2016届高考英语二轮复习阶段滚动补偿练：7_高考复习指南

2016届高考英语二轮复习阶段滚动补偿练：7

　　While many studies suggest that exercise may have cognitive benefits, recently some scientists have begun to question whether the apparently beneficial effects of exercise on thinking might be a placebo effect. So researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign decided to focus on expectations, on what people anticipate that exercise will do for thinking. If people’s expectations jibe(吻合)closely with the actual benefits, then at least some of those improvements are probably a result of the placebo effect and not of exercise.

　　For the new study, which was published last month in PLOS One, the researchers recruited 171 people through an online survey system, they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning regimens(拉伸运动)performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking. The other volunteers were asked the same question, but about a regular walking program.

　　In actual experiments, stretching and toning program generally has little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills. Walking, on the other hand, seems to substantially improve thinking ability.

　　But the survey respondents believed the opposite, estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking. The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.

　　These data, while they do not involve any actual exercise, are good news for people who do exercise. “The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect, ”said Cary Stothart, a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University, who led the study.