Passage Three

 Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid(迅速) decline(下降) when they reach middle age.

　　The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power(供血能力) with age.

　　“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

　　“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink.“This is part of the ageing process(过程).”

　　What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.

　　“This gender(性别) difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.“The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, and we are still on the way.” said Goldspink.

　　The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.

The Martian is a 2015 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. The film is based on Andy Weir’s novel The Martian,

Astronaut Mark Watney becomes one of the first people to walk on Mars. But a sudden sandstorm nearly kills him and forces the other astronauts to leave while they think that Mark is dead. When he wakes up, Mark finds himself alone on the Mars. What is worse, he even can’t send a message to Earth, and he doesn’t have enough food and water to wait for the help. The broken machines, bad environment, and the shortage of food and water are likely to kill him first. But Mark isnˈt ready to give up yet. With his cleverness, his engineering skills, and his strong desire to survive, he solves all the problems. At last, he is brought back to Earth successfully.

The Martian was put on at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival on September 11, 2015. And it opened in theaters in the US on October 2, 2015. The film received active reviews worldwide and several awards, including the Golden Globe Awards, and seven Academy Award nominations. For his performance, Damon received several nominations, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, and he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor.

The 2015 Nobel Prizes have been announced.  Sweden’s Nobel Prize committee(委员会)said the Nobel Prize  for medicine will go to scientists from Ireland, Japan and China.  William Campbell from Ireland and Satoshi Omura from Japan share the prize for their discovery of the drug avermectin(除虫菌素).  The prize for medicine is also going to Tu Youyou.  She discovered artemisinin(青蒿素).  Artemisinin is a drug that has greatly lowered the number of people who die from malaria  (1)  疟疾  (2)  . The committee said her greatest achievement is that discovery of artemisinin has given the world new ways to fight against two serious diseases.  That’s why Ms. Tu got the prize.  It is said those diseases influence millions of people every year.

Ms. Tu is the chief professor(首席教授)at the China Academy of Traditional Medicine.  She is also the first Chinese citizen(公民)to be awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.  It took her great and painful effort to make the great discovery.  She always tested the medicine by herself and her liver(肝)got badly hurt.  From 1972 t0 2012, Ms. Tu went through about 40 failures before she succeeded.  But she never gave up and always fought on.

A member of the Nobel committee said that the award for Tu Youyou is the result of a great change in the way that Chinese do scientific research.  He says China has spent a lot of money on this kind of research.  This member also said that the work of the three scientists could help end the health risk of diseases affecting 3.4 billion people.

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The following is a QUIZ(自测) from a magazine.

Last year in the UK at least 45 people died and 900 more were injured in car accidents where drivers were using their mobile phones. Yet many people continue to use them while driving even though it’s dangerous.

Research has shown that it is difficult to concentrate on driving and talking at the same time. It can even be more dangerous than driving after drinking too much. A recent study found that when drivers were talking on their mobile phones, their stopping times were 30 percent slower than when they had drunk too much----and nearly 50 percent slower than when they were driving normally. It also found that drivers talking on mobile phones were less able to control their cars than drunk drivers.

And talking isn’t even the most serious problem. Texting is. Unbelievably, another recent study reported that 22% of adults admitted they had sent a text message while driving at least once in the past month. An average text message takes 90 seconds to write and send. That means for one and a half minutes a driver is looking at their phone’s screen and not at the road. The arrival of new smart phones such as the iPhone will only make matters worse as they will allow users to do more things than ever before.

Using a mobile phone while driving puts others’ lives at risk. No matter how well we drive, if another driver is not being professional or careful, we are put in danger by their actions. Such drivers are selfish, careless, and should have their driving licenses (驾照) cancelled.

There is no doubt that mobile phones can be fun and are extremely useful, especially when you’re in trouble. But there is no need to use them while driving. Just wait until you stop or you will probably get into trouble of your own.