雅思阅读 047 · Tiny Lifestyle Changes That Add Years to Your Life

改编自 Scientific American（Lauren J. Young, 2026）。题型：段落信息匹配 + T/F/NG + 填空。难度：中等偏上（Passage 2，约 800 词）。

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🎧 课文朗读音频（约 1 分钟）

正文 Passage

A. You don't need major overhauls

Want to live longer but don't want to change what you're already doing to try and live a healthy life? We have good news. You likely don't need to spend an extra three hours in the gym every week. You also probably don't need to get eight hours of sleep every night. And you likely don't have to revamp your diet, either.

New research suggests that people don't need to pursue major lifestyle changes to see meaningful improvements in health.

In fact, adding just a few more minutes of sleep and exercise to your day, as well as some extra whole grains or vegetables, can increase your lifespan by a year, according to a study published in eClinicalMedicine.

"We always think that we need to make these massive overhauls, especially at the beginning of the year with New Year's resolutions," says lead study author Nicholas Koemel, a dietitian and research fellow at the University of Sydney. But "tweaks add up to make something meaningful. And that might make us be able to sustain them much further in the long run."

B. The study

For about eight years, his team followed nearly 60,000 people in the UK Biobank, a repository of population-level health data.

Combining sleep and physical activity data from wrist wearables and self-reported diet surveys, the researchers estimated approximate changes in lifespan, as well as health span — defined as the number of years in which people were free of five major health conditions, including cardiovascular disease and dementia.

C. The key findings

Tacking on as little as five more minutes of sleep, two more minutes of vigorous or moderate exercise and an extra couple of tablespoons of vegetables per day (or skipping one serving of processed meat per week) could theoretically add a year to life expectancy for people who had poor lifestyle habits.

And adding 24 minutes to sleep, exercising about four minutes more and fitting in an additional cup of veggies and a serving of whole grains per day could extend their health span by four years.

For those who feel up to doing even more, the study found that people who got seven to eight hours of sleep and took more than 40 minutes of exercise per day and had a high-quality diet could potentially gain more than nine years of additional life and health span.

D. Why combination matters

What stood out most about these results was that practicing good sleep, exercise and diet together was important, Koemel says.

"These behaviors are well known to be interconnected. We've all had that night where we don't get as much sleep as we may want, and the next day we're grabbing a bag of chips or perhaps not exercising as much."

The new analysis showed that just trying to get more sleep and doing nothing else would mean people needed to sleep 60 percent more per day to achieve the same additional year of lifespan. Diet improvements by themselves were not enough to make any significant change in lifespan.

E. Limitations

Jamieson notes that the U.K.-centric data might not reflect other countries and cultures — the U.S. diet, for example, is heavy in ultraprocessed foods.

Differences in health care systems, environmental exposures, access to care and medication also play a major role in life expectancy and health span.

Clinical trials would be needed to fully establish relationships between lifestyle habits and longevity, Koemel says.

F. Converging evidence

Still, the findings jibe with a separate study published online in the Lancet on the same day as Koemel's paper and co-authored by one of his colleagues.

In an analysis of data from the U.S., Sweden and Norway, as well as from the UK Biobank, the researchers found that small increases in daily physical activity — as little as an additional five-minute walk at a moderate pace — could potentially reduce mortality risk by as much as 10 percent.

"What strikes me is that we converged on this idea that small changes make a difference without even talking to each other about the individual studies," Koemel says.

"Moving the goal post closer to us makes it more accessible, makes things more practical — and, most importantly, makes healthy habits sustainable."

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题目 Questions

Questions 1-5: Which paragraph mentions the following?

1. following nearly 60,000 people in the UK Biobank

2. five more minutes of sleep adding a year to life expectancy

3. sleep, exercise and diet being interconnected

4. the U.K.-centric data not reflecting other countries

5. a five-minute walk reducing mortality risk by 10 percent

Questions 6-9: T/F/NG

6. The study found that major lifestyle overhauls are necessary.

7. Health span is defined as years free of five major health conditions.

8. Diet improvements alone significantly increase lifespan.

9. The study followed people for about eight years.

Questions 10-13: Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• The study was published in the journal (10) ____________.
• Lead study author Nicholas Koemel is at the University of (11) ____________.
• People who get 7-8 hours of sleep and 40+ minutes of exercise daily could gain more than (12) ____________ years.
• Just getting more sleep alone would require sleeping (13) ____________ more per day.

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答案 Answers

题号	答案
1	B
2	C
3	D
4	E
5	F
6	FALSE (don't need major changes)
7	TRUE
8	FALSE (not enough alone)
9	TRUE
10	eClinicalMedicine
11	Sydney
12	nine
13	60 percent

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核心词汇

longevity / lifespan / health span / sleep / exercise / diet / UK Biobank / lifestyle / cardiovascular disease / dementia / mortality risk / sustainability