01 前期回顧
開始今天的故事之前，我們還需要先回顧一下上期的句子分析：
1.The new meditators had increased neural connections between regions of the brain important for staying focused, ignoring distractions, and controlling impulses.
首先我們要分析一下，這句話的主要結(jié)構(gòu)，The new meditators had increased neural connections, 然后，后面跟著的是由between引導(dǎo)的短語(yǔ)，核心成分是regions，這些regions有什么特點(diǎn)呢，important for staying focused, ignoring distractions, and controlling impulses。
2.Another study found that eight weeks of daily meditation practice led to increased self-awareness in everyday life, as well as increased gray matter in corresponding areas of the brain.
這句話的主要結(jié)構(gòu)挺好找的，another study found..., 后面由that引導(dǎo)了賓語(yǔ)從句，這個(gè)從句的核心結(jié)構(gòu)是meditation practice led to increased self-awareness as well as increased gray matter. 這里要注意 as well as相當(dāng)于and ,是并列結(jié)構(gòu)。
02.今天的故事— 鍛煉身體，迎接自信的人生
Antonio, a fifty-four-year-old owner of two successful Italian restaurants, was in my class on doctor’s orders. He had high blood pressure and cholesterol, and his waist size crept up an inch every year. If he didn’t change his lifestyle, his doctor warned him, he was going to collapse of a heart attack over a plate of veal parmigiana.
今天故事的主人公是位老年人，但是可不要小看他，他成功經(jīng)營(yíng)著兩家意大利餐館，算是某個(gè)領(lǐng)域內(nèi)的成功人士了。
做餐飲的都容易出現(xiàn)大腹便便，我們的主人公也不例外，他有高血壓，高血脂，每年手腕都要粗上一公分。整個(gè)就是一位油膩的老年人啊，有木有。
他的私人醫(yī)生警告他了，再這樣生活下去，他終將會(huì)因?yàn)樾呐K病而倒下。
沒(méi)有人想英年早逝，主人公安東尼也不例外，他也不想過(guò)早的告別親愛(ài)的家人。
所以，他想要改變，他購(gòu)置了一臺(tái)跑步機(jī)放在辦公室，但是一段時(shí)間后他發(fā)現(xiàn)，跑步機(jī)的利用率低的可憐。（我也曾經(jīng)一時(shí)沖動(dòng)買了一整套瑜伽工具，最后只是默默留在角落積灰。）
Antonio had reluctantly gotten a treadmill for his home office, but it wasn’t seeing much use. Exercise seemed like a waste of time; it wasn’t fun and it wasn’t productive—not to mention the irritation of someone else telling him what he needed to do!
看著那臺(tái)默默蹲墻角的跑步機(jī)，安東尼感覺(jué)不到健身的好處，反而覺(jué)得這是在浪費(fèi)時(shí)間。耳邊張三李四還經(jīng)常危言聳聽(tīng)：你一定要鍛煉啊，你的身體素質(zhì)太差，怎么撐起宏偉的遠(yuǎn)大計(jì)劃啊。。。總之，他對(duì)健身鍛煉提不起一點(diǎn)興趣。
人的內(nèi)心一直住著兩個(gè)自己，一個(gè)是天使，一個(gè)是惡魔，天使告訴自己要通過(guò)鍛煉增強(qiáng)體質(zhì)呀，惡魔卻在說(shuō)，管他呢，跑了這么久根本看不到效果，跑步健身根本就是個(gè)偽命題。
是天使戰(zhàn)勝惡魔，還是惡魔壓制天使，要看你的價(jià)值觀里，到底那個(gè)信念更重要。在安東尼看來(lái)，明顯健康更重要。所以，他沒(méi)有改變自己的價(jià)值觀，他改變的是思維方式和行動(dòng)目標(biāo)。
The idea that exercise could increase brain power and willpower intrigued Antonio, though. He was a competitive guy and did not want to slow down. He started to see exercise as a secret weapon, something that could keep him at the top of his game. It didn’t hurt that it would improve heart rate variability, which is a major predictor of mortality among people with cardiovascular disease. He turned his treadmill into a willpower generator by taping a “Willpower” label over the machine’s calorie tracker (since he didn’t really give a damn how many calories he burned—this was a guy who would throw an entire stick of butter in a pan without thinking twice). As he walked and burned more calories, the “Willpower” number ticked up and he felt stronger.
