阅读理解

　　Short people, studies have shown, are more likely to have a stroke(中风), suffer from high blood pressures and heart disease and be bullied in school．

　　Now, researchers report that short people-at least in the past-were also more likely to die at a younger age than their taller peers．

　　Their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology(流行病学)and Community Health, found that short bones have something to do with short life for more than 1,000 years．The conclusion was based on 490 sets of adult skeletal(骨架的)remains from an archaeological(考古的)site in northeastern England, dating from the 9^th century to about 1850．

　　About 55% of men and 73% of women died before the age of 45, and 39% of men and 56% of women died before age 30．The risk of death before age 30 declined as bone length increased．

　　“This study provides evidence from an archaeological sample that long bone length is connected with age at death-those with smaller bones tend to die younger,”according to Dr．D．J．Gunnell of the University of Bristol in the UK and colleagues．

　　While it is not clear why short stature(身材)might be linked to earlier death, the researchers point out that height is an indicator of childhood nutrition, which may have long-lasting effect on health．

　　“Mechanism(身体结构)for height-motality(死亡)associations in the past may differ from those today, for example, short stature may have increased the risk of death in childbirth and this may explain the higher risk of premature(未成熟的)mortality in women,”Gunnel and colleagues write．

　　“However, short bones, it would appear, have always been a marker of a short life,”the authors conclude．

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)