::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Education

Discussion
Discuss the following questions
1. How do you keep fit? Do you do any regular exercise like walking?
2. Do you do any housework? If you do give some details.
3. Do you think housework is a form of exercise? Can it keep you fit? Why or why not?

Vocabulary
The following words are from today's article. Match them with their meaning.

Words	Meanings
1. shed excess pounds	a. overweight
2. exhausting	b. choice
3. option	c. measurement of heartbeat
4. brisk walk	d. lose extra weight
5. epidemiologist	e. very tiring
6. obese	f. a walk at a quick pace
7. pulse rate	g. a person who studies the spread and control of diseases

Reading Activities
Main Idea
The headline and first paragraph of an article often provide the main idea of what an article is about. Read Part One of today's article and decide which of the following sentences best sums up the main idea.
1. Housework is very tiring.
2. A lot of older women do not exercise enough.
3. Walking is good for your health.
4. Housework does not help you keep fit.

Scanning for information
Complete the table with information from Part Two of the article.
Name of University that conducted the survey:
Dr. Ebrahim's job at the university:
Country where the university is situated:
Age of women in survey:
Number of women in survey:
Percentage of those surveyed who enjoyed brisk walking:
Percentage of those surveyed who did more than 2.5 hours a week gardening:
Percentage of those surveyed who did heavy housework:
Name of journal that published the survey results:
Health benefits of vigorous walking or gardening for 2.5 hours a week:
Health benefits of housework:

Part Two

(….Continued.) Brisk walking is a much healthier option and a better way to keep fit than mopping floors, dusting and cleaning windows, particularly for older women between the ages of 60-79.
'Older women need to be doing more physical activity. Housework probably does not cut the mustard,' said Dr.Shah Ebrahim, an epidemiologist and expert on ageing at the University of Bristol, in south-west England.
In a survey of over 2300 elderly women in Britain, 10 percent said they enjoyed brisk walking, one percent did more than 2.5 hours of gardening a week and more than half reported doing heavy housework.
But Ebrahim and his colleagues said although housework requires physical activity it does not seem to have any health benefits.
'When we look at things that we think would go along with being physically active and fit, like pulse rate and obesity levels, they don't show any relationship with housework,' Ebrahim, whose research is reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, explained.
Women in the survey who walked vigorously for 2.5 hours a weeks or did an equal amount of gardening were less likely to be obese and had a lower resting heart rate, which is a sign of physical fitness.
Although housework requires effort, Ebrahim said more research needs to be done on its long-term benefits before it can be included as a health--promoting activity.
'It has been the subject of very little scientific study because most men don't do it, I suspect, and most science is done by men,' he added.

True / False / Not Given
Read the article again and decide whether these statements are True or False according to the article. If there is no information in the article about the statement, write Not Given.
1. Walking is better for your health than housework.
2. Older women do too much housework.
3. Older women need to exercise more.
4. Housework helps you lose weight.
5. There are more health benefits to doing housework than vigorous walking and gardening.
6. Housework needs to be researched more.
Think Carefully
Answer the following questions using both information from the article and your own ideas.
1. The article says that brisk or vigorous walking is good for your health. Why does it need to be brisk or vigorous?
2. The article also says that 'brisk walking is a much healthier option than housework.' Why is brisk walking better for your health than housework?
3. Professor Ebrahim says that housework has not been researched much because most men do not do it. Is the situation changing in Bangladesh or do women still do all or most of the housework?
4. Rank the following activities from 1 to 12 according to how much you think they benefit your health. 1 is the most beneficial activity and 12 is the least.

aerobics      cleaning your house      gardening       meditation
playing tennis      reading a book      running riding a bicycle
shopping      swimming      walking      weight lifting

Vocabulary
The suffix –ologist is frequently used in medicine to refer to someone who specialises in a particular branch of medicine or the treatment of a certain part of the body. Complete the following sentences. The first one has been done for you as an example. You may use a dictionary to help you.
a. An epidemiologist is a person who studies the spread of diseases.
b. A cardiologist….
c. A neurologist….
d. An ophthalmologist….
e. A gastro-entomologist….
f. A dermatologist….

Complete the following table with an appropriate noun or adjective for these words in today's article

Nouns	Adjectives
obesity
benefit
	consuming
activity
	vigorous
	scientific
health
	fit
	exhausting

Answers:
Vocabulary: 1 d 2- e 3 b 4 f 5 g 6 - a 7 - c
Main idea: 4
True/false/not given: 1 T, 2 NG, 3 T, 4 NG, 5 F, 6 T
Word forms: obese, beneficial, consumption, active, vigour, science, healthy, fitness, exhaustion.