If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of out brains are not getting enough exercise, and as a result, we are growing old unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why quite healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a rather early age, and how the speed of getting old could be slowed down.
With a team of researchers at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain sizes of a thousand people of different ages with different jobs.
Computer technology helped the researchers to get most exact measurements of the sizes of the front and side parts of the brain, which have something to do with thinking and feeling, and decide the human character. As we all know, the back part of the brain, which controls task like eating and breathing, does not contract(萎缩) with age.
Contraction of front and side parts, as cells(细胞) die off, was seen in some people in their thirties, but it was still not found in some sixty and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to prevent the contraction---using the head.
The findings show that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than those in the towns. Those with least possibility, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White-collar workers doing the same work day after day in government offices are, however, as possible to have contracting brains as the farm workers, bus drivers and shop assistants.
【小题1】 The team of doctors wanted to find out ____.

Most Americans have a city they like best. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music. More songs have been written about America's biggest city, New York, than about any other city. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. 

    Almost three-million people live in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago. "

     One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top.

As we all know, one of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records.

Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second largest city. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A." Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know The Way To San Jose."

Songs about American Cities

States       

1.__________    Features                       Songs                              Songwriters/ Band

         New York  America's biggest city        A song about New York     

2.____________

Illinois       Chicago,   

3. America's ____________ city        "Chicago, Chicago"             Judy Garland

4.________     

5._________      America's second largest city                              6._________            Randy Newman

San Francisco   

7.___________        "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."    

8.____________

9.________     

small          "Do You Know The Way To San Jose  

Dionne Warwick

Nevada    

Las Vegas 

exciting    A song from "Viva Las Vegas."   

10. the group ___________

As we all know．____life is hard for any of us. If we live___ happy life，we must all work harder.

A．／：／    B．／；a C．a；／     D．a；a

As we all know, a man's worth cannot be ______ by his looks.

.

第二节：完形填空（共20小题，每题1分，满分20分）

Never Miss The Chance

Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel _36_ to work.

There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eye. I've noticed that it blooms only in the _37_ hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it. Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

This spring, I _38_ a wildflower garden in our yard. I can look out of the kitchen window while_39_ the dishes and see the flowers. I've _40_ thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditch would look _41_ in that bed alongside other wildflowers. Every day I drove past the flowers_42_ , "I'll stop on my way home and dig them." "Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty..." _43_ the reason, I never stopped to dig them. My husband even gave me a folding shovel one year for my trunk to be used for that _44_ purpose.

One day on my way home from work, I _45_ to see that the highway department had mowed the ditches and the pretty blue flowers were_46_. I thought to myself, "Way to go, you waited too long. You should have done it when you first saw them _47_ this spring."

A week ago we were _48_ and saddened to learn that my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor. She is 20 years older than my husband and_49_ , because of age and distance, we haven't been as _50_ as we all would have liked. I couldn't help but_51_  the connection between the pretty blue flowers and the _52_ between my husband's sister and us. I do believe that God has given us some time_53_  to plant some wonderful _54_ that will bloom every year for us.

And yes, if I see the blue flowers again, you can bet I'll stop and _55_ them to my wildflower garden.

36.A. everyday          B. daily                      C. Dayly                      D. one day

37.A. morning         B. evening                 C. night                        D. noon

38.A. began           B. put                         C. started               D. set

39.A. done                   B. do                          C. doing                       D. to do

40.A seldom           B. hardly            C. often             D. never

41.A. great             B. greatly                   C. well                         D. greater

42.A. thought               B. thinking                 C. considering               D. considered

43.A. Why                   B. However                C. Whatever                 D. Whenever

44.A. expressing           B. expressed         C. express                D. to express

45.A.was saddened      B. saddened          C. sad                    D. have saddend

46.A. missed           B. going             C. losing            D. gone

47.A. opening               B. blooming          C. becoming           D. moving

48.A. surprising            B. shocked           C. moved                D. shocking

49.A. fortunately           B. luckily            C. unlucky             D. unfortunately

50.A. closed           B. near              C. close             D. nearby

51.A. see              B. to see             C. seeing            D. saw

52.A. friendship           B. leadership         C. hardship              D. relationship

53.A. remained             B. leaving                   C. left              D. remain

54.A. remember        B. memorial          C. memories           D. Memory

55.A. plant                   B. grow                      C. transplant           D. transport