Ⅰ.阅读理解
Companies can save millions in health－care costs simply by encouraging their employees to exercise a little bit.Researchers report that obese employees have higher health－care costs, but they can lower those expenses by exercising just a couple of times a week—without even losing any weight.
Feifei Wang and his colleagues at the University of Michigan studied 23,500 workers at General Motors.They estimated that getting the most obese workers to exercise would have saved about $790,000 a year, or about 1.5 percent of health－care costs for the whole group.Company－wide, the potential savings could reach $7.1 million per year, according to their report published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Of the whole group of workers, about 30 percent were of normal weight, 45 percent were overweight, and 25 percent were obese.Annual health－care costs averaged $2,200 for normal weight, $2,400 for the overweight, and $2,700 for obese employees.But among workers who did no exercise, health－care costs went up by at least $100 a year, and were $3,000 a year for obese employees who were sedentary(久坐的)．
But adding two or more days of light exercise—at least 20 minutes of exercise or work hard enough to increase heart rate and breathing—lowered costs by on average $500 per employee a year, the researchers found.“This indicates that physical activity behavior could lessen at least some of the negative effects of excess body fat, and in consequence, help lower the increasing health－care costs，” Wang and his colleagues wrote.
本文是一篇说明文。公司要降低保健方面的费用，那就应该大力提倡员工多花时间锻炼身体。
1．The researchers believe companies can spend far less on health－care costs ________.
A．by encouraging employees to lose weight
B．by limiting the number of obese employees
C．by persuading employees to do physical activities
D．by limiting the employment of sedentary workers
答案：C
解析：细节理解题。根据第一段第一句“Companies can save millions in health－care costs simply by encouraging their employees to exercise a little bit.”可知，公司要想在保健方面减少支出，就得鼓励员工多锻炼。故C项正确。
2．What does the underlined word “obese” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A．Too strong. B．Too tall.
C．Too big. D．Too fat.
答案：D
解析：词义猜测题。根据第一段第二句“Researchers report that obese employees have higher health－care costs, but they can lower those expenses by exercising just a couple of times a week—without even losing any weight.”以及第二段第二句“They estimated that getting the most obese workers to exercise would have saved about $790,000 a year, or about 1.5 percent of health－care costs for the whole group.”可知，obese意为“臃肿的，肥胖的”。故D项正确。
3．Who were those that the researchers studied?
A．Some workers from a car－making company.
B．Some students from the University of Michigan.
C．A group of obese patients in a Michigan hospital.
D．The most obese group of workers at General Motors.
答案：A
解析：细节理解题。根据第二段第一句“Feifei Wang and his colleagues at the University of Michigan studied 23,500 workers at General Motors.”可知，研究对象是一家汽车制造公司的员工。故A项正确。
4．How much could General Motors save according to Wang's study?
A．$790,000 a year. B．$7.1 million a year.
C．$52.67 million a year. D．$11.75 million a year.
答案：B
解析：细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句“Company－wide, the potential savings could reach $7.1 million per year, according to their report...”可知，B项正确。
