Like distance runners on a measured course, all of us will move through time in a roughly predictable
pattern. In the first stage of our lives, we develop and grow, reaching toward the top of physical vitality.
After we grow up, however, the body begins a process of gradually wearing out.
     A new awareness of physical fitness may help lengthen our years of health and vitality, yet nothing we
do will work to stop the unavoidable force of aging.
Most of the changes of aging take place deep inside the body. The lungs become less able to take in
oxygen. Powerful muscles gradually lose their strength. The heart loses power and pumps less blood.
Bones grow easier to break.  
     Finally, we meet a stress, a stress that is greater than our physical resistance. Often, it is only a minor
accident or chance infection (a disease caused by virus), but this time, it brings life to an end.
In 1932, a classic experiment nearly doubled the lifetime of rats, simply by cutting back the calories in their diet. The reason for the effect was then unknown.
     Today, at the University of California at Berkley, Dr. Paul Seagle has also greatly lengthened the normal lifetime of rats. The result was achieved through a special protein limited diet, which had a great effect on
the chemistry of the brain. Seagle showed that within the brain, specific chemicals control many of the
signals that influence aging. By changing that chemical balance, the clock of aging can be reset.
    For the first time, the mystery of why we age is being seriously challenged. Scientists in many fields are
now making striking and far-reaching discoveries. An average lifetime lasts 75 years, yet in each of us lies
a potential for a longer life. If we could keep the vitality and resistance to disease that we have at age
twenty, we would live for 800 years.

1. What does the underlined word "it" refer to?
A. Physical vitality.    
B. Stress.
C. Aging.
D. Physical resistance.

2. Which of the following is not a change of aging？
A. The lungs become unable to take in oxygen.
B. People gradually lose their muscle strength.
C. The heart loses power and pumps less blood.
D. Bones tend to break more easily.

3. The author believes the following except that ________.

A. human's life pattern is predictable
B. physical fitness can't stop the force of aging
C. human's lifetime will last longer than 75 years
D. all of the changes of aging take place deep inside the body

4. How did Dr. Paul Seagle lengthen the lifetime of rats in his experiment?
A. By limiting the protein in their diet.
B. By cutting the calories in their diet.
C. By resetting their clock of aging.
D. By keeping their physical fitness.

5. What is probably the best title for the article?

A. Two Great Experiments  
B. The Mystery of Human Life
C. Ways to lengthen Human Life 
D. The Breakthrough in the Study of Aging

      My dad loved pennies, especially those with the elegant stalk of wheat curving around each side of the ONE CENT on the back. Those were the pennies he grew up with during the Depression (大萧条).
      As a kid, I would go for walks with Dad, spying coins along the way-a penny here, a dime
(一角硬币) there. Whenever I picked up a penny, he'd ask, "Is it a wheat?" It always thrilled him when
we found one of those special coins produced between 1909 and 1958, the year of my birth.
      One gray Sunday morning in winter, not long after my father's death in 2002, I was walking down Fifth Avenue, feeling bereft. I found myself in front of the church where Dad once worked. I was warmly shown in and led to a seat. Hearing Dad's favorite "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", I burst into tears. We'd sung
that at his funeral. After the service, I shook the pastor's hand and stepped onto the sidewalk-and there
was a penny. I bent to pick it up, turned it over, and sure enough, it was a wheat. A 1944, a year my
father was serving on a ship in the South Pacific.
      That started it. Suddenly wheat pennies began turning up on the sidewalks of New York everywhere. I got most of the important years: his birth year, my mom's birth year, the year he graduated from college,
the year he met my mom, the year they got married, the year my sister was born. But alas, no 1958 wheat penny-my year, the last year they were made.
      The next Sunday, after the service, I was walking up Fifth Avenue and spotted a penny in the middle of a crossing. Oh, no, it was a busy street；cabs were speeding by-should I risk it? I just had to get it.
A wheat! But the penny was worn, and I couldn't read the date. On arriving home, I took out my glasses
and took it to the light. There was my birthday!
      I found 21 wheat pennies on the streets of Manhattan in the year after my father died, and I don't think that's a coincidence.

1. The writer's father loved pennies with wheat because ________.

A. when he first saw it,he began to love it
B. when he saw the wheat,he thought of his time during the Depression
C. when he was young,he had a lot of pennies with wheat
D. when he was a child,he never got a coin with wheat

2. The underlined word "bereft" (in Para.3) means ________.

A. alone      
B. disappointed      
C. upset      
D. discouraged

3. Which of the following statements about the author is NOT true?                

A. He was born in 1958.            
B. He went to church because of his father.
C. He once worked in a church.     
D. He knew the church well.

4. The underlined sentence (in Para.4) suggests ________.

A. the author's father began to serve on a ship
B. the author picked up many wheat pennies since then
C. the author began to love wheat pennies since then
D. the author started to look for wheat pennies with 1958

5. The best title for the passage would probably be ________.
A. Pennies from Heaven            
B. My father's life story  
C. My father's hobby              
D. Living in New York

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