他聽(tīng)說(shuō)，鍛煉能增強(qiáng)大腦的力量，還能提升意志力，他決定嘗試使用這個(gè)思維方式思考健身的意義。
爭(zhēng)強(qiáng)好勝是他的性格特點(diǎn)，所以，即便年齡大的現(xiàn)實(shí)擺在他面前，他也不會(huì)輕易認(rèn)命。
他想讓自己看上去仍然充滿能量，所以，他把健身當(dāng)成了一種秘密武器，通過(guò)使用該武器，他能保持寶刀不老。
其實(shí)，從醫(yī)學(xué)角度來(lái)講，體育鍛煉是非常有利于人體健康的，因?yàn)殄憻捘軌蛱嵘粋€(gè)人的心率變異率，而這一指標(biāo)正是心腦血管疾病患者保持健康的重要參考。
對(duì)于安東尼來(lái)講，他跑步的目的并不是減肥或者消耗熱量，而是通過(guò)鍛煉提升自己的能力。于是，他干脆把跑步機(jī)上的卡路里消耗指標(biāo)換成了意志力積累指標(biāo)。每次只要他在跑步，他就能看到自己蹭蹭往上飆升的意志力指數(shù)，這讓他自信滿滿。
He started to use the treadmill each morning to fuel up with willpower for the day’s difficult meetings and long hours. Antonio’s willpower machine did improve his health—what his doctor wanted—but Antonio also got something? energized and in control throughout the day. He had assumed that exercise would take away from his energy and time, but found it gave him back far more than he spent.
他越來(lái)越離不開跑步機(jī)了，每天早上都要跑上一段時(shí)間，積累自己的意志力能量，用以應(yīng)付漫長(zhǎng)的會(huì)議時(shí)間。
一段時(shí)間過(guò)去了，安東尼發(fā)現(xiàn)，他的健康指標(biāo)完全達(dá)標(biāo)，更讓他驚喜的是，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己一整天的精力滿滿，能輕松掌控一天中的大小事宜。
他對(duì)于鍛煉的偏見(jiàn)也煙消云散了，過(guò)去他曾經(jīng)認(rèn)為，鍛煉會(huì)消耗他的能量和時(shí)間，現(xiàn)在，他完全改變了想法： 鍛煉帶給他的價(jià)值完全超出了當(dāng)初付出的時(shí)間和精力。
03 語(yǔ)言點(diǎn)分析
單詞和詞組
cholesterol : 膽固醇（noun）
a substance that is found in the bodies of people and animals
Examples
* Did your doctor check your cholesterol?
creep up： 逐漸增長(zhǎng)
If a rate or number creeps up to a higher level, it gradually reaches that level.
Examples：
The inflation rate has been creeping up to 9.5 per cent.
collapse ：崩塌，打塌（noun， verb）
to break apart and fall down suddenly
to fall down or become unconsciousbecause you are sick or exhausted
a situation or occurrence in whichsomething (such as a bridge, building, etc.) suddenly breaks apart and falls down
a situation or occurrence in whichsomeone suddenly falls down or becomesunconscious because of being sick or exhausted
Examples
* The roof collapsed under a heavy load of snow.
* The chair he was sitting in collapsed.
* The structure is in danger of collapse.
* She was on the verge of collapse.
veal parmigiana：帕爾馬干酪小牛肉
meat of a young cow made or covered with Parmesan cheese
reluctant ：不情愿的，勉強(qiáng)的，（adjective）
feeling or showing doubt about doingsomething
not willing or eager to do something
Examples
* We were reluctant to get involved.
* He might agree but seems reluctant to admit it.
treadmill: 跑步機(jī)（noun）
* an exercise machine which has a large beltthat moves around while a person walks or runs on it?
* a boring or tiring activity, job, etc., in which you repeatedly do the same things
Examples
* the treadmill of exhausting familyschedules
* the treadmill of the morning commute to work
irritate：厭煩，引起惱怒（verb）
* to make (someone) impatient, angry, or annoyed
* : to make (part of your body) sore or painful
Examples
* It's his arrogance that really irritates me.
* The other passengers were irritated by the child's rudeness.
intrigue：陰謀，耍陰謀（noun，verb）
* the activity of making secret plans
* a secret plan
Examples
* a novel of intrigue and romance
* an administration characterized by intrigue and corruption
morality ：道德，高尚行為（noun）
* beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior
* the degree to which something is rightand good
*? the moral goodness or badnessof something
Examples
* The group is calling for a return to traditional morality.
* The decision may be legally justified, but I question its morality.
cardiovascular：心腦血管的
of or relating to the heart and blood vessels
tick：發(fā)出滴答聲，運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，做標(biāo)記（verb）
* to make the sound of a tick or a series of ticks
* to operate as a functioning mechanism
to mark with a written tick :
Examples
* I could hear the clock tick .
* His old heart is still ticking.
