时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:午后咖啡


英语课

In 1965, a French lowyer, 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 2500 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 years 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 with 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”. His research showed that, despite eating a diet high in saturated 5 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 Mariais, 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 more regularly, in smaller quantities” she said.


But it is not just about lifestyle choice. The French health care system, funded by compulsory 6 insurance from individuals and employers, is better. Improvements in the French health service are also a reason for greater average longevity—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 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
6 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。
标签: 法国人会长寿
学英语单词
abbondanza
acceleration from rest
accidental resemblance
activator-dissociation system
aeacides
Alma Center
araucaria families
atmospheric-pressure counter
attached storage
average information matrix
bending length
boatswain's chair
charle's law
corrosive bittern brine
database indexed search
deteriorative change
dielectric drier
divcom
Dunaujvaros
electromagnetic starter
exogastric
exoperidium
external fixation of fracture
farceuses
filipe
flagellants
floating sleeve
foul-air flue
freelancers
ftn
Fūlādābād
goucher
hand sth round
hobits
hot secondary air
if i live to be a hundred
in stereo
in the schools
internal transference
lifespeed
limiting power
liquid-solid cyclone
low roller
Madeleine, Monts.de la
maholi
midget socket
minimum-delay coding
minispread
mode expander
modifier formula
network intrusion detection systems
non-reciprocal trade preference
Nordurandron
of fixation line
oil-bearing sand
Oxypinone
peachblow
phancifull
photo opportunist
piping bag
planetary spacecraft
potestatems
ppes
Primula sinuata
prober interface
qualitative description
quantized interval
quiet arc
rodnina
sampled data computer
scinaia pseudojaponica
scollon
secure against
self-incriminations
sensitizing dose
sound profile
stomias nebulosus
storage economy
stretchless
sun si-miao
syntaxical
systematic fashion information
tachyglossid
the cultivation of tress
the Sons of the Revolution
thorium halide
three graces
top-end
tunicae vagfnalis propria testis
turn of winding
Ubon Ratchathani, Changwat
unipoint
unstable frame
virtual channel link
watergas
Wawasee, L.
wedge dislocation
wing-tip
word load
yuen long
zilberstein