Reading Comprehension

　　Can earning a college diploma(文凭)make your heart healthier? Maybe not directly, but a study finds that people who went to college are less at risk of heart disease than other less-educated people．The study shows that blood pressure levels of people who didn’t go to college are much higher than that of college graduates．The study conducted(进行)physical examinations of thousands of people over 30 years．The men who didn’t continue their studies after high school had higher blood pressure than the men who completed college education．Meanwhile, the difference in women was even more obvious．A higher blood pressure level is a great risk factor for heart disease．

　　So how is it that the stress of trying to finish papers and assignments(作业)at college actually reduces students’ blood pressure? Most possibly, it is not education itself that lowers heart disease risk but other factors related to education．Generally, people without a college education earn less money, and other research shows that poverty is another factor of heart disease risk．Besides, there is an connection between poverty and obesity(肥胖),which also has a negative effect on heart health．

　　It looks like going to college has become more attractive：education benefits not only your brain but also your health．

阅读理解

　　It looks exactly like other handicraft (手工艺品) shops in a traditional Chinese hutong, or alley, except that each item has a story．The city’s first-of-its-kind charity shop, owned by Nathan Zhang, sells Chinese handicrafts along with used books, clothes and other items．The concept is that money from what is sold is donated to help rural (农村的) women in China．

　　“Many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) produce their own things but don’t have a place to sell it,”said Zhang, who returned to Beijing in 2008 after working in Canada for nearly a decade in the telecommunications world．“A rural women’s group tried to open a little shop but only sold two things．When they put their products in my shop, everything sold out．”

　　Located in Wudaoying Hutong in Dongcheng district, Brand Nu’s walls are lined with handicrafts from a number of different NGO supported projects aimed at benefiting women across the country．The other half of the space is filled with almost brand-new clothes that have been donated from Beijing citizens．The jackets, dresses, tops and pants sell for around 30 yuan (＄4.40) each．

　　Most of the money Brand Nu gets goes directly to the Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Women．The NGO offers a number of programs for poor women, including literacy classes (识字班), support networks and mental health education．

　　Zhang is also working with a local Scottish designer to create a clothing line made from the fabric (织物) of second-hand garments．And he is collecting books and raising money to help the NGO build a library near Beijing．He plans on expanding his product line soon as well, engaging more disadvantaged women to make sweaters, soaps and other items that he can sell in Beijing to help raise their socioeconomic status in the countryside．

　　Yet with ambitions come worries．Right now Zhang is operating on a shoestring budget and looking for work on the side to support both his business and his family．“I wanted to do something meaningful,”said Zhang．“If you can help one woman, you can help an entire family．”

阅读理解

　　A chicken or egg question about the early universe has been answered by astronomers saying black holes came before galaxies(星系)．

　　Most if not all galaxies, including our Milky Way, are believed to have massive black holes in central parts．But did the black holes come first, helping to build galaxies by pulling material towards them, or did they arise in the centre of already formed galaxies?According to new research, the former is most likely to be true．

　　“It looks like the black holes came first,”said Dr Chris, from the US Astronomy Observatory．“The evidence is piling up．”

　　Earlier studies had shown a link between the masses of black holes and the central“bulges”of stars and gas in galaxies．Generally, the black hole's mass was about one 1,000th the mass of the surrounding galactic bulge．This indicated a relationship between the black hole and the bulge．What was not clear was whether one grew before the other, or whether they grew together．

　　New radio telescope observations reaching back almost to the birth of the first galaxies may have answered that question．Radio waves received from these galaxies were sent out about a billion years after the Big Bang(大爆炸)which started the universe．These young distant galaxies had much larger black holes in relation to their bulge mass than older and closer galaxies．

　　“The implication is that the black holes started growing first,”said Dr Fabian, a German scientist．

　　The next challenge is to work out how the black hole and the bulge affect each other's growth, said the astronomers．