Living near the ocean is good for health, but not a luxury all can afford. But those who can, certainly gain a lot of health benefits over common inland folks.

● 【小题1】 As we know, because people living near a coast get enough time to swim in the seawater, they naturally tend to be stronger. Physicians have been recommending visits to coasts that specialize in providing seawater cleansing treatment, which improves the immune system.

● Living near the ocean promotes physical activity. The seashore encourages outdoor activities like jogging on the sand, beach volleyball, scuba-diving, surfing, etc .【小题2】

● Fresh air helps get sleep. Fresh ocean air is composed of negatively charged ions that enable us to consume oxygen, adding to good health. These ions also aid in balancing the serotonin (血清素) level, which helps in feeling more relaxed. 【小题3】 Little by little, this leads to better sleep after spending a large amount of time near the ocean.

● Living near the ocean can help you absorb more vitamin

A．

【小题4】 Thus, natural sunlight, along with the sunrays which bounce back from the sand and the ocean, is an excellent supply for our everyday need for vitamin

A． ● Living near the ocean is helpful in meditation (冥想).

【小题5】 It helps the mind jolt (摇动) free from all worries of the past or the future. We get totally tuned into the present, and become calm, as we listen to the gradual rise and fall of the waves.

A．People living near a coast are healthier.

B．Sunshine is a major source of vitamin D.

C．How will living near the ocean help improve your health? D. Just sit near the seashore and observe the waves moving back and forth.

D．This serves in leading an active lifestyle for people living near or on beaches.

E．Vitamin D helps you absorb calcium, maintaining a normal immune system.

F．Besides, when you listen to the sound of waves, it relaxes the mind to a very calm state.

Internet use appears to cause a decline in psychological well-being（安康）, according to research at Carnegie Mellon University.
Even people who spent just a few hours a week on the Internet experienced more depression and loneliness than those who logged on less frequently, the two-year study showed. And it wasn’t that people who were already feeling bad spent more time on the Internet, but that using the Net actually appeared to cause the bad feeling.
Researchers are puzzling over the results, which were completely contrary to their expectations. They expected that the net would prove socially healthier than television, since the Net allows users to choose their information and to communicate with others.
The fact that Internet use reduces time available for family and friends may account for the drop in well-being, researchers suggested. Faceless, bodiless “virtual”（虚拟的）communication may be less psychologically satisfying than actual conversation, and the relationship formed through it may be shallower. Another possibility is that exposure to the wider world via the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives.
“But it’s important to remember this is not about the technology  per se; it’s about how it is used,” says psychologist Christine Riley of Intel, one of the study’s sponsors. “It really points to the need for considering social effects in terms of how you design applications and services for technology.”
【小题1】The best title for this passage would be ________.

A．Internet may Cause Depression

B．The Dark Side of Internet

C．How to Use Technology Properly

D．The Importance of Psychological Well-being

【小题2】Internet use may cause a decline in psychological well-being because ________.

A．people who were already feeling bad spend more time on the Internet

B．Internet users thought the world was wider than it really was

C．people were too eager to turn the “virtual” communication into reality

D．people have less time for actual communication with their family and friends

【小题3】What does the underlined Latin word “per se” (in Para. 5) mean?

A．probably	B．absolutely
C．oneself	D．itself

【小题4】What’s the tone of the passage?

A．Optimistic.	B．Critical.
C．Objective.	D．Pessimistic.

   A new study says that the faces on Lego minifigures have become less happy and more often mad or sad. The study was designed to find out if the Lego characters have become grumpier over the years.

Christoph Bartneck works at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He loves Lego and even worked for the company in the 1990s. He worked with another researcher on the project. They looked at all of the 6,000 figures made between 1975 and 2010. They made a note of each figure’s facial expression: happy, grumpy, afraid, surprised or satL They discovered that while in 1980, all of the figures were described as “smiley”, and that by 1990, only about 80 per cent of them had been “smiley” . And by 2010, just 50 per cent of the figures had had a smile on their little plastic faces.

