单选题 One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don"t drink tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous (匿名戒酒互助会) explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers (戒酒者) in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.
But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that—for reasons that aren"t entirely clear—abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one"s risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part is abstainers" mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.
Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health.
But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It"s true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors— job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illness over long periods. (They also don"t get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)
But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables—socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on—the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who were not current drinkers, regardless of whether they used to be alcoholics, second highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.
单选题 What"s the Alcoholics Anonymous" attitude towards the findings?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。短文第一段第二句指出...many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking. 即匿名戒酒互助会对之前发现的解释是，参与这种调查的非饮酒者往往之前是严重酗酒者，并出现了健康问题。由此可知对上文发现持否定态度。故选A。
单选题 What do we know from the new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。短文第二段最后一句指出abstainers" mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers即戒酒者的死亡率高于酗酒者。故答案D正确。
单选题 What kind of people can be considered as a moderate drinker?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据短文第三段第一句Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day可判断出答案为A。
单选题 Why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life according to the passage?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据短文第四段表述可知：喝酒花费很高，不喝酒的人来自较低的社会经济阶层，背负着沉重的社会压力，而多种压力会危害身体健康。因此选B。
单选题 According to the research over a 20-year period, what kind of people has the highest mortality rates?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。短文最后一句指出研究发现over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who were not current drinkers, regardless of whether they used to be alcoholics, second highest for heavy drinkers and lo west for moderate drinkers即在20年的时间中，死亡率最高的是在这20年中不喝酒的人(不管他们之前是否喝酒)，第二高的是酗酒者，最低的是那些适度饮酒者。由此可知，答案为B。