Health researchers have noticed that some groups of people are more consistently healthy than others, and wondered… Is it race? Income? Where you live? In the United States, these disagreements in health outcomes have been the focus of intense research for the past several decades.

Harvard University health policy researcher Ellen Meara says scholars have found some clues as to why some groups of people have more or less disease than others. She says one important factor in people’s health is the amount of education they have.

In her most recent paper, Meara looked at data from the United States census. Meara and her colleagues examined data from several decades.

“We looked at life expectancy（预测寿命）at age 25,” Meara says.

“How many additional years can you expect to live if you arrive at age 25 and your education has stopped at high school, or sooner? Versus how many years, can you expect to live if you’ve reached aged 25 and you’ve gone on to at least some college…”

Meara says they found that in 1990, a 25-year-old who only had some secondary school could expect to live for a total of 75 years. In 2000, a 25 year old with some secondary education could also expect to live to the age of 75.

In contrast, for a better educated 25-year-old, they could expect to live to the age of 80 in 1990. Someone with a similar education level in the year 2000, could expect to live to be more than 81 years, 81.6 years to be exact .

Meara says, not only do better-educated people live longer to begin with, but in the past ten years, more educated people has made gains in the length of their lives. Meanwhile, the life expectancy hasn’t changed for less educated people.

Some of these gains can be explained. Meara says researchers know that people who are more educated are more likely to quit smoking cigarettes, or not start at all, compared to people with less education.

“I think it’s a reminder not to be satisfactory,” Meara says. “Just because a population overall appears to be getting healthier, it doesn’t always mean that those advantages and successes that many people have enjoyed really extend into all parts of the population. And I think that's something to really pay attention to regardless of whether you live in the US or elsewhere.”

Meara points out that education can often determine income - people with more education frequently make more money. This makes them aware of health care, and purchase other resources and services that can keep them healthier. But the data on income do NOT show that people who make more money are automatically healthier.

People have been talking about health for a long time because people know the importance of it. People's understanding of health also becomes deeper with the progress in scientific research. Recently the term "health" has come to have a wider meaning than it used to. It no longer means just the absence of illness. Today, health means the well-being of your body, your mind and your relationship with other people. This new concept of health is closely related to another term-quality of life. Quality of life is the degree of overall satisfaction that a person gets from life.
　　Why has the emphasis of health shifted from the absence of disease to a broader focus on the quality of a person's life? One reason for this has to do with the length and conditions of life that people can now expect. Medical advances have made it possible for people today to live longer, healthier lives. Imagine for a moment that you were born in the year 1900. You could have expected on average to live until about the age of 47. In contrast, if you were born in the year 1999, you could expect to live to the age of 75.
【小题1】________ leads to people's deeper understanding of health.

People have been talking about health for a long time because people know the importance of it. People's understanding of health also becomes deeper with the progress in scientific research. Recently the term "health" has come to have a wider meaning than it used to. It no longer means just the absence of illness. Today, health means the well-being of your body, your mind and your relationship with other people. This new concept of health is closely related to another term-quality of life. Quality of life is the degree of overall satisfaction that a person gets from life.

　　Why has the emphasis of health shifted from the absence of disease to a broader focus on the quality of a person's life? One reason for this has to do with the length and conditions of life that people can now expect. Medical advances have made it possible for people today to live longer, healthier lives. Imagine for a moment that you were born in the year 1900. You could have expected on average to live until about the age of 47. In contrast, if you were born in the year 1999, you could expect to live to the age of 75.

1.________ leads to people's deeper understanding of health.

A．Common knowledge

B．Progress in scientific research

C．Better conditions of living

D．Quality of life

2.The emphasis of health has shifted nowadays because _________.

A．people enjoy better conditions of living and they can live longer

B．people pay more attention to their physical health, not their mental health

C．people have realized the importance of mental well-being

D．people are inspired by medical advances

3.We can infer from the passage __________.

A．nowadays the emphasis of health has a broader focus because of improvements in the quality of food

B．the overall quality of people's lives improved greatly in the 20th century

C．those who never fall ill are the truly healthy people

D．those who were born before 1900 could not have lived until now

4.This passage is mainly about __________.

