单选题 .  Back in 1975, economists plotted rising life expectancies against countries' wealth, and concluded that wealth itself increases longevity. It seemed self-evident: everything people need to be healthy—from food to medical care—costs money.
    But soon it emerged that the data didn't always fit that theory. Economic upturns didn't always mean longer lives. In addition, for reasons that weren't clear, a given gain in gross domestic product (GDP) caused increasingly higher gains in life expectancy over time, as though it was becoming cheaper to add years of life. Moreover, in the 1980s researchers found gains in literacy were associated with greater increases in life expectancy than gains in wealth were. Finally, the more educated people in any country tend to live longer than their less educated fellow citizens. But such people also tend to be wealthier, so it has been difficult to untangle which factor is increasing lifespan.
    Wolfgang Lutz and his colleagues have now done that by compiling average data on GDP per person, lifespans, and years of education from 174 countries, dating from 1970 to 2010. They found that, just as in 1975, wealth correlated with longevity. But the correlation between longevity and years of schooling was closer, with a direct relationship that did not change over time, the way wealth does. When the team put both these factors into the same mathematical model, they found that differences in education closely predicted differences in life expectancy, while changes in wealth barely mattered.
    Lutz argues that because schooling happens many years before a person has attained their life expectancy, this correlation reflects cause: better education drives longer life. It also tends to lead to more wealth, which is why wealth and longevity are also correlated. But what is important, says Lutz, is that wealth does not seem to be driving longevity, as experts thought—in fact, education is driving both of them.
    He thinks this is because education permanently improves a person's cognitive abilities, allowing better planning and self-control throughout the rest of their life. This idea is supported by the fact that people who are more intelligent appear to live longer.1.  What did economists conclude about longevity in 1975? ______
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】 由题干中的economists和1975定位到首段第一句。
   细节辨认题。定位句提到,早在1975年,经济学家就以图表展示了国家财富与延长的预期寿命的关系,并得出结论,认为财富本身可以延长寿命。故本题答案为B。
[参考译文] 早在1975年,经济学家就以图表展示了国家财富与延长的预期寿命的关系,并得出结论,认为财富本身可以延长寿命。这似乎是显而易见的:人们维持健康所需要的一切东西——从食物到医疗保健——都需要花钱。
   但很快就发现,数据并不总是符合这个理论。经济好转并不总是意味着更长的寿命。此外,由于尚不清楚的原因,随着时间的推移,国内生产总值的一定增长导致预期寿命不断增加,就好像增加寿命的成本越来越低。此外,在20世纪80年代,研究人员发现,与财富增长相比,读写能力的提高带来了更多的预期寿命的增加。最后,任何国家受教育程度更高的人往往比受教育程度较低的同胞活得更久。但是这样的人往往也更富有,所以很难弄清楚哪个因素会延长寿命。
   现在,沃尔夫冈·卢茨和他的同事们通过收集1970年到2010年间174个国家的人均GDP、寿命和受教育年数的平均数据做到了这一点。他们发现,正如1975年的研究结果一样,财富与长寿有关。但是,长寿与上学年限之间的关系更加密切,而且它们之间的直接关系不会随着时间的推移而改变,就像财富一样。当研究小组将这两个因素放到同一个数学模型中时,他们发现教育上的差异能够密切预测预期寿命的差异,而财富的变化几乎无关紧要。
   卢茨认为,由于学校教育发生在一个人达到预期寿命之前很多年,这种相关性反映了原因:更好的教育可以延长寿命。它也往往会带来更多的财富,这就是为什么财富和长寿也是相关的。但是,卢茨说,重要的是,财富似乎并没有推动长寿,正如专家们所认为的那样——事实上,是教育推动着长寿和财富。
   他认为这是因为教育能够永久地提高一个人的认知能力,让他们的余生有更好的计划和自我控制能力。这个观点得到了事实的支撑:更聪明的人似乎活得更久。