Lesson 8 : Walks

Yes, I like walking, and I feel it’s the best part of my daily routine which I do after my dinner. I get time to talk to my mom while walking. It also helps to refresh my mood.

Yes, there are a lot of walking areas. There are many parks not only in our locality but in every nook and corner of the city in which there are walking spaces, basic exercise equipment and also a lot of rides for children to play.

Yes, mostly the old people and the youth are concerned about their health. People tend to take a long walk out for refreshing their minds or for health purposes.

Describe a long walk that you enjoyed.
You should say

– when you went on this walk
– where it took place
– what you saw while you were walking
– and explain why you enjoyed the walk.

Yeah, lots of Chinese people go for walks. Any time I walk by a park late at night, I always see people taking a stroll and looking pretty content. I think they do it for the same reason people worldwide who live in big cities walk: it feels good to get outside when they have been stuck inside all day. Also, walking in parks gives people a taste of nature in a concrete world.

Walking is beneficial for our health. First, and perhaps now obvious, is the physical benefits. Walking is exercise. which is important for everyone. Just as important is the good walking does for your mind. For me at least, when I can walk somewhere, it gives me a good opportunity to think about things and not feel stuck inside. I get to feel the sun and the fresh air.

Walking and playing sports are both good for your body. They both improve your physical health, though sports does a better job at that. When playing sports, you are more active and your heart rate increases, so your body has to work harder, which makes the exercise more beneficial. But, walking does a lot of good for your mental health. It provides a great escape from the working world, and gives the mind a good opportunity to just wander. So if you’re just measuring your physical health, sports are better for your body, but if you look at mental as well, they are equally good for your health.

I think that yes, people in the past did more walking. People today have many more distractions that occupy time that was once spent walking. They go on the Internet, or watch TV, or play video games. In the past, there was less to do, so people walked a lot more. Whether it was walking somewhere or walking just to walk, I think they did a lot more.

I think that it is not really the standard of living that affects how much people walk. As long as you are talking about walking for pleasure, I think the main variable is how people value their time. For instance, rich, busy people and poor people that have to work really hard to scrape by, probably don’t have that much time to walk. But people that value life more than money probably walk more often because they want to enjoy themselves every once in a while. If you are talking about all kinds of walking, though, rich people walk less, obviously, because they can afford other modes of transportation.

In my opinion, the best way to get people to walk more would be to build more places where people would enjoy walking. Parks or nice tree-lined streets would be a good way to start. People are much more likely to walk in places that are nice as opposed to places that feel grimy. Other than that, I think most Chinese cities are pretty walker-friendly. Lots and lots of people walk and that is a really good thing.

Well, obviously, many postal workers must walk their routes in order to deliver the mail. As for other jobs where people walk a lot, though, I can’t think of many: Different kinds of deliverymen and waiters and waitresses are the two best examples of these kinds of jobs. Other than that, I don’t think companies need employees to walk. It’s more efficient for them to either stay in one place or to get around by other modes of transportation.