LEMON TREE

New Study Looks Into Why Females Live LongerThan Males

April 14, 2020

Exercise 1- Vocabulary

1. gap – n. a space betweentwo people or things; a missing part

She hadtaken several years off to raise a family, so there was a large gap inher work history.

2. lifespan – n. the amountof time that a person or animal actually lives

Worms havea lifespan of a few months.

3. previously – adv. earlierin time or order

Previously,the child was under the protection of her mother.

4. expectancy - n. the state ofthinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happenor be the case.

Scientistsestimate that smoking reduces life expectancy by around 12 years onaverage.

New Study Looks Into Why Females Live LongerThan Males

Researchersalready know that women live longer than men in all parts of the world.Scientists have largely linked the difference in life expectancy between thesexes to biological survival factors.

Now, a new study of wild mammals hasfound great differences in length of life and aging in many species of mammals.

Theresearchers found that, in humans, women live almost 8 percent longer than men.But among wild mammals, females in 60 percent of the studied species live, onaverage, 18.6 percent longer. The percentages are very different for differentgroups of mammals.

Jean-FrançoisLemaître led the study. He is from the University Lyon 1 in France. He and hisresearch team collected information on age-related deaths for 134 groups of 101wild species of mammals.

Scientistssay the risk of death does not increase more quickly in males than in femalesacross species. They say there must be other, more complex reasons. Theseinclude things such as environmental conditions in which the animals live,sex-specific growth, survival and reproduction through the history of thespecies.

Székelysuggests that one reason for the differences between the sexes is that “femalesurvival increases when males provide some or all of the parental care.”

Scientistshope the findings will give them a better understanding of what affects lengthof life in humans. In the past 200 years, the average life expectancy of humanshas more than doubled. The main reasons for the increase are improved livingconditions and developments in the field of medicine. However, women continueto live longer than men. This suggests biological differences also play a part.

The U.S.Centers for Disease Control says the average American man will live to age 76.The average woman in America will live to age 81. Women can also expect to behealthier than men in their older years. Experts said this is because of acombination of biological and social differences.

A hormone in men called testosteroneis connected to a decrease in their immune system and risk of heart-relateddiseases as they age. It is also connected to risky behavior, such as smoking,drinking and unhealthy eating habits.

Men arealso less likely than women to follow suggestions and warnings from a doctor.And research shows that men are more likely to take life-threatening risks andto die in car accidents or gun fights.

Questions:

1. How many percent do women livelonger than men?

2. Who was the researcher from Lyon 1France?

3. What is the average lifespan of anAmerica man?

4. What are the possible factors whymen have shorter life expectancy than women?