Good Genes Mean Long Life

Scientists have discovered that living to the age of 100 may have nothing to do with the lifestyle you lead and everything to do with the type of genes you have.

For the lucky carriers of “Methuselah” genes, worries over smoking, eating unhealthily and not getting enough exercise may not be as necessary as to those of us without the special gene pattern (組合).

The “Methuselah” genes could give extra protection against the diseases of old age such as cancer and heart disease. They could also protect people against the effects of the unhealthy lifestyles that we believe will lead us to an early death, scientists say. However, the genes are very rare.

The genes include ADIPOQ, which is found in about 10 percent of young people but in nearly 30 percent of people living past 100. They also include the CETP and the ApoC3 genes, which are found in 10 percent of young people, but in about 20 percent of people over 100 years old.

Some of those genes were discovered by a research group at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, led by Professor Nir Barzilai. The team studied the genes of over 500 people over 100 years old, and their children.

The studies show that tiny mutations (變異) in the make-up of some genes can greatly increase a person’s lifespan (壽命). Barzilai told a Royal Society conference that the discovery of such genes gave scientists clear targets for developing drugs that could prevent age-related diseases, allow people to live longer and stay healthy.

David Gems, a researcher at University College London, believes that drugs to slow ageing will become widespread.

“If we know which genes control longevity (長壽) then we can … target them with drugs. That makes it possible to slow down ageing,” he told The Times.

“Much of the pain and suffering in the world are caused by ageing. If we can find a way to reduce that, then we are obliged (義不容辭的) to take it.”

1.According to the article, which of the following is the most important if a person is to live to the age of 100?

2.According to the article, the ApoC3 gene is found in ________ of people over 100 years old.

3.Which of the following statements is TRUE of the research led by Professor Nir Barzilai?

4. According to David Gems, ________.

Common sense would tell us that physically active children may be more likely to become active and healthy adults.
In the United States, elementary and middle schools are advised to give students two and a half hours of physical activity a week. That is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association recommend. They say high schools should provide about four hours of physical activity each week.
Yet many schools across the country have reduced their physical education programs. Just this week, a study reported that lifeexpectancy has fallen or is no longer increasing in some parts of the United States. The situation is worst among poor people in the southern states, and especially women. Public health researchers say it is largely the result of increases in fatness, smoking and high blood pressure. They also blame differences in health services around the country.
In 2006, a study found that only four percent of primary schools provided daily physical education all year for all grades. This was true of eight percent of middle schools and two percent of high schools. The study also found that twenty-two percent of all schools did not require students to take any P.E.
Charlene Burgeson , a health expert says one problem for P.E. teachers is that schools are under pressure to put more time into academic subjects. Also, parents may agree that children need exercise in school. Yet many parents today still have bad memories of being chosen last for teams because teachers favored the good athletes in class.
But experts say P.E. classes have changed. They say the goal has moved away from competition and toward personal performance, as a way to build a lifetime of activity. These days, teachers often lead activities like weight training and yoga.
Some parents like the idea of avoiding competitive sports in P.E. class. Yet others surely dislike that idea. In the end, schools may find themselves in a no-win situation.
【小題1】The underlined word “expectancy” in Paragraph 3 probably means “       ”                            

B
A new study suggests that the more teenagers watch television , the more likely they are to develop depression (抑郁)as young adults. But the extent to which TV may or may not be to blame is a question that the study leaves unanswered.
The researchers used a national long-term survey of adolescent health to investigate the relationship between media use and depression . They based their findings on more than four thousand adolescents who were not depressed when the survey began in 1995.
As part of the survey, the young people were asked how many hours of television or videos they watched daily. They were also asked how often they played computer games and listened to the radio.
Media use totaled an average of five and one-half hours a day. More than two hours of that was spent watching TV.
Seven years later, in 2002, more than seven percent of the young people had signs of depression. Their average age at that time was twenty-one.
Brian Primack at the Universtiy of Pittsburgh Medical School was the leading author of the new study . He said every extra hour of television meant an eight percent increase in the chances of developing signs of depression.
The researchers say they did not find any such relationship with the use of other media such as movies, video games or radio. But the study did find that young men were more likely than young women to develop depression given the same amount of media use.
Doctor Primack says the study did not explore if watching TV causes depression . But one possibility, like sports and socializing. It might also interfere with sleep, he says, and that could have an influence.
The study was just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. In December, the journal Social Indicators Research published a study of activities that help lead to happy lives. Sociologists from the University of Maryland found that people who describe themselves as happy spend less time watching television than unhappy people. The study found that happy people are more likely to be socially active, to read, to attend religious services and to vote.
60．The average age of the depressed young people should be_______when they began to receive the survey.
A．21           B．15              C．14                D．20
61．According to the passage, which of the following can possibly lead to depression?
A．Swimming                           B．Attending a party
C．Attending religious services             D．Watching TV for a long time.
62．We can learn from the passage_______.
A．the survey lasted a short time
B．over 280 teenagers who received the survey became more or less depressed in 2002
C．men are more likely to become depressed than women
D．the study about the relationship between media use and depression was published in the journal Social Indicators Research
63．What is the best title for the passage?
A．Teens, television, depression
B．Depression—the common problem of teens
C．Problems of watching TV
D．Teens—a group enjoying watching TV

Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding musical training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills.
Although it was suggested in the past that listening to Mozart’s music or other classical music could make you smarter, there has been little evidence to show that music can boost(使增長) brain power.
But a data-driven review by Northwestern University has pulled reaserch together that links musical training to learning that spills over into (波及) skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion.
Researcher Nina Kraus said the data strongly suggested that the nervous connections made during musical training also prepared the brain for other aspects of human communication.
“ The effect of musical training suggests that, like physical exercise and its effect on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development, ” the researchers said in their study.
Kraus said learning musical sounds could improve the brain’s ability to adapt and change and also enable the nervous system to provide constructing patterns that are important to learning.
The study, published in Nature Review Neuroscience , looked at the explosion of research in recent years focusing on the effect of musical training on the nervous system which could have impacts for education.
The study found that playing an instrument prepares the brain to choose what is related in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and coordination with other musicians.
【小題1】What is the text mainly about ?