We often hear that 60 is the new 50. Just check out the images of your grandparents or great-grandparents and notice their stooped(曲背的) bodies, their wrinkled faces when they were barely pushing 60. What a contrast with energetic, gym-going sexagenarians(六十几岁的人) of today!
The research overseen by gerontologist (老年学家) Taina Rantanen, compared adults born in 1910 and 1914 with those born roughly 30 years later. Both birth groups were examined in person at age 60 and again at 70 with the same set of six physical tests and five measures of cognition.
According to the research, the later-born group could walk faster, had a stronger hand grasp and could use more force with their lower legs. On cognitive tests, the later-born group had better verbal fluency, and scored higher on a test matching numbers to symbols. But not everything changed across the generations: measures of lung function were surprisingly not changing, and there was no improvement in the short-term-memory task of recalling a series of digits(数字).
There are many reasons why people are aging better, including improved medical care and a drop in smoking, but the key factor shown in the study of physical function was that the later-born adults were more physically active and had bigger bodies, which suggested better nutrition. For brain function, the key seemed to be more years of education.
“Education is a powerful influence on aging and health,” says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the U. S. National Institute on Aging. “With more education, you are probably going to have a larger income, which means you are more likely to go to the doctor, and have good nutrition.” He also points out that the average lifespan is seven years shorter in a poor state such as Mississippi than in a wealthier one such as California. “Here we still have lots of people who cannot take the drugs they need because they cannot pay for them,” he says. In short, 60 may be the new 50 for many of us but not for all.
1. How does the writer begin the passage?| A．By imagining a scene. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By raising a question. | D．By presenting an image. |
| A．Not everything changed across the generations. |
| B．The later-born group could hardly grasp things tightly. |
| C．The later-born group did worse in matching numbers to symbols. |
| D．There was a little improvement in short-term memory in both groups. |
| A．Improved medical care. | B．Education. |
| C．Better nutrition. | D．Energetic images. |
| A．Many reasons contribute to people’s better physical function. |
| B．Today’s energetic sexagenarians have much better images. |
| C．Education is the key to people’s better aging. |
| D．People today are aging better than people born earlier. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】4 Memory Exercises Proven to Keep Your Brain Sharp
Play a new sport
Challenge your fine-motor (精细运动) skills
Learning a sport or enrolling in a new class, mastering an activity that requires considerable hand-eye coordination can keep your brain active and healthy. Pick up a new hobby that requires you to use your hands, such as knitting, painting, or assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Even better, chew gum while you do it.
Memorize phone numbers
Even a short bra in-training session can make a big difference for your memory. By challenging your brain with memorization puzzles, experts believe you can protect your brain cells and strengthen the connections between them,
Create a memorial phrase
Making a memorial device is one perfect way to store an important rule, fact, or to-do list in your memory bank. Some are acronyms (首字母缩略词), such as RICE, (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation), a first-aid treatment for injuries.
| A．Others come in the form of sentences. |
| B．Focus your energy on new information instead. |
| C．Sign up to learn a sport you have never played before. |
| D．Impress your friends by memorizing their phone numbers. |
| E．Getting your heart pumping can also keep your brain bumping. |
| F．These memorial phrases will help you remember 14 or more basic facts. |
| G．Chewing gum while completing a task could improve concentration and memory. |
【推荐2】Only around a couple dozen people have been to the deepest part of the ocean floor, a place known as Challenger Deep. One of them is marine geographer Dawn Wright, a chief scientist of the Environmental Systems Rescarch Institute. She’s also part of a global race to map the entirety of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Challenger Deep is about 11,000 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. In July 2022, Wright and pilot and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo sank in a submersible (潜水器). Once the pair sank about 800 meters, they lost sunlight and saw worms, jellyfish and anglerfish that could create their own light. Wright and Vescovo were focused on testing a special mapping device, thus making a map.
Mapping the bottom of the ocean is for many things. For instance, installing (安装) underwater cables stretching between continents, which account for the vast majority of our Internet traffic, requires a map of the seafloor, and offshore wind farm developers also need to know the composition of the seafloor to fix turbines (涡轮机).
Historically, satellite data has been critical to mapping the ocean, but Wright says these maps are too unclear to see fine details. What is the solution? It’s using sonar mapping, meaning an instrument sends pulses of sound from the ocean surface down toward the seafloor and waits for it to come back up. Based on the amount of time it takes for the sound to return and factors like temperature and salt content, scientists can get a specific depth.
