The ancient Chinese martial art Tai Chi has increasingly become a form of life for many New Yorkers, thanks to the efforts made by former world martial art champion Chen Sitan and his wife Lin Xu.
Chen started learning martial arts at the age of six. By the age of 30 when he retired from his athletic career, he had already won 32 gold medals in Chinese and international competitions. After having coached athletes in sports team for several years, Chen decided to come to the United States in 2003 in the hope to bring Chinese culture to more people around the world through Tai Chi.
The couple started teaching children Tai Chi and other forms of martial arts in school and later founded Sitan Tai Chi and Martial Arts with the mission of promoting Tai Chi and providing a forum for those interested in the martial art.
Originated from China, Tai Chi's slow, graceful movements are accompanied by deep circular breathing. This gentle form of exercise can help maintain strength, flexibility and balance, and could be the perfect activity for the rest of your life, said a research by Harvard Medical School. It is appealing to people of all ages.
"As an engineer and then a sales manager, I was on phone a lot and thus had poor posture. I needed to get back into some healthy type of lifestyle after I retired, and I found Tai Chi," said Frank Mandarino, who is 81 years old and has practiced Tai Chi for 11 years at Sitan Tai Chi and Martial Arts.
Although Tai Chi is already getting popular in fast-paced New York City and neighboring areas, Chen thinks the current situation is far from satisfactory. He is developing a training program and grading system through which his school could train more qualified teachers. "A standard, effective, applicable, and practical training and grading system could gather all the teachers who are out there promoting Tai Chi on their own to work together for the noble cause," said Chen.
The latest diet trend in America is also an ancient human activity. The activity is fasting, or not eating food for a set amount of time.
Social media apps and Facebook groups are appearing for people who do "intermittent fasting," or fasting on a part-time basis. Like other diets, intermittent fasting helps you lose weight by setting limits on eating. But instead of limiting what you eat, it limits when you eat.
Melissa Breaux Bankston is a Crossfit instructor in New Orleans, Louisiana. She tried intermittent fasting as a way to reduce her snacking. "I wanted to limit the amount of time that I was eating," she said.
However, for now, limited research suggests it may not be any better for weight loss than reducing calorie intake over the long term.
"It's really another way of fooling your body into eating less calories," said Krista Varady, who studies intermittent fasting at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Courtney Peterson, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also studies intermittent fasting. She suggested the benefits of intermittent fasting are not as great as some might suggest. "Unfortunately, intermittent fasting gets a little hyped," she said.
Some health experts say intermittent fasting might be too difficult for many people. They point to a study of 100 people where those placed in a fasting group lost about the same amount of weight as those on diets that restricted calories. The fasting group had a dropout rate of 38 percent, compared with 29 percent for the caloric-restriction diet group.
But intermittent fasting may be easier for people who already skip meals when they are too busy, said Varady.
People interested in intermittent fasting should talk to their doctor before trying it. Health experts do not recommend intermittent fasting for children, people on some medications and people with a history of eating disorders.
A new study suggests that patients with breast cancer who take additional vitamins during chemotherapy(化疗) treatment may face increased risks.
Researchers said the use of dietary supplements(补充剂) that increase levels of antioxidants, iron, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids appeared to lower the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Researchers reported their findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Christine Ambrosone is the head of cancer prevention and control at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. She said, "From this study and others in the literature, it seems that it may not be wise to take supplements during chemotherapy."
"It's thought that antioxidants might interfere with the ability of chemotherapy to kill cancer cells," Ambrosone said.
Some doctors have been advising patients for a number of years not to take antioxidants during chemotherapy. "But there was no strong empirical data for that recommendation," Ambrosone said.
So, Ambrosone and other researchers decided to study whether supplement use might affect chemotherapy's effectiveness. They looked for evidence in an earlier study on diet, exercise, lifestyle and cancer results.
In the earlier research, people who took part were asked about their use of supplements at the beginning of and during treatment, and about their lifestyle, diet and exercise. The researchers studied 1,134 patients who filled out the surveys and followed them for a median of six years.
The researchers searched for possibilities that might increase the risk of the disease reappearing or of death. They found that patients who took any supplements at the beginning of and during chemotherapy were 41 percent more likely to have their breast cancer return than those who did not. In addition, the supplement takers were 40 percent more likely to die later on compared to patients using no supplements. The supplements included vitamin A, C and E. Those taking vitamin B12 and iron supplements were at greater risk of cancer returning, the researchers said.
Meditation(冥想)is widely recommended as a health-boosting practice. Basic mediation involves sitting in a comfortable position and trying to quiet your mind by thinking of nothing. But a good way to begin is to think of yourself as an "observer of your thoughts," noticing what the narrative voice in your head says but not engaging it.
Here are some methods to start a basic meditation practice.
Focused Meditation
You can concentrate on something visual, like a statue; something auditory, like a recording of ocean waves; something constant, like your own breathing; or a simple concept, like "unconditional compassion." However, the idea is the same—staying in the present moment, avoiding the constant stream of comments from your conscious mind, and allowing yourself to slip into an altered state of consciousness.
