When it comes to your brain, researchers have found there’s no better superfood than a book. According to the data 【小题1】(collect) by the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study, a 【小题2】(hope) pattern came out: people who read books for as little as 30 minutes a day over several years were living an average of two years 【小题3】(long) than people who didn’t read anything at all.

Strange still, as science reminds us, reading books—especially fiction—【小题4】(force) your brain to think critically and make 【小题5】(connection) from one chapter to another, and to the outside world. Also, reading stories can lead to a noticeable increase in human interaction, 【小题6】in turn can lower stress levels.

But it doesn’t mean that magazines, newspapers and web articles are useless. Any reading material that fills your mind and enlarges your vocabulary seems 【小题7】(carry) mental benefits. Therefore, whether you’re reading a page-turner or simply scanning 【小题8】instruction for your coffee maker, many parts of your brain 【小题9】(involve) in positive thinking. Still not inspired to give 【小题10】a try?

Reading a paper book may be a forgotten luxury for many people thanks to today's busy lifestyles 【小题1】 listening to a book while shopping or jogging is a growing trend. Now, audio books can be easily downloaded from the Internet at the same, if not 【小题2】(low), prices as the print 【小题3】(edit).

Mary Beth Roche, publisher of Macmillan Audio, says many of their readers use audio books as a ''multitasking tool'', a way to consume books when their eyes are busy. For others, whose work may involve spending lots of time 【小题4】(look) at the screen, audio books are a way to relax. ''It's sort of nice to sit back and have a story 【小题5】(tell) to you,'' said Roche.

In the United States, audio books 【小题6】(become) a serious business for a long time   【小题7】(simple) because Americans on average spend so much time in their cars. ''It is a good way for consumers to make the time in traffic quality time, '' said Roche. 'Even way back when it was the cassette and then the CD, the number one place 【小题8】 people listened was in car. When audio books became available 【小题9】 the digital form, people started using 【小题10】 during other activities—when they are shopping, jogging, performing household tasks and so on.

For much of history, reading was a fairly noisy activity. Some 4,000 years ago, the commonly used words for ^“to read” literally 【小题1】(mean) to cry out” or “to listen”.

Today, silent reading is the norm (常态). The majority of 【小题2】(we) bottle the words in our heads as if sitting in the hushed confines of a library. Reading out loud is 【小题3】(large) reserved for bedtime stories and performances.

But a growing body of research suggests that we may be missing out by reading only with the voices inside our minds. The ancient art of reading aloud has a number of 【小题4】(benefit) for adults, from helping improve our memories and understand complex texts, to【小题5】(strengthen) emotional bonds between people.

Colin MacLeod, 【小题6】psychologist at the University of Waterloo in Canada, has extensively researched the impact of reading aloud on memory. So far he as well as his collaborators 【小题7】(show) that people consistently remember words and texts better if they read them aloud 【小题8】if they read them silently.

In another study, adults 【小题9】(age) 67 to 88 were given the same task - reading words either silently or aloud - before then writing down all those they could remember. They were able to recall 27% of the words they had read aloud, 【小题10】only 10% of those they'd read silently.