单选题
Want to know how long you or your aging parents will live? One simple
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of wellbeing and longevity among older people is their walking speed, new research shows.
In an analysis of nine studies
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more than 34,000 people aged 65 and older, faster walking speeds were
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with living longer: Predicted years of remaining life for each age and both sexes increased
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gait-speed increased, with the most significant gains after age 75.
In addition, researchers found that predicting survival based on gait speed was as
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as predictions
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on age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index and hospitalization.
"My hope is that we begin to think about ways to
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the health and function of older people that goes
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diseases," says lead researcher Stephanie Studenski, a geriatric physician at the University of Pittsburgh,
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analysis appears today in the Journal of American Medical Association. "Functional status (walking speed) is an important reflection of health."
Walking is a
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tool to measure well-being, Studenski says,
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it requires body support, timing and power, and places demands
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the brain, spinal cord, muscles and joints, heart and lungs. Slowing down is associated with getting older. By age 80, gait speed is approximately 10% to 20%
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than in young adults, she says.
The findings can provide doctors with an inexpensive, safe and simple way of measuring performance
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can help
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health problems, she says, and in many cases
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treatments that can improve well-being,
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disabilities and help the elderly
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independence.
"I think it"s a very useful tool, and some physicians already use it," says Evan Hadley, associate director of geriatrics at the National Institute on Aging. "It"s
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universal, though. This study
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show walking speed is a very strong predictor of survival."
【答案解析】此题考查语义衔接。acute严重的；accumulated累积的；assured确定的；accurate精确的。此题为形近词辨析，各词的意思相差较大，根据逻辑不难选accurate“精确的”与下文age，sex，chronic conditions，smoking history，blood pressure，body mass index and hospitalization等具体可测数据相对应。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】此题考查逻辑衔接。本题前有呼应，答案就在句子的前半部分“based on gait speed”。
【答案解析】此题考查语义衔接。根据上一句话Slowing down is associated with getting older. By age 80，gait speed is approximately 10% to 20% ______ than in young adults, she says.答案应该为slower，与slowing down相呼应。
【答案解析】此题考查结构衔接。The findings can provide doctors with an inexpensive, safe and simple way of measuring performance that can help identify health problems, she says, and in many cases lead to treatments that can improve well-being, ward off disabilities and help the elderly maintain independence.句子中help，lead to，ward off均为并列成分和can构成并列谓语，故help，lead to，ward off三者都应该保持同样的语法结构。
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】此题考查语义衔接。offence犯罪；define规定；defence防御，通常用于战斗，战争方面；ward off避开。ward off disabilities抵御疾病。
【答案解析】此题考查逻辑衔接。far from完全不；far away遥远的；far远；further进一步地。本题考查的是程度副词，这类题目的答案往往是根据句子的逻辑关系来判断。“It"s far from universal, though. This study does show walking speed is a very strong predictor of survival.”此句的翻译为“尽管这种现象远非普遍存在，研究确实表明走路速度是老年人身体状况的明显预报”。根据句子中though，does show，very strong表明作者的强烈感情色彩。知道本题中选择的是感情色彩很深的far from。