* Tick the box next to your choice.
注意：英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)中時(shí)常出現(xiàn)的一個(gè)難點(diǎn)就是動(dòng)詞和各種介詞的搭配，比如 put off, put down, put up, put in, put on . 我建議大家千萬(wàn)不要死記硬背中文意思，因?yàn)榻?jīng)常會(huì)造成不必要的麻煩，更明智的方式是，結(jié)合動(dòng)詞本身，比如put，再加上介詞指代的時(shí)間或空間指向加以理解。舉個(gè)例子： put down, put 本身就是放置，down 在空間緯度上是下方，所以，put down 的意思就是與“放下”有關(guān)的，至于具體含義還需要上下文去仔細(xì)推敲，put off，off指的是什么方位呢，還記得物理中的電路圖吧，on代表通電狀態(tài)，on代表斷路，所以，put off 就是指，某個(gè)東西放在了某處導(dǎo)致了斷路。
回到我們的文中，As he walked and burned more calories, the “Willpower” number ticked up and he felt stronger.? Tick up 這個(gè)短語(yǔ)現(xiàn)在請(qǐng)你分析一下是什么意思？
tick的意思我已經(jīng)給出來(lái)了，你需要根據(jù)上下文首先判斷選取哪一個(gè)意思，然后結(jié)合up的向上，你看出來(lái)了嗎，這里tick up就是指 increase的意思。
04 長(zhǎng)難句分析
1.If he didn’t change his lifestyle, his doctor warned him, he was going to collapse of a heart attack over a plate of veal parmigiana.
他的醫(yī)生警告他，如果不改變生活方式，他終將因?yàn)槭秤门翣栺R干酪小牛肉而死于心臟病。
這句話要指出兩個(gè)注意事項(xiàng)：插入語(yǔ)和介詞的妙用。
從用途上來(lái)講，插入語(yǔ)主要是用來(lái)補(bǔ)充說(shuō)明的。比如說(shuō)，我剛才一直在講張三的故事，中間我想加上點(diǎn)我個(gè)人的想法，這個(gè)時(shí)候我就可以用插入語(yǔ)了，我會(huì)說(shuō)，“我覺(jué)得，我認(rèn)為，在我看來(lái)”之類的語(yǔ)言引出我要表達(dá)的內(nèi)容，而這些“我覺(jué)得，我認(rèn)為”并不是我要表達(dá)的核心意思。所以，在我們尋找句子核心的時(shí)候不用太過(guò)于關(guān)注插入語(yǔ)本身，可以選擇暫時(shí)跳過(guò)，不影響句子整體的理解。
這句話的用詞精妙之處體現(xiàn)在后半句，collapse of a heart attack over a plate of veal parmigiana. over一詞充分體現(xiàn)出了介詞的活用，當(dāng)我們提到over腦海里會(huì)閃現(xiàn)什么畫面呢，game over 嗎？少年，再認(rèn)真點(diǎn)，collapse一詞已經(jīng)體現(xiàn)出game over的意思了，over還有空間上的指向，在。。。上方。想想看，如果一個(gè)人終日盤旋在高熱量奶酪牛肉上，會(huì)出現(xiàn)什么結(jié)果，所以很顯然，over這個(gè)詞比一般的表示“吃”的表達(dá)高明了很多。
2.Exercise seemed like a waste of time; it wasn’t fun and it wasn’t productive—not to mention the irritation of someone else telling him what he needed to do!
鍛煉看上去就像是一種時(shí)間的浪費(fèi)；它并不有趣，也并不有效，更不用提面對(duì)一群旁觀者喋喋不休的大道理時(shí)的厭煩。
這句話的重點(diǎn)是三個(gè)否定。a waste of time 已經(jīng)奠定了整個(gè)句子的基調(diào)是消極的，所以，分號(hào)后面的句子仍然表達(dá)的是消極的思想，not to mention 值得拿出來(lái)講一講，這個(gè)表達(dá)是比較特殊的，因?yàn)樗荒苡糜诒磉_(dá)消極的信息，而且是消極信息的一種遞進(jìn)。
前文講了鍛煉沒(méi)勁，沒(méi)有用，比這更難忍受的是，周圍一群專家的健康建議。
3.He turned his treadmill into a willpower generator by taping a “Willpower” label over the machine’s calorie tracker (since he didn’t really give a damn how many calories he burned—this was a guy who would throw an entire stick of butter in a pan without thinking twice)
他把跑步機(jī)當(dāng)成了一臺(tái)意志力生產(chǎn)機(jī)器，方法為：做一個(gè)意志力衡量標(biāo)簽，覆蓋原本跑步機(jī)上的卡路里計(jì)數(shù)器。（這樣做是因?yàn)樗静辉诤踝约喝紵硕嗌倏防铩?別忘了，這家伙可是能夠不管三七二十一直接在餐盤里添加一整勺黃油的）
這句話其實(shí)核心結(jié)構(gòu)非常明顯，he turned.....into....., by 引導(dǎo)了一組動(dòng)詞短語(yǔ)。
括號(hào)在英語(yǔ)里的主要作用和中文差不多，補(bǔ)充說(shuō)明他這樣做的原因是什么。
since在這句話中表示因?yàn)椋?dāng)然，你可能在其他地方也見(jiàn)過(guò)since, 表示從什么時(shí)候以來(lái)，這兩種情況下since從句使用的時(shí)態(tài)會(huì)有所區(qū)別。
4.He had assumed that exercise would take away from his energy and time, but found it gave him back far more than he spent.
