If you want to stay young,sit down and have a good think.This is the research findings of a team of Japanese doctors,who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise,and as a result,we are growing old unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why quite healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a rather early age,and how the speed of getting old could be slowed down.
With a team of researchers at Tokyo National University,he set about measuring brains sizes of a thousand people of different ages with different jobs.
Computer technology helped the researchers to get most exact measurements of the sizes of the front and side parts of the brain,which have something to do with thinking and feeling,and decide the human character.As we all know,the back part of the brain,which controls task like eating and breathing,does not contract (萎缩) with age.
Contraction of front and side parts,as cells ( 细胞 ) die off,was seen in some people in their thirties,but it was still not found in some sixty and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to prevent the contraction—using the head.
The findings show that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns.Those with least possibility,says Matsuzawa,are lawyers,followed by university professors and doctors.White collar workers doing the same work day after day in government offices are,however,as possible to have contracting brains as the farm workers,bus drivers and shop assistants.
60.The team of doctors wanted to find out_______.
A.at what point people grow mentally old
B.how to make people live longer
C.the size of certain people’s brains
D.which people are the most clever
61.Their research findings are based on _____.
A.an examination of farmers in northern Japan
B.tests given on a thousand old people
C.examing the brain sizes of different people
D.using computer technology
62.The doctors’ tests show that _______.
A.our brains contract as we grow older
B.one part of the brain does not contract
C.sixty-year-olds have better brains than thirty-year-olds
D.some people’s brains have contracted earlier than other people’s
63.According to the article,___________are growing mentally old earlier.
A.engineers B.office clerks C.professors D.researchers
64.The most possible conclusion of the article is that ______.
A.most of us should take more exercise
B.the brain contracts if it is not used
C.it’s better to live in the towns
D.the more one uses his brain,the sooner he becomes old