四、閱讀測驗【請在下列各題中選出最適當的答案】
According to some authoritative anthropological studies in the last five decades, life expectancy of human
beings was short for millennia. The few people who grew old were assumed, because of their years, to have won
the favor of the gods. The typical person was fortunate to reach 40.
Beginning in the 19th century, that slowly changed. Since 1840, life expectancy at birth has risen about
three months with each passing year. In 1840, life expectancy at birth in Sweden, a much-studied nation owing to
its record-keeping, was 45 years for women; today it’s 83 years. The United States displays roughly the same
trend. When the 20th century began, life expectancy at birth in America was 47 years; now newborns are
expected to live 79 years. If about three months continue to be added with each passing year, by the middle of
this century, American life expectancy at birth will be 88 years. By the end of the century, it will be 100 years.
Viewed globally, the lengthening of life spans seems independent of any single, specific event. It didn’t
accelerate much as antibiotics and vaccines became common. Nor did it retreat much during wars or disease
outbreaks. A graph of global life expectancy over time looks like an escalator rising smoothly. The trend holds, in
most years, in individual nations rich and poor; the whole world is riding the escalator.
Projections of ever-longer life spans assume no incredible medical discoveries—rather, that the escalator
ride simply continues. If anti-aging drugs or genetic therapies are found, the climb could accelerate. Centenarians
may become the norm, rather than rarities who generate a headline in the local newspaper.
【題組】24. According to the passage, what impacts have world events had on life expectancy?
(A) They have shortened life expectancy.
(B) They have lengthened life expectancy.
(C) They have made life expectancy rise smoothly.
(D) They have had no significant effect on life expectancy.
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