The ability of the mind to control the body is not only true for great athletes. Ellen Langer is a psychologist who is interested in the mind-body relationship. She studied hotel housekeepers who spent all day at work bending, stretching, and lifting. Langer asked them, “Are you physically active?” They said no, they did not get much exercise. Medical tests agreed. The housekeepers had the same physical health as office workers. This result did not make sense to Langer. The women were getting a lot of good exercise. Why weren’t they showing any benefits?
Langer decided to do an experiment. She told half of the housekeepers that their jobs involved a lot of physical exercise. She told them that pushing a vacuum cleaner, changing sheets, and cleaning a bathroom required s lot of energy. She said these activities used the same amount of energy that people use when they work out at the gym. After a mount, Langer retested all the women. This time, the results were different. Half of the housekeepers were thinner, fitter, and healthier. These were the housekeepers who thought they were working out. In fact, these housekeepers had not done anything differently. The only change was in their minds. They believed they should get fitter and healthier. As soon as the housekeepers believed that, their bodies showed positive effects.
Tiger Woods, Lewis Gordon Pugh, and the housekeepers are all examples of the power of the mind and the mind’s mysterious relationship to the body.
4. Reading Check
A. Match the people to the activity.
1.____ Tiger Woods a. could control body temperature
2.____ Lewis Gordon Pugh b. believed could lose weight, and did
3.____ Housekeepers c. could block out distractions
B. Circle the letter of the best answer.
1. Tiger Woods first received mental training from____.
a. his parents b. his teacher c. other golfers
2. Woods’s father helped his son become a great golfer by teaching him___.
a. Buddhist philosophy
b. to hit balls over the house
c. to block out distractions
3. Lewis Gordon Pugh is famous because he____.
a. is the youngest swimmer in England
b. won several Olympic medals in swimming
c. can swim in cold water longer than anyone else
4. How long can Pugh stay in freezing water?
a. 20 minutes b. 30 minutes c. 60 minutes
5. How does Pugh prepare for an ice swim?
a. He wears protective clothing
b. He trains physically and mentally
c. He eats and drinks only cold foods.
6. Who is Ellen Langer?
a. an athlete
b. a psychologist
c. a hotel housekeeper
7. One group of housekeepers did nothing different. The other group___.
a. did extra physical activity
b. was compared to office workers
c. learned that they were getting exercise
8. The housekeeper study showed the power of___.
a. staying fit
b. the mind
c. hard work
5. Vocabulary check
A. Retell the story. Fill in the blanks with the correct words from the box.
Block out challenging concentration distractions dives
Fitter mental stretching tournaments working out
Sometimes, __________ preparation is just as important as physical preparation. Tiger Woods is a great golfer partly because he can ignore all__________. This is important in golf__________, where crowds of people follow the players and sometimes make noise. Tiger Woods, however, is able to__________ everything but the game.__________ is also very important to Lewis Gordon Pugh. He is an ice swimmer who prepares by imagining_________ situations. Before he___________ into the freezing water, he focuses intensely and raises his body temperature.
Mental control is not just helpful to great athletes. Hotel housekeepers spend all day at work bending, __________ , and lifting. They do not think of this as exercise. However, when housekeepers were told that their work was similar to__________ at a gym, their bodies changed. They became__________ just because they changed the way they thought about their work.
B. Some words have the same from for the noun and the verb. How are the underlined words used in the sentences? Circle noun or verb.
1. She is under a great deal of stress right now. noun verb
2. Where can we safely dive? noun verb
3. It is always hard to find the time to exercise. noun verb
4. Exercise is important for a healthy life. noun verb
5. You should always stretch before you run. noun verb
6. Applying reading skills
Each paragraph has a main idea. The main idea is what the paragraph is about. Finding the main idea of a paragraph is a key reading skill.
A. Look back at the reading, and find the correct paragraph for each main idea.
Main idea