Name: Andy Ruiyu Chen

Life Expectancy Jumps to Nearly 81

CBC The National (2010)

Vocabulary and Expressions:

The following sentences and words are from the video. The new vocabulary and expressions are
in bold.

1. A Statistics Canada report released today gives us plenty to celebrate: Statistics Canada is the
government department that studies the social, commercial, financial and economic situation of
Canadians; to release is to publish, make public or make available.

2. Life expectancy for men is rising at a faster pace: life expectancy is the number of years a person
is expected to live; pace means the speed at which something moves

3. Seniors are likely to live two years longer than a decade ago. A senior is an elderly person;
likely means probably or expected.

4. … balance and posture: balance is the ability to keep steady with an equal amount of weight on
either side of the body; posture is the position in which you hold your body when standing or
sitting.

5. “My grandmother sat in a rocking chair teaching me how to knit, and that’s all she did.” A
rocking chair moves backwards and forwards; to knit is to make clothes from wool or cotton
thread using two long knitting needles.

6. Extra years for older people come with a special set of challenges: a group of difficult tasks

7. That will keep Joanna Morowitz in business: Her business will continue in the future.

8. “A lot of seniors have started to ask for a much more enhanced lifestyle:” improved
9. …higher obesity rates: obesity is the noun form of the adjective obese, which means being
extremely fat or overweight.

10. To turn back the clock (idiom): to return to a situation that existed in the past.

Watch the video and answer the following questions: (10 Points)
1. Why should Canadians celebrate according to Peter Mansbridge?
--Because living longer is now a cause for celebration, with life expectancy now expected to
reach nearly eighty-one, women's life expectancy is still the longest for men, and it is rising at a
faster rate. Seniors are now likely to live two years longer than they did a decade ago.

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2. How often do the seniors in the video go to the Sunshine Centre? How old are they?
-- Seniors in the video go to the Sunshine Center once a week.
Almost every seniors here is in their eighties.

3. How old is Isabelle Adams? What does she and the other seniors do in the Sunshine Centre?
--Isabelle Adams’s eighty nine. She and the other seniors come to the Sunshine Center to hang
out and do exercises for balance and posture.

4. When was Marianne Gerling born? What did Marianne’s grandmother do at the age of 60?
-- Marianne Gerling was born in the nineteen twenties.
Marianne’s grandmother was sitting in a rocking chair at the age of 60.

5. What three factors contributed to the rise in life expectancy during the last century?
-- Experts say that through much of the last century, life expectancy improved thanks to
vaccinations, water and antibiotics.

6. What is contributing to the rise in life expectancy in this century?

-- Now it’s improving because of advances in finding things like heart disease.

7. A Statistics Canada spokesman mentions two challenges that come with extra years for older
people. What are they?

--The challenge with seniors living a few more years is that everyone has to work and take care
of them.

8. What kind of business does Joanne Morowitz have?

-- She designs apartments and luxury condo projects geared toward seniors.

9. What has happened to life expectancy in Canada over the past six decades?
-- For the past six decades, has jumped by two years every decade.

10. Is life expectancy expected to continue to rise? What is the major risk factor that may turn back
the clock?

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--Life expectancy expected to continue to rise. Some experts expect higher obesity rates to

eventually start turning bake the clock.