Is sleep important to children？A new study says yes.

A new study published this week shows that children who do not get _____ sleep have less control over emotions and are less focused at school.

The National Sleep Foundation _____ 10 to 11 hours of shut-eye per night for children aged between 5 and 12. About 41 million American workers get less than six hours of sleep per night. Now health experts _____ that adults are passing their poor sleeping _____ down to their children.

Reut Gruber is a lead author of the new study. In the study，Gruber and other experts either added or reduced one hour of sleep for _____ children aged 7 to 11. They _____ the children over five nights. The _____ was to see if small changes in the amount of sleep could _____a child's behavior.

“The findings show that for children small changes can make a big _____，and that is why this is meaningful.”

Before the survey began, students were _______to sleep the same amount of hours as they ______ would. Their teachers were asked to ______ the children on thoughtfulness, touchiness and emotional reactions. After five nights of the kids' sleep change, the teachers were asked to take the survey again. ______ their original scores, those who slept one hour less had ______ behavior scores than those who were allowed to sleep an hour more.  Students with less sleep were more annoyed, frustrated and had more problems which need paying ______ to.  The children with more sleep showed ______ in these areas.

“______ less sleep leads to a drop in attention in class, children may ______ on learning and chances to be ______. If they are easily annoyed and frustrated because their bodies and brains are ______, they may not learn as much either,”says Gruber.

Global warming could make humans shorter, warn scientists who are said 【小题1】（find）evidence that it caused the world’s first horses to shrink nearly 50 million years ago.

In fact, a team from the universities of Florida and Nebraska says it has found a link between the earth 【小题2】（heat）up and the size of mammals — horses. The scientists used fossils to follow the evolution（进化）of horses from their earliest 【小题3】（appear）56 million years ago.

“As temperatures went up, 【小题4】（they）size went down, and vice versa; at one point they were as small as a house cat,” said Dr. Jonathan Bloch, curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History. The scientists say that the current warming could have the same effect 【小题5】 mammals — and could even make humans 【小题6】（small）.

Horses 【小题7】（start）out small, about the size of a small dog like a miniature schnauzer.【小题8】 is surprising is that after they first appeared, they then became even smaller and then dramatically increased in size, and that 【小题9】（exact）agrees with the global warming event. “It had been known that mammals were small when it was warm,【小题10】 we hadn’t understood that the temperature really was driving the evolution of body size,” Dr. Bloch said in the Science journal.

   Storing food is common in members of the crow family. A new study tested the birds outside for this naturally occurring behavior, which may have evolved（进化）specifically because it gives crows a survival advantage. Some crow species are known to naturally use tools to recover food. So the researchers tested whether the birds could store and recover a tool so they could use it to find their food after a gap of 17 hours — something we wouldn’t expect them to do naturally. But they were able to instantly select the tool out of a number of unnecessary items.

In another experiment, the researchers taught crows to select a token（礼品券）from a number of items so that they could then exchange it for food. Again, the birds then showed that they could plan for the future using this new behaviour. This is different from all of the previous studies in future planning, which have focused on naturally occurring behaviour. For example, we know that chimpanzees select, transport and save appropriate tools for future needs.

These studies have shown that animals can plan for the future — but they leave an important question open for debate. Are animals only able to plan to use abilities that have evolved to give them a specific advantage, or can they flexibly and intelligently apply planning behaviour across various actions? Most critics would say the former, as the animals were tested in naturally occurring behaviour.

But the new research provides the first evidence that animal species can plan for the future using behaviour that doesn’t typically occur in nature. This supports the view that at least some recognitive（认知的）abilities in animals don’t evolve just in response to specific problems. Instead, it suggests that animals can apply these behaviour flexibly across problems in a similar way to humans. We need to study how flexible behaviour evolved. Then we might be able to see how crows’ ability to plan for the future fits in with their broader cognitive powers.

   For some people,music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes(音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.

As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music sets them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret,a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.

Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn't involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can't see. certain colors.

Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed(诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say,” No thanks, I'm amusic,'“says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”

   We all know the keys to living longer：eating healthily，exercising daily，and avoiding bad lifestyle habits，but do you know that practicing these simple steps when you’re 50 and older can add more years to your life？

According to a new research conducted by Harvard University scientists，adults who follow five healthy habits which include never smoking，maintaining a body mass index（BMI）（体重指数）below 30，exercising for at least 30 minutes a day，drinking alcohol only reasonably，and following a well-balanced diet，can add a decade or more to their lifespan.

The study，published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation，suggests that men over age 50 who follow these five lifestyle habits can add up to 12 years to their lives while women who follow these healthy habits can add 14 years to their lifespan. While the method of living a longer and healthier life hasn’t changed much over the years，this new information regarding the benefits of working out and eating healthily later in life is a bit of a breakthrough in terms of how we look at aging.

Modern medicine often treats the elderly with a more reactive approach，focusing on discovering and creating medicines and therapies to combat（防止）life-threatening illnesses like cancer and especially heart disease. According to scientists who conducted this study，the focus should be on preventative（预防的）measures，making sure aging adults are adapting healthy habits before they reach a stage in life when health issues normally arise.

It is very important to put prevention through diet and lifestyle changes first. Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States，while heart disease in particular can arise because of certain lifestyle habits. One of those habits is smoking，which scientists said was the biggest determining factor in a person’s lifespan. Researchers found that there was a direct connection between an adult’s risk of early death and his lifestyle habits，with those following all five of the healthy habits enjoying significantly longer lives.