时间:2018-12-04 作者:英语课 分类:英语流行话题阅读:语境识词4500


英语课

  Unit 9

Why French Live Longer

In 1965, a French lawyer, Andre Raffray, gambled on statistics and lost.

He acquired the flat of a 90-year-old woman, Jeanne Calment, agreeing to pay her a lifetime pension of 2,500 francs a month in exchange. It seemed reasonable to think Calment would die before him. After all, he was only 47.

As the decades flew past, Raffray went into a sad decline. On Christmas Day, 1995, aged 1 77, he died, having paid out three times the market value of the apartment.

At her nursing home in Arles that day, Calment, aged 120, dined on chicken liver and roast duck. She would enjoy life for another two year before dying, the longest-lived human being whose age can be confirmed by reliable records. "I took pleasure when I could. I acted clearly and morally and without regret. I'm very lucky," she said.

Was it mere 2 luck? Perhaps something else was at work. True, Calment was exceptional. But with a glass of red wine in one hand and a health insurance card in the other, the French appear to dance their way toward being the longest-lived nation on earth. The French have steadily 3 competed wit the Japanese in terms of average life expectancy 4. French researchers have declared that, if recent trends in death rates continue, average life expectancy in France would reach 85 by 2033. If their predictions ring true, the French life expectancy will be two years ahead of Japan, well ahead of Britain, and leaving the US in the dust.

It was French cardiologist Serge Renaud, who coined the phrase "the French paradox 5". His research showed that, despite eating a diet high in saturated 6 fat, the French tended to live longer and had one of the lowest rates of coronary disease in the industrialized countries.

He put it down to wine. Two or three glasses a day, he said -- with some heavy scientific data to back it up -- combat not just heart disease, but cancer. It was a great boost to French pride, not to mention French wine exports.

However, it is French women who are living longer. In 1998, they had a life expectancy of 82.4, compared to 79.7 for women in England and Wales. Marjorie Marais, who works in publishing in London, says that the difference in drinking culture between the two societies is very marked -- as much to do with rhythm as quantities. "The French drink a lot ore regularly, in smaller quantities" she said.

But it is not just about lifestyle choice. The French health care system, funded by compulsory 7 insurance from individuals and employers, is better. Improvements in the French health service are also a reason for greater average longevity 8 -- such as better training and equipment to deal with cardiac emergencies.



1 aged
adj.年老的,陈年的
  • He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了,也老点了。
  • He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老,然而记忆力还好。
2 mere
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
3 steadily
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地
  • The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
  • Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。
4 expectancy
n.期望,预期,(根据概率统计求得)预期数额
  • Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
  • The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。
5 paradox
n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物)
  • The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
  • The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。
6 saturated
a.饱和的,充满的
  • The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
  • a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液
7 compulsory
n.强制的,必修的;规定的,义务的
  • Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗?
  • Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。
8 longevity
n.长命;长寿
  • Good habits promote longevity.良好的习惯能增长寿命。
  • Human longevity runs in families.人类的长寿具有家族遗传性。
学英语单词
abrupt pipe expansion
accelerating machine
aleukemia hemorrhagica
assembling beside ditch
be incorporated into
biomonitors
bisimilarities
boarhide
boxlock
brine quenching
centres of immersion
charlatan (italy)
chemiculture
cimaterol
CIOMS
colostration
comprehensive co-operation
concrete spreading
contrapleid
corpus haemorrhagicum
Corydalis hepaticifolia
coupler interface unit
cousin humper
crawford ra.
cytotoxicity
danceteria
dependence among columns or rows
detain for
dialogue speaker
dihydrotachysterol
dual modulation
electric boring machine
engobe coating
environmental failure testing
epicritic
equalize to
find a way out
flat plane scanning method
flew around
gangesol
Godovič
gurock
indirect radiogram
inhibition of inhibition
Inishowen
joint information bureau
magnetic storm
manually angled cutter
Marrubium incisum Benth.
materials credit slip
Mattole
MINIAC
molten carbonate fuel cell (mcfc)
narod
nondog
nonrestrictivist
oothecoma
open-cell product
pantharb
penetration of electrons
permablocking
perpetualty
picrocrichtonite
pleurography
policy statement
ppm, p.p.m., PPM
preliminary inspection
pron
rank-ordering
reactant fixing dyes
reclaiming barrow
Renn-Walz process
ryckman
safe-keeper
salicylic acid amyl ester
sea breams
Sina Weibo
sinoside
smoothness restrictions
sodium atom
sonar locator acoustic depthometer
south polar circle
spawny
sprawl one's last
sympile
tannocasein
teleopsia
the statess
topicalising
unexpressed
URL switch
Userdel
valenzuela mueggenbergi
variation selector
war in iraq
Welsh arch
wideband proportional control
yellow-orange leaf
Yen Lap
Yuba County
Yuna Kim
zone leveled