many varieties that grew wild and the ____40____ knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and close relationship with plants in the wild would begin fade away.

III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passages there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

　　Scientists in Norway have more good news for coffee drinkers. Researchers have already found evidence that the drink - or the beans can help with weight loss, (41)________ one's risk of developing some diseases, (42)________ muscle growth, protect against certain types of cancers and can even reduce one's risk of (43)________ death. Now comes word that a cup of coffee reduces physical pain.

　　The surprising finding is based on a study (44)________ 48 volunteers who agreed to spend 90 minutes performing fake computer tasks meant to mimic office work. The tasks were known to (45)________ pain in the shoulders, neck, forearms and wrists, and the researchers wanted to (46)________ how people with pain and those who were pain-free tolerated the pain of such tasks. As a matter of convenience, the scientists allowed people to drink coffee before taking the test "to avoid (47)________ effects of caffeine deprivation, e.g. decreased vigor and alertness, sleepiness, and fatigue," they reported.

　　But when it came time to analyze the data, the researchers from Norway's National Institute of Occupational Health and Oslo University Hospital noticed that the 19 people who drank coffee reported a lower (48)________ of pain than the 29 people who didn't. In the shoulders and neck, (49)________, the average pain intensity was rated 41(on a 100-point scale) among the coffee drinkers and 55 for non-coffee drinkers. Similar gaps were found for all pain sites measured, and coffee's apparent pain-reduction effect (50)________.

However, the authors of the study, which was published this week in the journal BMC Research Notes, cautioned that since the study wasn't designed to test coffee's influence on pain, the results came with many (51)________. For starters, the