R.S. from Chicago asks:
When we exercise outdoors on a cold day, why do we sweat and feel hot?
Try taking your temperature after a workout. It actually climbs! A part of the brain (the hypothalamus) responds to signals from temperature receptors throughout the body by making adjustments to maintain a constant core temperature. For example, your skin receptors reacting to merely standing still on a hot day may cause your hypothalamus to cool your body by cranking up your sweat rate.
But during exercise, your body produces its own excess heat, mostly from large muscle contractions. (Our bodies are inefficient engines, and we lose a lot of energy as heat.) No wonder your brain turns on the sweat machine. Just by working out hard, even in a cool gym, you may send your temperature to 104 degrees.
Can you guess the meaning? (See answer below.)
(a) a barely detectable advance
(b) a female ogre
(c) to return to one’s main point after a lengthy digression
(d) a furtive means of exit, as through a window, back door, or false bookcase
(e) a parliamentary body comprising a nation’s most self-important individuals