C

I recently turned fifty, which is young for a tree, midlife for an elephant, and ancient for a sportsman. Fifty is a nice number for the states in the US or for a national speed limit but it is not a number that I was prepared to have hung on me. Fifty is supposed to be my father’s age, but now I am stuck with this number and everything it means.

A few days ago, a friend tried to cheer me up by saying, “ Fifty is what forty used to be.” He had made an inspirational point, Am I over the hill?People keep telling me that the hill has been moved, and I keep telling them that he high-jump bar has dropped from the six feet I once easily cleared to the four feet that is impossible for me now.

“ Your are not getting older, you are getting better.” says Dr. Joyce Brothers. This, however, is the kind of doctor who inspires a second opinion.

And so. as I approach the day when I cannot even jump over the tennis net. I am moves to share some thoughts on aging with you. I am moved to show how aging feels to me physically and mentally. Getting older. of course, is obviously a better change than the one that brings you eulogies(悼词). In fact, a poet named Robert Browning considered it the best change of all:

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to me.

Whether or not Browning was right, most of my first fifty years have been golden ones, so I will settle for what is ahead being as good as what has gone by. I find myself moving toward what is ahead with a curious blend (混合) of both fighting and accepting my aging, hoping that the philosopher (哲学家) was right when he said.” Old is always fifteen years from now.”

44. The author seems to tell us in Paragraph 1 that ________.

A. time alone will tell                          B. time goes by quickly

C. time will show what is right            D. time makes one forget the past

45. When the author turned fifty, people around him ________.

A. tried to comfort him                       B. got inspiration with him

C. were friendlier with him                  D. found him more talkative

46. The author considers his fifty years of life

A. peaceful            B. ordinary            C. satisfactory       D. regretful

47. We can infer from the passage that

A. the old should led a simple life         B. the old should face the fact of aging

C. the old should take more exercise    D. the old should fill themselves with curiosity

D

In meditation(冥想) ，people sit quietly and focus their attention on their breath. As they breathe in and out, they attend to their feelings. As thoughts go through their minds. they let them go. Breathe. Let go. Breathe. Let go.

According to a recent study at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, three months of training in this kind of meditation causes a market change in how the brain allocates(分配) attention. It appears that the ability to let go thoughts that come into mind frees the brain to attend to more rapidly changing things and events in the outside world. Expert mediators are better than other people at catching such fast-changing stimuli(刺激), like facial expressions.

The study provides evidence for changes in the workings of the brain with mental training. People can learn and improve abilities of all sorts with practice. everything from driving to playing the piano. The study has shown that meditation is good for the brain, It appears to reduce pressure and promote a sense of well-being.

In an experiment, 17 volunteers with no meditation experience in the experimental group spent three months meditating 10 to 12 hours a day. A control group also with no meditation experience meditated for 20 minutes a day over the same period. Both groups were then given the tests with two numbers in a group of letters. As both group looked for the numbers, their brain activity was recorded.

Everyone could catch the first number. But the brain recordings showed that the less experienced mediators tended to grasp the first number and hang onto it, so they missed the second number. Those with more experience gave less attention to the first number. as if letting it go, which led to an increased ability to grasp the second number, This shows that attention can change with practice.

Just ask Daniel Levision, who meditated for three months as part of the study.” I am a much better listener,” he said. “I do not get lost in my own personal reaction to what people are saying.”

48. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 1 refers to ________.

A. feelings             B. minds               C. people               D. thoughts

49. Meditations manage their daily tasks better because they ________.

A. are given less pressure                    B. allocate their attention better

C. have more stimuli for life                D. practice them more frequently

50. In the experiment, volunteers doing meditation for longer hours ________.

A. were more likely to catch both of the members

B. were used to memorizing numbers in groups

C. usually ignored the first number observed

D. paid more attention to numbers than to letters

51. The study proves that ________.

A. meditation improves one’s health

B. brain activity can be recorded

C. human attention can be trained

D. mediators have a good sense of hearing

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