1 . Where does the conversation take place most probably?

A．In the classroom.

B．In an office.

C．In a hospital.

2 . If you don't use it, you lose it. At least, that's how the old saying goes. It refers to the idea that something which does not get used regularly quickly falls into a state of decline. Muscles, for example, will waste away without use. In order to resist this, people take regular exercise to keep their skills sharp.

Well, what about the brain? As we age, our brains can naturally begin to decline. In some cases, this can lead to certain mental conditions such as dementia(痴呆)，which I'm sure you will agree, no one wants. However, all is not lost because these days it's relatively easy to train your brain. Smart phones and apps have put programmes into our hands that can test, maintain and even improve our memories, mathematical skills and a lot of other mental abilities. With a little practice every day, we can keep our brains nice and sharp, right?

Well, no, actually. According to a report from the Global Council on Brain Health, even though many people thought it was important to play online games, such as puzzles and mind games, which are designed to improve brain health, the evidence of the benefits was “weak to non-existent”.

There are other ways to promote the old grey matter. It recommends seeking out new activities that challenge the way you think and are socially engaging，while leading to a healthy lifestyle. Among their suggestions are practising tai chi, taking photography classes, learning new technologies, gardening, art projects or volunteering.

There's more good news, too, James Goodwin, chief scientist at Age UK has said that brain decline is not inevitable (不可避免的）. As long as the activities are “new to you and require your concentrated attention”, they can provide benefits for brain health. So, hurry up, get out there and try something new. Maybe it's time to try that hobby you've always wanted to do. And as for me? I'm off to learn the piano.

1. From which is the text probably taken?

A．A biology textbook.	B．A healthy magazine.
C．A travel brochure.	D．A research paper.

2. Which has the closest meaning of the underlined words “socially engaging”？

A．Making more shopping.	B．Avoid brain decline.
C．Doing exercises alone.	D．Going out with friends.

3. Which of the following can better keep your brain healthy according to the author?

A．Trying something new.	B．Using smart phone regularly.
C．Playing games online.	D．Doing what you are good at.

4. What does the passage mainly tell us?

A．Advantages of trying something new.

B．Disadvantages of using smart phones.

C．Ways to keep our brain as sharp as possible.

D．How to spend time meaningfully at an old age.

3 . Your Use of Technology May Be Causing You Pain

Have you ever bent your head down to look at a screen until your neck muscles hurt？    1     Tech neck occurs when the use of phones, computers and other technology causes neck pain. It's a common problem, and it's on the rise.

    2    They can also move your head around and even stretch it forward for a short amount of time. But bending your head forward for long periods of time can strain your muscles. That can make them sore.

But it's probably not realistic to expect people to give up their phones to avoid tech neck.    3     You can do things to avoid tech neck even while keeping your smartphone.

First you can hold your phone up so you don't have to bend down to look at it. But this can be tiring for your arms. So keep your head upright, and look only with your eyes. Try to sit up straight as well.

Also, take breaks.    4     If you've been sitting, stand up and walk around. Moving your body will help relax your muscles.

If you continue experiencing tech neck, you can do exercises to strengthen your neck muscles. Tech neck is a common result of using today's technology, but it doesn't have to be.    5    

A．In the past people spent most of their time looking up.

B．And giving up technology altogether isn't necessary.

C．If so, you've experienced tech neck.

D．Once in a while, look up from your screen, and roll your shoulders back.

E．They often hold them at waist or chest level.

F．Your neck muscles are designed to hold your head upright.

G．If you're aware of the problem, you can take measures to avoid it.

4 . Eyesight plays a very important role in our daily life. Every waking moment, the eyes are working to see the world around us. Over forty percent of Americans worry about losing eyesight, but it's easy to include steps into our daily life to ensure healthy eyes. Here are five suggestions for a lifetime of healthy eyesight:

Schedule yearly exams.

    1     Experts advise parents to bring babies 6 to 12 months of age to the doctor for a careful check. The good news is that millions of children now can have yearly eye exams and following treatment, including eyeglasses.

Protect against UV rays .

Long-term stay in the sun creates risk to your eyes. No matter what the season is, it’s extremely important to wear sunglasses.     2     Give your eyes a break.

Two-thirds of Americans spend up to seven hours a day using computers or other digital products.     3     Experts recommend that people practice the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away.

    4    .

As part of a healthy diet, eat more fruits and vegetables each day. Vitamins C and E help protect eyesight and promote eye health.

Practice safe wear and care of contact lenses.

Many Americans use contact lenses to improve their eyesight. While some follow the medical guidance for wearing contact lenses, many are breaking the rules and putting their eyesight at risk.     5    

Otherwise: you may have problems such as red eyes, pain in the eyes, or a more serious condition.

A．Eat your greens.

B．Eye care should begin early in life.

C．They can properly protect your eyes.

D．Stay in good shape by taking more vitamins.

E．Parents usually don’t care about their own eyesight.

F．Always follow the doctor’s advice for appropriate wear.

G．This frequent eye activity increases the risk for eye tiredness.

5 . Do you know that you have “body amour（防弹衣）”? Yes, you do.     1     Here are three protective body parts and how they work.

Skin

Your skin might not feel much like the outside of an armoured tank, but it really gives you a lot of protection.     2     Skin also protects our bones, muscles and insides by covering them up. Our skin may not be that tough when we touch it, but it can be very tough when it counts.     3     The skin may get scraped（擦伤）and become bruised（青肿的）, but it helps to keep our bones safe so that they don't break easily.