The researchers are wondering how the increasingly sad, angry and unhappy faces on the Lego figures will affect the children who play with them. “Children’s toys can have an important influence on children,” said Bartneck on the university’s website. While Lego hasn’t issued an official response to the study, Bartneck said he thought the reason why Lego was producing angrier-faced characters was that children wanted them. He said it was likely that people wanted Lego characters to have different expressions, rather than just being sunny all the time. He said most of the unhappy faces were on characters based on a specific theme such as Harry Potter or pirates (海盗).

Bartneck will present his findings at the International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction in Sapporo.

【小题1】What does the underlined word “grumpier” probably mean?

A．Happier.	B．Angrier.
C．Smarter.	D．Prettier.

【小题2】It can be learned that since 1980 ________.

A．Bartneck has been studying Lego figures

B．the quality of Lego figures has gone from bad to worse

C．more and more Lego figures have lost their smiles

D．Lego figures’ facial expressions have become less rich

【小题3】What can we learn about Bartneck?

A．He likes to design different Lego figures.

B．He is a professor who studies facial expressions.

C．He wants to know the influence of unhappy figures on children.

D．He writes to the government to explain why children love angry Lego figures.

【小题4】The text mainly tells the readers ________ .

A．the history of the development of Lego figures

B．Lego characters are getting angrier

C．how Bartneck carried out his study

D．the angrier expressions on Lego figures do great harm to children

   A newly-published study has shown that loneliness can spread from one person to another，like a disease. Researchers used information from the Framingham Heart Study，which began in 1948. The Framingham Heart Study gathers information about physical and mental health，personal behavior and diet. At first，the study involved（使参加）about 5,000 people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now more than 12,000 individuals（个人）are taking part.

Information from the Framingham Heart Study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behavior like littering and the ability to stop smoking.

Psychologist John Cacioppo，at the University of Chicago，led the recent study. He and other researchers tried to show how often people felt lonely. They found that the feeling of loneliness spread through social groups.

Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another individual would feel lonely. In fact，a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was 25%more likely. The researchers said this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone’s loneliness.

The effect was the strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives，and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.

The New York Times newspaper reported that，on average，people experience feelings of loneliness about 48 days a year. It also found that every additional（额外的）friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent，or two and a half fewer lonely days.

Loneliness has been linked to health problems like depression（抑郁症）and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help reduce it.

The study suggested that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.

【小题1】As for the Framingham Heart Study we can learn that __________.

A．it was only conducted in 1948	B．it involves more than 12, 000 people
C．it was founded by John Cacioppo	D．it showed that any behavior could spread

【小题2】From the passage, we can learn that __________.

A．the behavior of littering doesn’t spread

B．a lonely person won’t have friends

C．everyone may be affected by others’ loneliness

D．lonely people don’t know the causes of their loneliness

【小题3】Which statement about the spread of loneliness is TRUE?

A．The spreading effect is the second strongest among friends.

B．No spreading effect is found on husbands and wives.

C．Women are more likely to be affected than men.

D．Brothers are more easily to be affected than neighbors.

【小题4】What is the main idea of the passage？

A．Action should be taken to help lonely people.	B．People feel lonely for many reasons.
C．Ways to fight against loneliness.	D．Lonely people can affect others.

语法填空
Even after centuries of 【小题1】(science) research, no one knows for sure why human beings laugh.
Charles Darwin guessed that laughter, 【小题2】 begins in infants as young as three months old, served as a"reward"to parental care-giving. Laughter of infants sounded and felt so different from crying, and he believed that even prehistoric(史前的) parents must have regarded it 【小题3】 a sign of well-being. The parents enjoyed the laughter, which encouraged them 【小题4】(continue) caring for the child.
One of the most interesting things researchers have learned is the powerful healing effect of laughter. Well,actually they're re-learning it after centuries of neglect:in the Middle Ages, doctors "treated" their 【小题5】(patient) by telling them jokes.
Scientists 【小题6】(learn) a lot about laughter so far.You use 15 different muscles in your face to laugh. The sound of laughter is created when you breathe in deeply 【小题7】 then breathe out the air. The typical laugh is made up of pulses(节奏)of sound that are about 1/15th of a second long and 1/5th of a second apart.When tape-recorded and 【小题8】(play) backward,laughing sounds 【小题9】(virtual) the same as it does when it is played forward. 【小题10】 was also found that the most laughter took place when males were talking and females were listening, and the least took place when females were talking and males were listening.