Next time you hear a funny joke you'd better not laugh too hard. According to a paper published by the British Medical Journal , laughter isn't always the best medicine. Sometimes it can even be harmful. Professor Robin Ferner from the University  of Birmingham, one of the authors of the study, found that bad things could happen to people who laughed too much. He says, "We found people with heartbeat problems which had stopped their hearts, we found people who had fainted (昏倒),and we found people who'd dislocated their jaws or burst their lungs."

It seems that laughing can be no laughing matter. But it's not all doom and gloom. Professor Ferner says there are benefits to laughing when you want to lose weight, for example. Yes, that's right: laugh and be slimmer! Professor Ferner explains, " You use energy when you laugh, you move your diaphragm(横JH膜), you expand your lungs, and both those things can be helpful.,,

According to the research, laughing for a quarter of an hour can burn up to 40 calories, and if you laugh all day you'll use up about 2, 000 calories, which is what most people consume in a day. But don't do that or you might end up with a painful jaw. Ouch! Or you might find people looking at you in a funny way.

But I don't want to finish this article leaving you feeling desperate. Laughter comes naturally for most of us. Babies begin to laugh at around 3〜6 months. So give in to your sense of humour and keep smiling. Life is short anyway.

1.    Laughing too much may cause the following harmfulresults EXCEPT     .

A.    heart stop

B.    diaphragm movement

C.    lung burst

D.    jaw dislocation

2.    The underlined phrase " doom and gloom" in Paragraph 2 probably means " 

A. hopeless     B. funny

C.  painful    D. nervous

3.    How many calories can you use if you laugh for half a day?

A.    About 40.

B.    About 1, 000.

C.    About 2, 000.

D.    About 2, 040.

4.    What is the author's attitude towards laughing in the last paragraph?

A, Uninterested.     B. Disapproving.

C.  Worried.  D. Favourable.

When most of us hear the word chocolate, the verb that comes to mind is probably "eat", not "drink", and the most proper adjective would seem to be "sweet". But for about 90 per cent of chocolate's long history, it was strictly a beverage (饮料),and sugar didn't have anything to do with it.

The origin of chocolate

Many modern historians have estimated that choco?late has been around for about 2,000 years, but recent research suggests that it may be even older.

In the book The True History of Chocolate , au?thors Sophie and Michael Coe prove that the earliest lin?guistic (语言 学的) evidence of chocolate consumption dates back three or even four thousand years.

Valuable and fashionable chocolate beverage

It's hard to discover exactly when chocolate was born, but it's clear that it was cherished from the start. For several centuries in pre-modern Latin America, ca?cao beans were considered valuable enough to be used as currency. 100 beans could purchase a good hen, accord?ing to a 16th-century Aztec document.

Sweetened chocolate didn't appear until Europeans discovered the Americans and sampled(品尝)the native cuisine. Chocolate didn't suit the foreigners' taste at first―one described it in his writings as "a bitter drink for pigs"―but once mixed with honey or cane sugar, it quickly became popular throughout Spain. By the 17th century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe , believed to have nutritious , medicinal func?tions. But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s.

The birth of solid chocolate

In 1828, a Dutch chemist found a way to make powdered chocolate. His product became known as "Dutch cocoa", and it soon led to the creation of solid chocolate. In 1847, Joseph Fry created the first modern chocolate bar. By 1868, a little company called Cadbury was marketing boxes of chocolate candies in England.

Milk chocolate hit the market a few years later. Prosperous chocolate industry

InAmerica, chocolate was so valued during the Revolutionary War that it was used instead of wages. Even now, statistics show that the humble cacao bean is still a powerful economic force. Chocolate manufactur?ing is a more than 4-billion-dollar industry in theUnited States, and the average American eats at least half a pound of the stuff per month.

1.    The earliest chocolate was most probably .

A.  a dish    B.  a drink    C.  a bar       D.  a candy

2.    It can be inferred from the passage that .

A.    the history of chocolate is at most 4,000 years

B.    people around the world could buy things with chocolate

C.    chocolate was well paid attention to since it was born

D.    an American at least eats a pound of chocolate per month

3.    Why did chocolate suit the Spanish's taste so quickly?

A.    Because chocolate was so tasty and bitter.

B.    Because chocolate was believed to be a source of nutrition.

C.    Because chocolate was sweetened with honey or cane sugar.

D.    Because chocolate became a fashionable beverage.

4.    Which one shows the correct order according to the time of their appearing?

A.    chocolate beverage —chocolate bar ― chocolate candies—milk chocolate

B.    chocolate bar ― chocolate beverage ― chocolate candies—milk chocolate

C.    chocolate bar — chocolate candies —milk choco?late—chocolate beverage

D.    chocolate beverage —chocolate candies choco?late bar—milk chocolate

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