Eyelashes（眼睫毛）and Eyelids

The little soft eyelashes attached to our eyelids are constantly working to blink（眨眼）away dust that would hurt our eyes. Our eyelashes and eyelids use reflex actions to close when danger comes near. Actually if we had to tell our eyelids to close, we could not do it fast enough to offer any real protection for our eyes. When our eyes and brain notice something that might be dangerous, they use lightening fast reflexes to close.     4    .

Hair

    5     This is a kind of body amour that is very useful, since the sun shines down on our heads all day. Without this covering of hair it would be easy for us to get sunburnt on the top of our heads. We lose about 50 individual hairs from our scalp every day. But most of us have lots of new ones that are replacing them.

A．Think about what happens when we fall.

B．This protection keeps our eyes safe and sound.

C．But you might not know how the armour works.

D．Some of your personal armour might affect you.

E．The hair on our heads protects our soft scalps（头皮）.

F．By closing eyes, your eyelashes block out light closer to you.

G．Our skin is the biggest organ in our entire body and it helps to keep us safe.

6 . Humans were designed to stand upright(直立). And yet in this modern world, too many of us spend our days with our heads lowered for a simple reason: we’re staring at the tiny screen of a smart phone.

People spend an average of 2 to 4 hours each day with their neck bent while shooting off emails or texts. That’s 700 to 1,400 hours a year. The success of social media has led to a rapid development of bad smart phone posture.

The average adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it’s in the upright position. However, because of the gravity, bending your head at a mere 15 degree puts 27 pounds of pressure on your spine(脊椎)；a 30 degree neck bend could equal(等于) 40 pounds of pressure; a 45 degree bend adds the force of 49 pounds, according to the research from Dr. Kenneth Hansraj from New York. These stresses may lead to many problems.

It’s no secret that correct posture is better for your back. According to the researchers, good posture is described as ears aligned(成一条直线) with the shoulders. In proper alignment, spinal stress disappeared. It is the best position for the spine. Standing tall doesn’t just make you look better; it improves your health, too. Other studies have found good posture has even been connected to ways of behaving. People who have poorer posture often have poorer physical and emotional health.

The researchers describe bad posture（姿势）as “the head in a forward position and the shoulders dropping forward in a rounded position”. Bad posture has been connected to many medical problems, including headaches and other problems, depression and heart disease. This is why Hansraj said it’s important to be mindful of your smart phone posture. While it is nearly impossible to avoid the technologies that cause these problems, people should make an effort to look at their phones with a correct posture.

1. Through the underlined sentence in paragraph 2, the author wants to show that _______.

A．the social media have its bad side

B．the social media have made a great success

C．people have to use social media unavoidably

D．more and more people are using smart phones

2. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．It’s healthy to bend your back regularly.

B．Your back is getting exercise as you bend it.

C．The average weight of an adult head always changes.

D．The more you bend your neck, the heavier the head becomes.

3. What is the correct posture?

A．Bend your head within 15 degrees.

B．Raise and lower your head in turn.

C．Drop your head forward in a rounded position.

D．Keep the positions of the neck and shoulders in a line.

4. Where does the text most probably come from?

A．A text book.	B．A health report.
C．A research plan.	D．A book review.

7 . Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men's hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.

The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women's longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.

"We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20--25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,”said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

"Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70，one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,”said Goldspink. "This is part of the ageing process."

What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman's heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one's.

"This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,”said Goldspink.

They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80，focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.

The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, said Goldspink.

The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.

1. The underlined word“longevity" in the second paragraph probably refers to ______.

A．health

B．long life

C．ageing

D．effect

2. The text mainly talks about ______.

A．men's heart cells	B．women's ageing process、
C．the gender difference	D．hearts and long life

3. According to the text, the UK scientists have known that

A．women have more cells than men when they are born

B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat

C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age

D．women never lose their pumping power with age

4. If you want to live longer, you should_______.

A．enable your heart to beat much faster

B．find out the reason for ageing

C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy

D．prevent your cells from being lost

5. We can know from the passage that________.

A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out

B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells

C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss

D．women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20

8 . Easy Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp

Everyone is forgetful, but as we age, we start to feel like our brains are slowing down a bit- -and that can be a very annoying thing.     1    Read on for some techniques worth trying.

1.     2    

People who regularly made plans and looked forward to upcoming events had a 50 percent reduced chance of Alzheimer’s disease (早老性痴呆症)，according to a recent study.     3    Something as simple as setting a goal to have a weekly coffee date with a friend will do. There’s evidence that people who have a purpose in life or who are working on long or short-term goals appear to do better. In other words, keep your brain looking forward.

2. Go for a walk.

Mildly raised glucose (葡萄糖) levels can harm the area of the brain that helps you form memories and physical activity can help get blood glucose down to normal levels. In fact, exercise produces chemicals that are good for your brain.     4    

3. Learn something new.

Take a Spanish class online, join a drawing club, or learn to play cards. A study found that mental stimulation (刺激) limits the weakening effects of aging on memory and the mind. But the best thing for your brain is when you learn something new and are physically active at the same time.     5    Or go dancing with your friends.

A．Focus on the future.

B．This can be especially harmful to the aged.

C．It should be something like learning gardening.

D．So take a few minutes each day to do some reading.

E．But don’t worry if your schedule isn’t filled with life changing events.

F．Luckily, research shows there is a lot you can do to avoid those moments

G．In other words, when you take care of your body, you take care of your brain.