Only about 25% of the world’s seafloor is currently mapped in detail, but an initiative called Seabed 2030 aims to get to 100% in just over six years. To complete the picture, ocean mappers are expecting industries to fill in some of the gaps. “The hope is that we can very quickly get to 40% if we can get a lot of these companies to release their data and to make it public,” says Wright.
1. Why did Wright and Vescovo go to Challenger Deep?| A．To study ocean creatures. | B．To map the seafloor. |
| C．To test the submersible. | D．To enjoy themselves. |
| A．The benefits of mapping the seafloor. |
| B．The need to build offshore wind farms. |
| C．The way the Internet traffic works. |
| D．The similarities among continents. |
| A．Collect more information. | B．Learn to use sonar mapping. |
| C．Map 40% of the world’s seafloor. | D．Share their data with ocean mappers. |
| A．Seafloor Mapping Is Now a Hot Topic in Science |
| B．Scientists Cooperate to Map the Entire Seafloor |
| C．Mapping the Seafloor Is Challenging But Essential |
| D．The Entire Seafloor Will Be Mapped Successfully Soon |
【推荐3】In a human context, multitasking(多任务处理) refers to performing different activities at the same time, such as editing a document or replying to emails while participating in a teleconference. People think that they are capable of doing many things at once. However, the fact remains that they are merely switching from one job to another.
Several types of research have been done to see how multitasking affects our brains. A study conducted to see if multitasking while driving was good or bad, concluded that performance is primarily reduced when there is a research conflict.
According to the studies, the only time you can multitask is when you’re doing two things and one of them doesn’t require your attention or mental energy, for example jogging while listening to music. In many cases, multitasking has long-term, harmful effects on your health, well-being, and productivity.
Sometimes the tendency to multitask takes a toll on the relationship and the partner feels neglected. Imagine discussing something with your partner while he or she is constantly engaged on the mobile phone checking social media or email. How would that make you feel?
Researchers investigated if multitasking increases our productivity and effectiveness. The findings showed that multitasking made individuals less effective and productive, which is contrary to what most multitaskers believe.
There is a cognitive(认知的) cost every time we go from one task to another, which reduces our productivity. Multitasking implies you are constantly shifting your attention between multiple tasks-it is no different from being distracted.
We’d like to believe that doing numerous activities at once is achievable, but it comes at the cost of lowering the quality and amount of attention paid to each task. As a result, you’re less productive and less efficient than someone who concentrates on one task at a time.
What’s more, we lose time and energy when we switch tasks. A study found that when switching between different tasks, the amount of time wasted depends on various factors, and it could range from seconds to hours.
1. Why does the author mention jogging and listening to music?| A．To show multitasking is possible. | B．To prove multitasking is rewarding. |
| C．To prove multitasking is difficult. | D．To show multitasking is harmful. |
| A．Causes damage to. | B．Has an influence on. |
| C．Makes no difference to. | D．Is associated with. |
| A．It does harm to mental health. | B．It affects work performance. |
| C．It improved work efficiency. | D．It extends working hours. |
| A．Why people like multitaking | B．How to achieve multitasking |
| C．Is multitasking a good thing? | D．Can we multitask at all? |
【推荐1】How to Make a Chinese Hot Pot
Eating a Chinese hot pot is a very common experience. People gather around the pot, dipping their food, waiting for it to cook, mixing their own seasonings (调味品) and enjoying each other's company.
Firstly, prepare a large pot of soup. There is no right or wrong way to prepare a soup, so feel free to make your own. A simple soup can be made by boiling water with the addition of meat bones or fish heads and a mixture of herbs, seasonings and vegetables.
Then, cut a variety of meats and fish into thin slices.
| A．Finally, arrange the seating reasonably |
| B．Now comes the turn to enjoy your hot pot |
| C．It will guarantee that the items will cook quickly and fully |
| D．Here are some easy steps to make a Chinese hot pot at home |
| E．For more variety, consider dumplings, rice cakes and tangyuan |
| F．Popular choices include: cabbage, pea leaves, winter melon and tomato |
| G．It usually lasts a couple of hours because you are cooking and eating in small parts |
【推荐2】Kindergarten outside? Yes，indeed.It’s part of a growing worldwide trend toward outdoor education.The schools are called Forest Kindergartens.
