1. What do centenarians Salvatore Caruso and Domenico Romeo have in common?

(Choose two answers.)

They both experienced the death of a parent at a young age.

They both carefully watch what they eat.

They both live in the same region in Italy: Calabria.

2. In paragraph G, what can be inferred by the following statement:
Several recent studies have undermined the link between longevity and caloric
restriction.

It is easy to prove that a restricted diet leads to a longer life.

It is questionable that a restricted diet leads to a longer life.

3. It is complicated to explain how a restricted diet leads to a longer life.Luzzi is
particularly interesting to a population geneticist because ________.

it has stunning views of snow-covered mountains

it is a medieval village

the Civil Registry Office there contains important records

4. What does teasing out mean in the following statement from paragraph M?
But by teasing out details from family trees, the Calabrian researchers discovered an
intriguing paradox.

obtaining some information with effort

asking family members for information

using a special instrument to extract information

5. In the following sentence from paragraph O, what is the purpose of the appositive (the
phrase set between dashes)?
The protein plays a central role in metabolism—the way a person consumes energy and
regulates body heat—which in turn affects the rate of aging.
to give an example of the word metabolism
to explain the rate of aging
to give the definition of the word metabolism
6. What does plethora mean in the following sentence from paragraph Q?
If nothing else, the plethora of new studies indicates that longevity researchers are
pushing the scientific conversation to a new level.

variety
 excess

need
7. One-fourth of the inhabitants of Molochio are centenarians.

True

False

Not given
8. Scientists learn more about longevity in Calabria by studying the ledger books and
registry cards which are also available as digital files.

True

False

Not given
9. It can be inferred from the infographic on page 174 that most Western countries in
the world have universal health coverage.

True

False

Not given
10. According to the infographic on page 174, the United States has a higher life
expectancy than most of the other countries represented.

True

False

Not given
Going Strong at 100

[1] People in most parts of the world are living longer and longer, thanks to great leaps in medicine
and sanitation over the last century. But these growing life expectancies bring with them a sense of
unease. The biggest worry is the possibility that medical advances are artificially prolonging life with
little regard for its quality. Old age, after all, brings with it an increased risk of chronic diseases such
as cancer, as well as both physical and mental decline.

[2] This is not just a moral question, but an economic one too. The "oldest-old" are the fastest
growing demographic in Western countries. If this expanding part of the population is indeed
becoming more and more dependent on care from relatives or the state, the costs to society will start
to skyrocket. But new research from Denmark suggests that this grim vision of the future is a
fictitious one.

[3] Kaare Christensen and colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark found that the
proportion of elderly Danes who manage to remain independent holds steady at about 30–35 percent
between the ages of 90 to 100. Individual people certainly risk losing their independence as they get
older but the unhealthiest ones tend to pass away earlier despite improvements in medicine. This
means that from society’s point of view, exceptional long-life won’t lead to exceptional levels of
disability.

[4] The scale of Christensen’s study is unprecedented. It exploited the fact that Denmark has kept a
record of everyone living in it since 1968. Each person is assigned with a 10-digit identification
number that links all their information across official registries. In 1998, Christensen’s team used this
resource to contact every one of the 3,600 people who were born in Denmark in 1905 and were still
alive.

[5] About two-thirds of this group of ninety-somethings agreed to take part in the research.
Christensen assessed their physical strength, their ability to get on with daily life, their mental agility
and whether they showed any symptoms of depression. His team then caught up with them again in
2000, 2003, and 2005. At every stage, there were some drop-outs due mostly to deaths and terminal
illness and by 2005, only 166 volunteers remained, all of whom were 100-years old.

[6] The drop-outs tend to pose problems for studies like these that follow groups of people over time.
But in this case, it gave the researchers a chance to compare the health of those who stayed with the
study and those who didn’t. As you might expect, they found that the drop-outs tended to have
weaker physical and mental abilities and were more likely to show signs of depression than those
who stuck with it.

[7] At each of the four assessment years, the team found that the proportion of survivors who
remained physically and mentally independent stayed remarkably stable. Even among the
centenarians interviewed in 2005, a third were self-sufficient.

[8] To picture this more clearly, imagine a group of 90 friends all of whom are at a ripe old age.
About 30 of them (a third) are fully independent and enjoying the best of health, while another 30 or
so are severely disabled and very ill. Skip forward a decade or so and this very disabled fraction have
passed away, leaving behind 60 of their friends. But the health of some of these survivors has also
taken a turn for the worse; now only 20 people (out of the 60) are fully independent and another 20
have taken seriously ill. Note that while overall, the health of the group is failing, the proportion of
independent people is still the same—a third!

[9] So as the population ages, the most disabled people are likely to die off sooner, leaving behind a
steady proportion of good health. That’s good news for Western societies because it suggests that
extending lives isn’t going to cost an exorbitant amount in terms of healthcare. Even with lives
reaching beyond the 90-year mark, it’s hardly the case that entire sections of society will be
bedridden. Indeed, a recent study of 32 Americans aged 110 and over found that 40% of these
"supercentenarians" could look after themselves.

[10] Christensen’s conclusions are backed up by another study by James Lubitz published in 2003.
Lubitz looked at the relative healthcare costs of looking after people aged 70 for the rest of their
lives. His team found that healthcare costs for healthy 70-year-olds were lower than those with partial
disabilities, even though they lived for a longer time.

[11] Christensen says that his research might seem like good news for society and bad news for the
individual, but that there’s reason to be optimistic. The study shows that people who survive to the
highest ages have "a health profile that is similar in many aspects to most individuals who are 7 to 8
years younger." He also notes that while his study looked at people who were born in 1905, other
research suggests that disability could be kicking in even later for people born in subsequent years.

[12] In both Denmark and the US, overall disability rates have been falling since the 1980s. What
happens in the future is anyone’s guess—certainly, the fact that fewer and fewer people are smoking
can only push back the onset of disability in old age, but the obesity epidemic may pull the trend
back in the opposite direction.
1. What is one of the main ideas of this passage?

People may live longer today, but their quality of life declines as they reach extreme
old age.

Precise record keeping in Denmark has made Christensen’s old age study especially
accurate.

Elderly people may stay independent longer and their health care costs may not be
excessive.
2. The word fictitious in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________.

untrue

undesirable

unexpected
3. The author describes the Danish experiment as "unprecedented" (paragraph 4)
because it ________.

lasted over seven years

 involved so many participants

was sponsored by the Danish government

4. What did all the participants in the Danish study have in common?

They were all originally from the same part of Denmark.

They were all in their nineties when the study began.

They were all still healthy and living independently.

5. How many times were the participants in the study assessed by the experimenters?

once

three times

four times
6. Among the "group of 90 friends" (paragraph 8), how many were independent after
ten years?

20

30

60
7. There were extensive records on all the people who took part in the Danish
experiment from the time that they were born.

True

False

Not given
8. Among the participants who reached 100, about one in three could still look after
themselves.

True

False

Not given
9. Christensen and his team are currently conducting experiments with people who
were born in years later than 1905.

True
 False

Not given
10. While more and more people have stopped smoking, many have also gained a lot
of weight, and this may cause the disability rate to go up again.

True

False

Not given