Gardening is popular in many parts of the world. This outdoor activity gives us beautiful plants, pleasant smelling flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables. But it also does a lot of good to our health.

Gardening connects people. When you are gardening, you are outdoors. So it is a perfect chance to meet and spend time with your neighbors. Most people love to talk about their hobbies, and gardeners are no different. They usually enjoy showing people what they are growing. And most enjoy sharing advice and stories about their gardens almost as much as sharing flowers and vegetables from their gardens.

Gardening is a great activity for children. It gets them outdoors and off computers, televisions and cell phones. Gardening is also a great teacher. It can teach a child about where food comes from and healthy eating. It also helps them to understand that the natural resources (资源) are not endless and the importance of using them carefully.

Then, when you garden, you must move around. All the different movements needed for gardening, like bending and lifting, work small muscles (肌肉) in the body. And you can easily get good exercise when you are digging holes or pulling grasses.

In a study, researchers looked at more than 2, 800 people over the age of 60. They studied their lifestyle habits, activities and health over a 16-year period. They found that gardening could lower the risk of future dementia (痴呆) by 36％. Gardening requires people do many repeated actions, such as picking off dying flowers. These actions have a calming influence on the brain. The brain is still active but not in the same way when we use computers. You’ll feel wonderful when what you grow in a garden looks, smells, feels and tastes good.

【小题1】What do gardeners often like to talk about among neighbors?

A．How they kill time.	B．What habits they have.
C．What they grow in the garden.	D．Who they meet outdoors.

【小题2】Why does the writer think it so good for children to do gardening?

A．Children will get much healthy food from gardening.

B．Children can use natural resources freely when gardening.

C．Children can do gardening with their computers or telephones.

D．Children may like going outdoors and get much knowledge from gardening.

【小题3】What great effect does gardening have on the old?

A．It brings them a tiring life.

B．It makes them live longer and longer.

C．It helps the old enjoy more activities.

D．It can make their brain active in a different way.

【小题4】What’s the purpose of the writer?

A．To show us how to garden.

B．To encourage people to garden.

C．To show the popularity of gardening.

D．To advise people to do outdoor activities.