Norman Cousins was a businessman from the United States who often traveled around the world on business. He enjoyed his work and traveling. But now，Mr. Cousins got sick. Because he had pushed his body to the limit of its strength on the trip, a chemical change began to take place inside him. The material between his bones became weak. In less than one week after his return, he could not stand. Every move that he made was painful. He was not able to sleep at night.

　　    The doctors told him that they did not know how to cure Mr. Cousins' problem and he might never get over the illness. However, Mr. Cousins refused to give up hope. He thought that unhappy thoughts were causing bad chemical changes in his body. He didn't want to take medicine to cure himself. Instead, he felt that happy thoughts or laughter might cure his illness.

　　    He began to experiment on himself while still in the hospital by watching funny shows on television. Mr. Cousins quickly found that 10 minutes of real laughter during the day gave him two hours of pain-free sleep at night. After that Mr. Cousins left the hospital and checked into a hotel room where he could continue his experiments with laughter. For eight days, Mr. Cousins rested in the hotel room watching funny shows on television, reading funny books, and sleeping whenever he felt tired. Within three weeks, he felt well enough to take a vacation to Puerto Rico where he began running on the beach for exercise.

　　    After a few months, Mr. Cousins returned to work. He had laughed himself back to health.

　　1. What is the main idea of the text?

　　    A. Mr. Cousins was a funny man.       B. Laughter can cure illness. 

　　    C. Medicine can not cure strange illness.  D. We can keep fit by laughing.

　　2. The reason why Mr. Cousins got a strange and serious illness is that ______.

　　    A. he enjoyed his work too much         B. he liked traveling too much

　　    C. he got too tired on his work       D. he spared no effort for business

　　3. What did he think was the cause of his illness?

　　 A. He often traveled around the world on business.

　　 B. His bones became so weak that he could not stand.

　　 C. He had pushed his body to the limit of its strength on the trip.

　　D. Unhappy thoughts were causing bad chemical changes in his body.

　　4. It can be inferred that Mr. Cousins' experiment ______.

　　    A. is of great value                  B. is unbelievable  

　　C. is a waste of time                  D. is just a joke   

　　 (Key: BCDA )