【正文】 hicago. “I studied English before I left home, ”she said. “But I still was not sure that people were speaking English.” Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry. One such saying is “get your act together” ． When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, “Stop making mistakes. Get your act together.” Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, “Let us get our act together.” Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting anized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action. It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps the other day when one actor was nervous and made a lot of mistakes, the director may have said, “Calm down, now. Get your act together.” Word expert James Rogers says the expression was mon by the late 1970s. Mr. Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in 1978. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together. Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a pany meet. One pany even called its yearly report, “Getting Our Act Together.” The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is “cut to the chase”. She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one pany. One official was giving a very long and boring report, and finally, the president of the pany interrupted and said, “Cut to the chase.” Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant materials. Hurry and get to the point. And naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Next time, if your employer tells you to cut to the chase, be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly. 45. After the woman visited the United States she might feel that . A． her English was poorer than she had expected B． it was great fun to learn English and its culture C． American employers were sometimes rude D． it was difficult to do business with Americans 46. In which situation could the words “get your act together” be used? A． You’ve won a job opportunity in a law firm. B． Players perform badly in a match and seem to lose. C． Visitors make a tiresome and unpleasant trip to someplace. D． Audience is satisfied with the actor’s performance in a movie. 47. What do the sayings “get your a ct together” and “cut to the chase” have in mon? A． Their use. B． Their meaning. C． Their origin. D． Their popularity. 48. The text is most likely to be found in a book about . A. life attitude B. travel and culture C. language and culture D. business management C Here’s a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly. Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for long periods — even if you also exercise regularly — could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place — at the office, at school, in the car or before a puter or TV — just the overall number of hours it occurs. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die. In an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin EkblomBak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting. While health officials have issued guidelines remending minimum (最少的 ) amounts of physical activity, they haven’t suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position. “After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” EkblomBak said. She explained that genes regulating (調(diào)節(jié) ) the amount of glucose (葡萄糖 ) and fat in the body start to shut down. Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day — but still spend a lot of time sitting — might get more benefit if that exercise was spread across the day, rather than just doing once. Still, in a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, whether or not they exercised. “We don’t have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad,” said Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, who led the Canadian study. ”But it seems the more you can get up and interrupt this sedentary (坐著 的 ) behavior, the better.” Figures from a . survey in 20202020 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to si