The numbers don’t lie: women tend to
live longer than men. The average American man will live to
age 76, according to the latest CDC figures, while the average woman in America
will live to age 81.
And a woman’s extra years tend to be healthy ones. The World Health
Organization’s HALE index, which calculates the number of years
a man or woman can expect to live without a major disease or injury, finds that
American men can look forward to 67 healthy years, while
American women will enjoy 70 years of “full heath.”
This male-female lifespan gap is not a new phenomenon; experts have
known about it for decades. It’s also not restricted to
Americans. “This gender gap in life expectancy is true for all societies,
and it is also true for the great apes,” says Dr.
Perminder Sachdev, a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of New
South Wales in Australia who has studied human longevity.
Why do women tend to outlive men? Sachdev says there are a few
popular theories—some to do with biology, and some to
do with behavior.
“Men are more likely to smoke, drink excessively and be overweight,”
he says. “They are also less likely to seek medical help early, and, if
diagnosed with a disease, they are more likely to be non-adherent to
treatment.” On top of all that, he says, men are more likely to take
life-threatening risks and to die in car accidents, brawls or gun fights.
There’s evidence that a man’s biology—namely, his elevated levels
of the male sex hormone testosterone—may lead him into the kind of trouble that
could shorten his life. Research from Duke University has found
that elevated testosterone levels are associated with risky behaviors. Experts
say testosterone may abbreviate a man’s lifespan in other ways.
“Male sex hormones decrease immune function and increase the risk
for cardiovascular diseases,” says Kyung-Jin Min, a professor of biological
sciences at Inha University in South Korea.
In a 2012 study published in the journal
Current Biology, Min and his colleagues examined the historical health records
of 81 Korean eunuchs: men who were castrated as children, and who
therefore stopped producing much testosterone. They found the
eunuchs tended to live about 14 to 19 years longer than uncastrated men who
shared their same socio-economic status.
While the links between testosterone and immune function aren’t
clear, Min’s study points to lab research showing that testosterone may block
the release of some disease-fighting immune cells. On the
other hand, there’s also a good amount of research linking low levels of
testosterone to heart disease and poor health outcomes in men, so the
relationships between testosterone and a
man’s health are complex.
Section 1
Give a title to
the text
Section 2
Are the following statements true or false? If false, then rewrite
them to make them true.
1. Stats
disprove the notion that men outlive women.
2. According
to the Center for Death Control, the average American woman lives longer than
woman.
3. The
gender gap in life expectancy is peculiar to the American society.
4. Dr.
Perminder Sachdev believes that boozing is likely to increase man’s life
expectancy.
5. He
also thinks that men are more likely to take their state of health seriously.
6. Man’s
short lifespan hinges on his low level of testosterone.
7. According
to medical experts, male sex hormones taper off the danger and probability of
cardiovascular diseases.
8. Min
and his team discovered that eunuchs live longer than castrated guys.
9. Min’s
experiment reveals that testosterone actually thwarts the discharge of several
disease-fighting immune cells
10. The
correlation between man’s health and testosterone has proven to be
unequivocal.
Section 3
Circle the appropriate answer, basing your response on meaning in
context.
1. tend
a. to
be less disposed to
b. to
be inclined to
c. to
handle
d. to
conduce
2. average
a. degree
b. typical
of a group of people
c. quality
d. level
3. look
forward to
a. to
search
b. to
gaze
c. to
anticipate
d. to
admire
4. to
do with
a. concerned
with
b. unrelated
to
c. connected
to
d. to
have no bearing on
5. brawls
a. a
loud party
b. a
noisy scuffle
c. a
peaceful squabble
d. an
orgy
6. eunuch
a. a
powerless man
b. an
adult male
c. an
impotent man
d. an
intellectual man
7. immune
a. exempt
b. unresponsive
to
c. susceptible
to
d. unprotected
from
Section IV
What
do the underlined words refer to in the text?
Section V
Paraphrase the statements in bold type, using your own style.
Section VI
From “Men are more likely to smoke, to “…their same
socio-economic status.” Write a Summary in not more than 25 words.
(1) The
governor of Kentucky on Thursday side-stepped calls for gun control in the wake
of a school shooting that left 17 people dead and more than a dozen more
wounded after a teen opened fire with a legally purchased AR-15. Instead,
Republican Governor Matt Bevin called for an "honest conversation"
about violence and pointed the blame at video games and music.
"We need to have an honest conversation as to what
should and should not be allowed in the United States as it relates
to the things being put in the hands of our young people," he told the
Cincinnati Enquirer.
(2) Just
a day after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
Florida, Bevin limited his public criticism to the First Amendment, not the
Second.
"I'm a big believer in the First Amendment and right to
free speech, but there are certain things that are so graphic that it relates
to violence, and things that are so pornographic on a whole another front that
we allow to pass under the guise of free speech, which arguably
are," he told the Enquirer. "But there is zero redemptive value.