Activity-Oriented Meditation
Activity-oriented meditation is a form of mindfulness that combines meditation with activities you may already enjoy, or with new activities that help you focus on the present. Activities like gardening, creating artwork, or practicing yoga can all be effective forms of meditation.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness can be a form of meditation that, like activity-oriented meditation, doesn't really look like meditation. This simply involves staying in the present moment rather than thinking about the future or the past. Focusing on emotions and where you feel them in your body—not examining why you feel them, but just experiencing them as sensations—is another.
Whichever method you choose, keep in mind that a consistent practice—even just quieting the mind for five minutes a day—is more useful than sessions that are longer but infrequent.
A. As thoughts appear in your mind, just let them go.
B. It's not always easy to do if you don't already practice it.
C. Some people find it easier to do this than to focus on nothing.
D. Without practice, many find it difficult to turn off the voice inside their head.
E. Focusing on sensations you feel in your body is one way to stay "in the now."
F. It involves experiencing each moment, letting it go, and then experiencing the next.
G. You join in a repetitive activity or one where you can get "in the zone" and experience "flow."
My first born son had been diagnosed with Autism(自闭症). His speech wasn't developing right.
He would cry for a long time for1 reason….
My daughter who had been born two years after him was developing normally, out-pacing her brother. My wife had been 2 with just the two of them but I'd wanted another son. I wanted a(n) 3son who would be just like me and 4 the family name. The doctors had 5 us that the chances were one in ten thousand that we would have another child with Autism.6, a part of me was afraid. When we discovered my wife was pregnant with a boy again, I remember7, over and over and over.
As my third born child 8, however, it soon became 9 that the doctors had been wrong. While his brother had 10 learned to talk, read, and learn, my youngest son could say only a few words. He had an even more extreme11 of Autism. Life had said "No" to my prayer.
The journey that 12 has been a long and difficult one for my sons, my daughter, their mother, and me. It still goes on today. It 13 all of us down a path we didn't want to go, 14 it was a path that led us all to greater love and kindness. My oldest son now is a 15 of kindness who gives out hugs happily. His younger brother still doesn't16 much but has a laughter and innate joy that 17 my soul each and every day of my life.
Sometimes we don't know why some of our wishes are 18 while others aren't. All I know is that we are all loved. And we just have to trust 19 we don't know the answers. Trust in life to lead you down the path you are20 to go.
Toward the end of every lunar year,same question whether they should visit the wife's parents or the husband's during Spring Festival (trouble) many couples: It is not easy for any couple(solve) this tough issue. Media reports say that many couples, especially relatively young couples, fail to agree the issue and some even choose to file for divorce (follow) arguments.
Aged parents, particularly those have just one child, love to celebrate Spring Festival with their children, because it is the most important (tradition) festival for the Chinese people. Therefore, it is important that couples properly solve the issue of whose parents they should visit during Spring Festival. What is most important is the couples should have mutual understanding and mutual respect and show equal consideration for each other's parents.
The couples could also decide their destination (base) on whose parents would benefit most, emotionally and spiritually, from their (present). Besides, the couples could make time during the rest of the year to visit the other set of parents, in order to show their filial piety. But most importantly, adult children should take genuine care of their aged parents, both financially and spiritually.
I could smell the turkey cooking, even in the attic where I was hiding out. I heard a laugh, too, and a bang from something being dropped. Our house was noisier since my new stepsister and step-mother moved in—Jen and Mom.
I called her Mom, but the word felt uncomfortable, like a pair of shoes that pinched(夹脚). I didn't remember my own mother; she had died in an accident when I was a baby. It had always been just Dad and me. We were a team. Now, so much had changed, and sometimes I wished I had the magic to change it back.
I heard Dad's footsteps upstairs. "Do you want to take Jen skating?" he asked.
"I guess." I sighed, thinking about how Dad and I usually spent Thanksgiving Day building a big snowman. But this year, Dad was too busy helping Mom cook the turkey.
"Thanks," Dad said and put his arm around my shoulders. "We'll make that snowman later," he promised.
"Yeah," I agreed, not too sure we'd have time.
Mom handed us some homemade cookies with smiling faces as we grabbed our skates. I had to admit, Mom came up with good ideas sometimes. Even though I liked that, I still couldn't help but feel as if she were changing everything.
"No, thanks. I'm not hungry," I said, although I was, a little.
"Ready?" I asked Jen. She nodded, and we headed out the front door.
The snow crunched under our boots as we walked down the street. The silence was awkward. "Did you go skating a lot last year?" I asked, blurting out the first thing that came to my mind.
Jen shook her head and looked at me. Finally she said, "On Thanksgiving, Mom and I always went to visit some friends on a farm. I especially loved seeing their big turkeys."
Until then, I'd never even thought about how Jen must be feeling. She not only had a new stepfather and stepbrother; she had a new town and home, too. Jen and her mom used to live near a lake, and she'd had to move up north with us. She'd had more changes than me.
注意：1）所续写短文的词数应为 150 左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
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Paragraph 1:
Suddenly, I didn't feel quite so sorry for myself.
Paragraph 2:
We were so busy making it that we didn't hear our parents come outside.
