单选题
Marriage was one of the first non-biological factors
identified as improving life expectancy. The explanation given was that married
people tend to take fewer risks with their health and enjoy better mental and
emotional health. Marriage also provides more social and material
support. The difference between married people and single
people, in terms of health, is narrowing. To really understand this, we have to
be precise about terms. Researchers typically distinguish between never married,
currently married, widowed and divorced. As we look in-depth into this issue of
marriage and health, we'll see that things get pretty {{U}}fuzzy{{/U}}
nowadays. No one is saying that having a piece of paper that
says "married" on it is going to improve your life expectancy. There is
something about people who live in marriage that improves life expectancy—or to
be more precise, there was something about people who lived in marriage in the
70s that was found to improve life expectancy. Now, people could be listed as
"single never married" in census data, but be living with someone and be
experiencing all the health benefits of marriage without having the marriage
certificate. This complicates research on marriage and health.
Even using the traditional categories of "currently married" or "never married,"
singles are catching up, but only men. Men who were never married typically had
the lowest life expectancy (in 1972). Now, the never married men are closing in
on their currently married counterparts. The difference in life expectancy is
becoming smaller because that single men now have access to support and health
resources that only came because their wife took care of them. In other words,
in the 1970s, married men had the advantage because they had their wives to make
sure they went to the doctor and took care of themselves. Now, men are taking
more responsibility for their own health and take action.
Compared to 1972, people who are widowed now report poorer health than their
married counterparts. In the 70s, they reported their health as the same as
married people, now their health is about 7% worse. No one really knows why
widowhood is more damaging to health now than in the 70s. My guess is that
widowed people in the 70s had more of a community and extended family to help
them out. Now, the widowed are more likely to be isolated.
单选题
The underlined word "fuzzy" in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. explicit
B. indistinct
C. worse
D. ridiculous
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】首先要弄清楚这四个选项中每个词的含义。explicit：明确的，意义明了的；indistinct：不明显的，模糊的，不清楚的；ridiculous：可笑的，荒诞的。要了解fuzzy的确切含义，就必须领会第二段和第三段的主要意义。第二段第二句说，有必要明确一些术语的意义，因此研究人员往往区分四类人：一辈子没结婚的、目前已婚的、丧偶的和离婚的。这说明“结婚”这个词表示的生活状态并不明确。第三段接着讲同居的人(partnership)虽然没结婚，但目前与已婚的人一样享受健康方面的益处。后面又说婚姻与健康不好研究。面临这么多不确定，我们可断定fuzzy可能有“复杂”或“棘手”的含义，字典对该词的定义是not clear or precise，也就是“不明确的，模糊的”。
单选题
Paragraph 3 implies that ______.
A. whoever lives in marriage can live to an old age
B. partnership can also contribute to life expectancy
C. we know clearly how marriage contributes to health
D. a marriage certificate is a guarantee of good health
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】第三段说，“已婚”两个字本身并不能有助于延年益寿，重要的是婚后生活在一起。既然结婚有利于健康，为什么还要说“确切地讲，上世纪70年代的婚姻生活有助于健康”?难道live in marriage的含义与变化吗?原因是当前没结婚的人并不一定就是单身生活，可以同居，这也有助于健康。
单选题
It can be concluded from Paragraph 4 that ______.
A. single females are as healthy as single males
B. there are as many single men as married ones
C. single males are financially better off than before
单选题
The central idea of this passage is that ______.
A. remaining single is of greater benefit to life expectancy than
marriage
B. marriage doesn't contribute as much to life expectancy as it used
to
C. the longer you stay married, the longer your life expectancy
D. it is increasingly difficult to give a precise definition of
marriage
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】文章的主要内容涉及婚姻与健康的关系。文章中有几个句子有助于理解主题，如第二段中的The difference between married people and single people, in terms of health, is narrowing和第四段的Now, the never married men are closing in on their currently married counterparts。文章的意图并不是论述婚姻如何有益于健康，也不是建议人们过单身生活，而是说明由于同居现象的增加、健康意识的增强和医疗服务的改善，同居的人或单身的人也能健康生活，婚姻对于长寿的益处已不如上世纪70年代那么显著。