第三部分：阅读理解（第一节15小题，共30分，第二节5小题，共10分，满分40分）
第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的选项中选出最佳选项。
There is an English saying: “Laughter is the best medicine.” Until recently, few people took the saying seriously. Now however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health.
Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their hearts, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter had similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing; it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.
Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programmes. The group that tolerated (忍耐) the pain for the longest time was the groups which listened to a funny programme. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemicals in the brain which diminish both stress and pain.
As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they help to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.
56. Doctors have proved the following EXCEPT that____ .
A. smiling does good to health               B. laughter can be tolerated
C. there is a way to reduce pain               D. laughter can work the muscles in the feet
57. The main idea of the passage is that ____
A. laughter and physical exercise have similar effects on the human body
B. smile can produce the same effects as laughter
C. pain can be reduced by laughter
D. laughter is the best medicine
58. The students who____ tolerated the pain for the longest time.
A. listened to different radio programmes        B. could produce a kind of chemical
C. don’t have stress or pain                   D. listened to a funny programme
59. The underlined word “diminish” in the second paragraph is similar to “____ ’’.
A. test            B. stop               C. reduce         D .increase