a newly-born baby suggests more rapid brain growth,” says the led author of the study, Dr. Lisa Smithers.
She added, “Overall, newly-born children who grew faster in the first four weeks had higher IQ scores later in life. Those children who gained the most weight scored especially high on verbal (言语) IQ at age 6. This may be because the neural (神经的) structures for verbal IQ develop earlier in life, which means the rapid weight gain during the first month could be having a direct cognitive benefit for the children.”
Previous studies have shown the association between early postnatal (产后的) diet and IQ, but this is the first study of its kind to focus on the IQ benefits of rapid weight gain in the first month of life. Dr. Smithers says the study further highlights the need for successful feeding of newly-born babies. “We know that many mothers have difficulty establishing breastfeeding in the first week of their babies’ life,” Dr. Smithers said.
“The findings of our study suggest that if babies are having feeding problems, there needs to be early intervention (干预) in the management of that feeding.”
【小题1】The study mainly shows that ________.

A．head circumference is certainly connected to IQ.

B．babies’ heads grow quickly during the first month.

C．full-term babies tend to be cleverer than premature babies. (早产儿)

D．the more weight newly-born babies gain, the higher IQ they are likely to have.

【小题2】How did the researchers get their conclusion from the study?

A．By asking questions.

B．By making comparison.

C．By having a discussion.

D．By referring to documents.

【小题3】According to Dr. Lisa Smithers, we can learn that ________.

A．a kid’s verbal IQ scores reach its highest at age six.

B．this study helps parents find feeding problems.

C．quick weight gain benefits newly born babies on verbal IQ.

D．this study reminds parents of the need for breastfeeding.

【小题4】The study differs from previous ones that _________.

A．it associates early postnatal diet with IQ.

B．it pays attention to the IQ of newly-born babies.

C．it emphasizes the significance of successful feeding.

D．it first focuses on the relation between IQ and weight gain in the first month of life.