There is zero upside to any of this being in the public domain, let alone in
the minds and hands and homes of our young people." (3) In a Facebook
address, Bevin called on a litany of people—from President Donald Trump and
Congress, to video game and music producers—to find a solution to violence in
the United States, though he refrained from mentioning anything about guns.
"Our culture is crumbling from within.... All of you, we've
got to step up. We're the adults, lets act like it," he
implored. "Let's step forward, let's start a conversation and let's try to
figure out how to try to repair this fabric of America that's getting shredded
beyond recognition."
(4) Bevin
has been a staunch opponent to gun control measures and has tauted his
relationship with the National Rifle Association. He spoke at the annual
Leadership Forum for the NRA Institute for Legislative Action—the group's
lobbying wing—in 2016, a year after the organization endorsed him for governor.
(5) Gun
violence, however, has not spared his state. Just three weeks ago, a
15-year-old shooter, identified by the Courier Journal as Gabe Parker,
allegedly opened fire at Marshall County High School in rural town of Benton.
The shooting left two students, Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both
also 15, dead and more than a dozen others wounded.
(6) Within
hours of that incident, Bevin urged the community to come together but said
nothing of stymying such tragedy in the future, whether by gun control or video
game restriction.
"This is a tremendous tragedy and speaks to the heartbreak
present in our communities. It is unbelievable that
this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County,"
Bevin said in a statement. "As there is still much unknown, I encourage
people to love on each other at this time. Do not speculate, but come alongside
each other in support and allow the facts to come out."
(7) After
the Las Vegas shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds wounded, Bevin
said gun control would not have stopped massacre. "To all those political
opportunists who are seizing on the tragedy in Las Vegas to call for more gun
regs...You can't regulate evil," he tweeted.
(8) Bevin's
opposition to gun control appears to stem from personal anecdotes and dubious
data. As a student, USA Today reported, Bevin said some of his peers would
bring guns to school for show-and-tell. "Sometimes they'd
be in kids' lockers," he said. "Nobody even thought about shooting
other people with them. So it's not a gun problem."
(9) He
also said guns per capita have dropped over the past 50 to 100 years, according
to the newspaper. It's unclear where he got that information, but it likely
didn't come from the federal government.
(10) According
to a report commissioned by Congress and published by the Congressional
Research Service, there were about twice as many guns per capita in 2010 than
in 1968. Firearm manufacturing has also spiked, according to a 2015 report by
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The agency reported
that nearly 11 million guns were manufactured in 2013, more than double the
number manufactured just five years earlier.
(11) Despite
that reported increase in tools of war available in the country, Bevin turned
to the media rather than gun manufactures to act.
"Something has to be done," he said in his Facebook plea.
"Let's start a dialogue !"
Section
1
Give
a title to the text
Section 2
Comprehension
Questions (Answer the following questions using your own words)
1. Was Matt Bevin adamant that the
government had to take decisive action on gun control?
2. Did the governor of Kentucky lay
the blame on Congress & the White House?
3. Why did Matt Bevin restrict his
criticism to the first amendment and not to the second?
4. According to Matt Bevin, what needs
to be done to save the country from tumbling down?
5. Why wasn’t he staunchly opposed to
gun control in 2O16?
6. Did Matt Bevin believe that gun
manufacturers had more responsibility to take on for the prevalence of violence
and massacre in the U.S.?
Section 3
Circle
the appropriate answer, basing your response on meaning in context.
1. sidestep:
a. step
up
b. step
down
c. dodge
d. curtail
2. call for:
a. call up
b. call in
c. call off
d. require
3. graphic
a. representational
b. sexually explicit
c. diagrammatic
d. vivid
4. arguably
a. conventionally
b. debatably
c. unquestionably
d. convincingly
5. litany
a. a prayer consisting of a
series of invocations
b. address
c. list
d. tale
6. step up
a. to resign from a high post
b. to step in
c. to increase
d. to take on more responsibility
7. shredded
a. abandoned
b. sliced
c. cut into cubes
d. torn into pieces
8. endorse
a. to write one’s signature on
the back of a check
b. to acknowledge
c. to express approval or
support of, esp. publicly
d. to sign a document
9. spare
a. to withhold
b. to avoid
c. to refrain from harming
d. to hold back
10. stymie
a. to thwart
b. to swing
c. to collide
d. to swerve
Section
IV
What
do the underlined words refer to in the text?
Section V
Paraphrase
the following statements, using your own style.
1. "But there is zero redemptive
value. There is zero upside to any of this being in the public domain, let
alone in the minds and hands and homes of our young people."
2. Bevin urged the community to come
together but said nothing of stymying such tragedy in the future, whether by
gun control or video game restriction.
3. Despite that reported increase in
tools of war available in the country, Bevin turned to the media rather than
gun manufactures to act.
Section VI
Summarize
the following Paragraphs (1,2,3,4,5,6 & 7) in not more than 50 words.
Practical Activities