Now the numbers are small in the U. S.，but the idea is well established in Europe，with schools in Scotland，England，and Switzerland.By far most of such schools are in Germany，which has more than 400 Forest Kindergartens.
Children attending such particular school enjoy a good amount of outdoor education each day，rain or shine.Some lessons are focused on nature；others are academic topics delivered in a natural setting.In all cases，students are active—not sitting at desks or on mats on the floor but walking，running，jumping，solving problems like how to get the mud off the bottoms of their shoes before their parents find out.
At these forest kindergartens，students learn science by observing and doing it，learn math by applying it to the natural world around them，learn letters and words by putting them together using sights and sounds.The children learn to make comparisons using natural things like apples and rocks.They develop an appreciation for animals and plants in their natural environment—not just by looking at pictures in a book or on a computer screen.
Some of the science activities involve teamwork，like explaining the best way to move a heavy object，showing how a lever(杠杆)works.In other sessions，teachers encourage students to develop their motor skills by building wooden tools such as hammers and knives.
These students also learn how to get along with one another，individually and in a group.They also develop healthy levels of selfconfidence，just from being able to do the everyday activities that the school offers.
In a time when so many children are being classified as obese because of longtime watching television and playing video games，these outdoor schools help children learn just as much，if not more，from opening their eyes to the world around them.
1. Which of the following country has the most Forest Kindergartens?| A．The U. S. | B．Germany. |
| C．The U. K. | D．Switzerland. |
| A．Children are doing an experiment with chemicals. |
| B．Teachers are writing something on the blackboard. |
| C．Smart phones are widely used to help children learn. |
| D．Everything in nature is likely to be applied to teaching. |
| A．Negative. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Positive. | D．Uncertain. |
【推荐3】Adulting is hard. While high school students are at the forefront of technological and learning skills, it's often not until they leave home that they learn everyday life skills. Some believe that high schools should offer a commonsense course in which students are taught how to pay bills, change a tire or cook. Now, one Kentucky school is offering an ''adulting day'' to teach such skills to students in their senior year.
The class of 2019 at Bullitt Central High School in Shepherdsville, Ky., traded in their algebra and literature classes for a day to learn some positive life skills, according to Wave 3 News.
''I think that the idea occurred to me, originally, when I saw a Facebook post that parents passed around saying they needed a class in high school on taxes and cooking, '' Christy Hardin, director of the BCHS Family Resource & Youth Services Center, told Wave 3. ''Our kids can get that, but they have to choose it. And ''Wednesday'' was a day they could pick and choose pieces they didn't feel like they had gotten so far. ''
Members of the community helped provide the lessons for the students one on one, including local police who taught them how to interact with officers during traffic stops, a speaker who explained how to decipher the difference between homesickness and depression, and others who discussed how to use credit cards, how to cook in a dorm room and how to change a tire.
While many people on Facebook applauded the idea, with some arguing, ''This should be taught in every high school, '' others wondered what became of home economics.
Now known as Family and Consumer Sciences, these courses teach students how to cook, sew and budget, along with other skills. In many districts, however, the classes are electives and students do not always choose to take them.
''About time this came back, it was called Home Economics, '' one woman wrote. ''In today's diverse make up of families it would be a welcome addition. ''
Another shared, ''We had home economics that taught us to cook and learned how to sew. We also had business math that taught us banking and finances. Why in the world is that not taught today? I mean, a special day called adulting to teach kids this stuff? Should be a required class credit. ''
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．High school students are too busy to learn everyday life skills. |
| B．The schools in other districts have never taught everyday life skills to students. |
| C．High school students are advanced in technological and learning skills. |
| D．High school students are lacking in everyday life skills. |
| A．It did everything it could to cater to the parents. |
| B．It taught life skills at the cost of academic courses. |
| C．It offered parents opportunities to instruct classes. |
| D．It allow students to decide on their own subjects. |
| A．determine | B．define | C．discriminate | D．distribute |
a. use credit cards b. learn algebra and literature c. change a tire d. how to cook
| A．abc | B．bcd | C．acd | D．abd |
| A．Supportive | B．Opposed | C．Skeptical | D．Indifferent |