他曾經(jīng)一度認(rèn)為，鍛煉只會(huì)花費(fèi)掉他的時(shí)間和能量，但后來(lái)才發(fā)現(xiàn)，鍛煉償還給他的遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大于他付出的。
這里要特別注意時(shí)態(tài)，英語(yǔ)中有8大主要時(shí)態(tài)，但我想再簡(jiǎn)化一下，按照時(shí)間軸來(lái)分，主要就是三個(gè)部分：過(guò)去，現(xiàn)在，將來(lái)，我們這個(gè)故事是發(fā)生在過(guò)去的，所以主要時(shí)態(tài)是過(guò)去時(shí)。
你看這句話里面的所有動(dòng)詞形式： had assumed, would take, found, gave, spent，這些都是某種形式的過(guò)去時(shí)態(tài)，found， gave，spent是非常典型的簡(jiǎn)單過(guò)去時(shí)，had assumed 是過(guò)去完成時(shí)，代表過(guò)去的過(guò)去，是發(fā)生在他鍛煉之前的故事，would take表示過(guò)去將來(lái)，指在過(guò)去的某個(gè)時(shí)間設(shè)想將來(lái)發(fā)生的事情。
舉個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的例子，在昨天以前，我還以為我面前這只小狗會(huì)無(wú)家可歸，但是昨天發(fā)現(xiàn)它居然是我家樓下的一位老阿姨家的。 I had assumed that the dog would have no place to go, but found it belonged to ....
05 故事與你何干
今天的故事給你帶來(lái)了什么感想？
一位成功的中年人士，通過(guò)健身不僅重獲了健康的身體，更重要的是，他感受到了自己對(duì)于生活的掌控，這種自信足以讓他面對(duì)各種挑戰(zhàn)。
那么，你呢？
在經(jīng)歷了一天緊張的工作和學(xué)習(xí)生活后，你是不是用各種借口告訴自己要好好休息，然后刷手機(jī)看電視？
其實(shí)，已經(jīng)有很多研究證明，看電視，刷手機(jī)，玩游戲等等不僅不能夠讓你放松，反而會(huì)占用你更多的精力。
更科學(xué)的放松方式應(yīng)該是讓你緊繃的精神力放松，所以，現(xiàn)在就嘗試站起來(lái)做做運(yùn)動(dòng)吧，你會(huì)慢慢發(fā)現(xiàn)運(yùn)動(dòng)的好處噠。
06 延伸閱讀— 健身的秘密（來(lái)點(diǎn)科普知識(shí)）
Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self-control scientists have discovered. For starters, the willpower benefits of exercise are immediate. Fifteen minutes on a treadmill reduces cravings, as seen when researchers try to tempt dieters with chocolate and smokers with cigarettes. The long-term effects of exercise are even more impressive. It not only relieves ordinary, everyday stress, but it’s as powerful an antidepressant as Prozac. Working out also enhances the biology of self-control by increasing baseline heart rate variability and training the brain. When neuroscientists have peered inside the brains of new exercisers, they have seen increases in both gray matter—brain cells—and white matter, the insulation on brain cells that helps them communicate quickly and efficiently with each other. Physical exercise—like meditation—makes your brain bigger and faster, and the prefrontal cortex shows the largest training effect.
作業(yè)：請(qǐng)分析以下的長(zhǎng)難句
1.Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self-control scientists have discovered.
2.Fifteen minutes on a treadmill reduces cravings, as seen when researchers try to tempt dieters with chocolate and smokers with cigarettes.
3.When neuroscientists have peered inside the brains of new exercisers, they have seen increases in both gray matter—brain cells—and white matter, the insulation on brain cells that helps them communicate quickly and efficiently with each other.
