12．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 decline 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 with age．
"We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25percent between 18and 70years 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 20and 70，one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men，"said Goldspink．"this is part of the ageing process．"
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 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，"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．
57．The text mainly talks aboutD．
A．men's heart cells
B．women's ageing process、
C．the gender difference
D．hearts and long life
58．According to the text，the UK scientists have known thatC．
A．women have more cells than men when they are born
B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat
C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age
D．women never lose their pumping power with age
59．If you want to live longer，you shouldC．
A．enable your heart to beat much faster
B．find out the reason for ageing
C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy
D．prevent your cells from being lost
60．We can know from the passage thatB．
A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out
B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells
C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss
D．women over 70could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20．
分析 本文介紹女性比男性長壽的原因主要是因為男性到了中年，男性心臟衰老得比女性快．作者提醒男性需提高自身的心臟健康，防止心臟老化；同時女性需要加強腿部肌肉鍛煉，因為女性腿部肌肉隨著年齡的增長容易老化．
解答 57．D 主旨大意題．根據(jù)文章第 1 段的第 2 句…the reason could be that men's hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age 和第 2 段中的 women's longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age 及全文內(nèi)容可知，本題的正確答案選 D．
58．C 細節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)文章第 5 段的第 1 句 What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells 可知女性的心臟衰老慢，細胞死亡少，本題的正確答案選 C．
59．C 推理判斷題．文章最后一段第一句The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise．可知需多做運動，防止心臟衰老．
60．B 推理判斷題．根據(jù)文章倒數(shù)第 2 段中的 The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart 可推知"這個團隊還沒有找出是什么原因造成男性的心臟極速衰老的原因"，因此同義句為"scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells"，本題的正確答案選B．
點評 考生在閱讀的時候有足夠的耐心．要養(yǎng)成在上下文串聯(lián)中猜測詞義的能力，根據(jù)上下文中出現(xiàn)的同義詞，近義詞，反義詞，以及詞義的解釋來理解生詞．同時要抓住文章的中心，要根據(jù)題目及選項以及文章的上下文串聯(lián)合理的判斷推理．
