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I Read the article and answer the questions below.

Couch potato lifestyles of the internet generation 'creating weak children'[1] by David Derbyshire


Childhoods dominated by computer games, TV and Facebook have resulted in a generation of ten-year-old weaklings, research suggests.

Modern primary school children are less fit and less muscular than they were a decade ago, leaving them unable to carry out simple physical exercises that youngsters once took in their stride.

Today’s ten-year-olds can do fewer sit-ups than children managed in the late 1990s, and are less able to hang from wall bars in a school gym. Their arms are weaker and their ability to grip objects tightly has declined, researchers say.

The findings, based on a study of more than 300 Essex primary school children, highlight the damage that a couch potato lifestyle is having on young people.

Experts say computer games and social networking have replaced outdoor play, den-making and tree-climbing for millions of children.

Over-anxious parenting, where children are not allowed out of sight for fear of traffic dangers and paedophiles, has also contributed to the decline in children’s fitness.

Dr Gavin Sandercock, a child fitness expert at Essex University, told The Observer: ‘This is probably due to changes in activity patterns among English ten-year-olds, such as taking part in fewer activities like rope-climbing and tree-climbing.

‘Typically, these activities boosted children’s strengths, making them able to lift and hold their own body weight.’

The study, published in the child health journal Acta Paediatrica, compared the physical fitness of 315 ten-year-olds in 2008 with 309 children of the same age tested in 1998.

Five per cent of children were unable to hold their own weight when hanging from a bar in 1998. Ten years later, that figure had doubled to 10 per cent.

Over the same period the arm strength of children fell by 26 per cent, while their grip strength declined by 7 per cent.

The number of sit-ups fell by 27 per cent over the decade.

However, Dr Sandercock found that the average body mass index for ten-year-olds – the measure of obesity that takes into account someone’s weight and height – stayed the same between 1998 and 2008.

That means the children’s bodies are likely to contain less muscle and more fat.

Two years ago Dr Sandercock showed that fitness levels in British children were falling faster than anywhere else in the world.

Tam Fry, of the Child Growth Foundation, said: ‘We are short-changing children by not giving them enough physical exercise in schools.

‘They are supposed to get two hours a week at school when they actually need one hour every day.’

 

Are youngsters today stronger compared to those growing up ten years ago?

Has physical strength of youngsters increased or declined over the course of years?

Which activities have been replaced by playing computer games and social networking?

Do you think children and youngsters get enough physical exercise nowadays?



Name some outdoor activities for children.

 

 

 
 

 


Someone who spends all his/her time on the computer surfing the net or playing games is called a mouse potato.

 

 

II. COMPLETE THE TEXT BELOW. USE THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

Activity / life / health / lift / sitting / couch / little / physical / beer / lying / television

A couch potato is a person who spends most of his/her free time ……………or ……………… on a couch. The stereotype often refers to overweight men who watch a lot of …………………., sometimes in their underwear, and sometimes drinking ………... Generally speaking, the term refers to a lifestyle in which children or adults don't get enough physical …………….

Everyone needs to relax, but too much time on the …………..and too much time with TV remote control in your hand can cause serious ………………. problems. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently found out that between 60 and 85 percent of people worldwide lead lifestyles with ……………… physical activity.

The human body functions best when it is active, and couch potatoness can cause dramatically increased risks of :

  • colon cancer
  • breast cancer
  • skin cancer
  • heart disease
  • high blood pressure
  • stroke
  • arthritis
  • diabetes

Physical activity — even walking for as little as a half-hour each day — can greatly reduce the risk for these major medical problems. An active lifestyle, or more ……………….. activity, can also help maintain healthy body weight, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improve quality of sleep.

Sweating is a way that the body gets rid of toxins.

An excellent way to stay healthy is to stay active. You can go swimming, rock-climbing, work up a sweat at the gym, dance, walk around the neighborhood, take the stairs rather than the …………., and/or you can get off at an earlier bus stop. You can get moving in so many ways that you are certain to find one or more that you enjoy and can stick with.

Anything that makes you put down the remote and get off of the couch is a step toward a healthy, more fulfilling, and longer ………….

 


[1] Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1389809/Couch-potato-lifestyles-internet-generation-creating-weak-children.html#ixzz2RsmvD5Kk
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Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1145


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