A．different understandings of the term "health"

B．improving the quality of life

C．the importance of quality living

D．people's expectations of a long and healthy life

People have been talking about health for a long time because people know the importance of it. People's understanding of health also becomes deeper with the progress in scientific research. Recently the term "health" has come to have a wider meaning than it used to. It no longer means just the absence of illness. Today, health means the well-being of your body, your mind and your relationship with other people. This new concept of health is closely related to another term-quality of life. Quality of life is the degree of overall satisfaction that a person gets from life.
Why has the emphasis of health shifted from the absence of disease to a broader focus on the quality of a person's life? One reason for this has to do with the length and conditions of life that people can now expect. Medical advances have made it possible for people today to live longer, healthier lives. Imagine for a moment that you were born in the year 1900. You could have expected on average to live until about the age of 47. In contrast, if you were born in the year 1999, you could expect to live to the age of 75

1. 1.

   ________ leads to people's deeper understanding of health

   1. A.
      Common knowledge
   2. B.
      Progress in scientific research
   3. C.
      Better conditions of living
   4. D.
      Quality of life
2. 2.

   The emphasis of health has shifted nowadays because _________

   1. A.
      people enjoy better conditions of living and they can live longer
   2. B.
      people pay more attention to their physical health, not their mental health
   3. C.
      people have realized the importance of mental well-being
   4. D.
      people are inspired by medical advances
3. 3.

   We can infer from the passage __________

   1. A.
      nowadays the emphasis of health has a broader focus because of improvements in the quality of food
   2. B.
      the overall quality of people's lives improved greatly in the 20th century
   3. C.
      those who never fall ill are the truly healthy people
   4. D.
      those who were born before 1900 could not have lived until now
4. 4.

   This passage is mainly about __________

   1. A.
      different understandings of the term "health"
   2. B.
      improving the quality of life
   3. C.
      the importance of quality living
   4. D.
      people's expectations of a long and healthy life

Here's a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly. Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods — even if you also exercise regularly — could be   1  for your health. And it doesn't matter where the sitting takes place — at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV — just the overall number of hours it   2   .

Research is preliminary, but several studies   3  people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.

In an editorial   4  this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define   5  activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.

While health officials have issued guidelines   6  minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven't suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated   7  .

"After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send   8  signals," Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating the amount of glucoseand fat in the   9  start to shut down.

Even for people who   10   , spending long stretches of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day —   11  still spend a lot of time sitting — might get more benefit if that exercise were spread across the day,    12  in a single bout.

That wasn't   13  news for Aytekin Can, 31, who works at a London financial company, and spends most of his days sitting    14   a computer. Several evenings a week, Can also teaches jiu jitsu, a Japanese martial art  15  wrestling, and also does Thai boxing.

"I'm sure there are some detrimental   16  of staying still for too long, but I hope that being   17  when I can helps," he said. "I wouldn't want to think the sitting could be   18  dangerous."

Still, in a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat   19  had a higher death risk, independently of whether or not they exercised.

Figures from a US survey in 2003-2004 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to sitting in cars.

Experts said more research is needed to    20  just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible to offset those effects.

(   ) 1. A. bad                    B. good               C. mean               D. dead

(   ) 2. A. does                  B. occurs              C. matches            D. dies

(   ) 3. A. advise               B. talk                  C. suggest             D. say

(   ) 4. A. thrown                      B. caught              C. seen                 D. published

(   ) 5. A. biological           B. physical            C. psychological    D. logical

(   ) 6. A. commending      B. mending           C. recommending D. communicating

(   ) 7. A. stand                 B. state                 C. post                 D. position

(   ) 8. A. harmful             B. careful             C. wonderful        D. skillful

(   ) 9. A. head                  B. arm                  C. body               D. foot

(   ) 10. A. sleep               B. rest                  C. walk               D. exercise

(   ) 11. A. and                  B. so                    C. but                   D. then

(   ) 12. A. rather than               B. other than        C. more than        D. less than

(   ) 13. A. bad                  B. harmful            C. disadvantage     D. welcome

(   ) 14. A. behind             B. back                 C. in front of               D. forward

(   ) 15. A. referring          B. involving          C. taking              D. bringing

(   ) 16. A. effects              B. prefects            C. affects              D. offers

(   ) 17. A. inactive            B. active                   C. interactive               D. positive

(   ) 18. A. such                 B. little                 C. lot                   D. that

(   ) 19. A. less                  B. fewer                      C. more               D. further

(   ) 20. A. leave out          B. bring out          C. hold out           D. figure out