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 our brains are not getting enough exercise--and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily soon. Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age, and how the process of aging could be slowed down. With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations. Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain, which relate to intellect   and emotion, and determine the human character. (The rear section of the brain, which controls functions like eating and breathing, does not contract with age, and one can continue living without intellectual or emotional faculties.) Contraction of front and side parts--as cells die off--was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in some sixty- and seventy-year-olds. Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age--using the head.  The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, as likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant.    Matsuzawa's findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need. "The best way to maintain good blood circulation is through using the brain," he says, "Think hard and engage in conversation. Don't rely on pocket calculators." According to the passage, which people seem to age slower than the others? A) Lawyers. B) Farmers. C) Clerks. D) Shop assistants.
A


(Question)
He only finished fourth in this year's Super Boy talent show. But it didn't stop him capturing the hearts of thousands of fans. He can hit high notes with ease. And he is very modest. Zhang Jie,25,shed  sweat and tears all the way through the competition, but he never gave up. "No matter how life treats him, he always fights back bravely ,"said Wu Chunyan, a Senior 2 student in Hubei. "He has never lost his dream of being a singer." The road to fame is always rocky, and Zhang is no exception. As a college student he was majoring in tourism. He was considering becoming a tourist guide after graduation until he entered a singing competition. His life changed after he competed in My Show. He won first place and signed with a record company. "I was very excited and regarded it as a way to take me closer to my dream," he said. But the company gave him little money to make music and slowly began to ignore him. Zhang even borrowed money to buy costumes. "Life has its ups and downs. But the tough reality only makes me stronger," he said. He forgot he was once a champion of a talent show and joined Super Boy. His decision got support from his family who worked hard to make ends meet. His mother sold rice noodles on a street in his hometown, but she said she would "support him forever." "I have the dream to buy a large house for my parents, where my mom can get a large window sill to grow flowers," said Zhang. Which of the following is the best title of the passage? A) An easy way to success B) A rocky path to success C) A clever boy D) A successful boy
(Answer)
B


Ques: Could smells affect your lifespan? Female fruit flies rid of the ability to smell food outlive their peers.The sense of smell may be linked to the cellular ageing process in many other organisms--even people.A link has recently been found between sensory experiences and lifespan in both worms and flies.For example, Scott Pletcher, a biologist at the University of Michigan, found that eliminating   fruit flies' ability to smell enabled them to live nearly 20 percent longer than flies with an intact sense of smell. Pletcher's team reasoned that food smells were the ones most likely to affect ageing, as nutrition and longevity are known to be linked in many organisms.To test the idea that food odors affect lifespan, Pletcher's team eliminated flies' ability to smell carbon dioxide, which is produced by some fly foods.They left the rest of the smelling system intact. This intervention had no effect on male flies, but the females lived 30 percent longer than normal.Pletcher thinks eliminating the ability to smell CO2may deprive flies of information about food availability.This could signal to cells that food is scarce, causing processes that promote survival.Indeed, his team found that the CO2-insensitive female flies stored extra fat and that both males and females immune to CO2were more resistant to stress than normal flies.Pletcher isn't sure why the change in his fruit flies only affected the lifespan of the females, but he suggests that females may simply be more sensitive to the odor of CO2. A smell or taste that stretches lifespan in humans could be a potential preventative for age-related disease, he adds.Although in fruit flies it appears to be the smell of CO2that affects ageing, he says that an analogue in humans might be a smell or taste linked to human food--or a lack of it.Matt Kaeberlein studies ageing at the University of Washington in Seattle. He cautions that we don't know whether ageing and smell are linked in mammals.But " we definitely undergo physiological changes in response to smelling... According to the results of Pletcher's study, we can see that   _  . A) male flies in general can live longer than female flies B) flies without ability to smell is inspired to find food in another way C) both male and female flies can live longer without the ability to smell D) flies without ability to smell can also get information about food availability
Ans:
B