Whether you prefer solo dancing or being involved in a more formalized program, dancing offers the obvious plus to your physical health. You're not only moving your body in a rhythmic way and expressing feelings but also burning calories in your body and getting a workout for sure.
In a recent study, researchers compared the effects of walking, stretching and dancing on the wiring and gray matter of the aging brain. The result showed dancing had the significantly positive effect.
In the experiment, after volunteers in their 60s and 70s with healthy brains didn't show signs of cognitive (认知的) disorder, researchers placed them in three groups at will. One group walked, another group stretched and did balance training and the last group learned country dancing. The arrangements of the dancing became progressively more challenging over time. They all did the assigned activity for one hour a day, three times a week. After a period of six months, the volunteers' brains were re-scanned and compared to their brains when they had begun their voluntary work.
Agnieszka Burzynska, the study's lead author who is currently a neuroscientist and director of the BRAiN Lab at Colorado State University, found only one group showed a memory improvement — the country dancers. The participants who learned country dancing now had richer white matter in the part of the brain that processed memory. White matter usually breaks down as a person ages, which may lead to cognitive decline. Dancing, therefore, protected the brain from aging-caused neurodegeneration. So, dancing is not just an aerobic activity good for your physical health. It helps your brain, too!
Country dancing, ballroom dancing, tango and waltz are all done with others. When you take part in these dances, you're involved in a beneficial social activity as well. You are also cognitively motivating your brain as you learn the steps of the dances. Dancing therefore might be one of the best physical activities you can choose for brain health.
【小题1】What's the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To add background material. | B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To raise questions about exercise. | D．To present experimental conditions. |
| A．They were grouped at random. | B．They were under cognitive decline. |
| C．They were all asked to learn dancing. | D．They were all born in the 1960s and 1970s. |
| A．The brain function of volunteers. | B．The cognitive disorder of volunteers. |
| C．The relationship between age and dancing. | D．The effect of dancing on the volunteers' brains. |
| A．How Dancing Affects People's Lifestyle |
| B．Why Dancing Is the Best Social Activity |
| C．How Dancing Helps People's Brain Health |
| D．Why Country Dancing Is Beneficial to People's Health |
