阅读理解
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Why do some people live to be older than others? You know the standard explanations: keeping a moderate diet, engaging in regular exercise, etc. But what effect does your personality have on your longevity（长寿）?Do some kinds of personalities lead to longer lives? A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looked at this question by examining the personality characteristics of 246 children of people who had lived to be at least 100.
The study shows that those living the longest are more outgoing, more active and less neurotic (神经质的) than other people. Long-living women are also more likely to be sympathetic and cooperative than women with a normal life span. These findings are in agreement with what you would expect from the evolutionary theory: those who like to make friends and help others can gather enough resources to make it through tough times.
Interestingly, however, other characteristics that you might consider advantageous had no impact on whether study participants were likely to live longer. Those who were more self-disciplined, for instance, were no more likely to live to be very old. Also, being open to new ideas had no relationship to long life, which might explain all those bad-tempered old people who are fixed in their ways.
Whether you can successfully change your personality as an adult is the subject of a longstanding psychological debate. But the new paper suggests that if you want long life, you should strive to be as outgoing as possible.
Unfortunately, another recent study shows that your mother’s personality may also help determine your longevity. That study looked at nearly 28,000 Norwegian mothers and found that those moms who were more anxious, depressed and angry were more likely to feed their kids unhealthy diets. Patterns of childhood eating can be hard to break when we’re adults, which may mean that kids of depressed moms end up dying younger.
Personality isn’t destiny(命运), and everyone knows that individuals can learn to change. But both studies show that long life isn’t just a matter of your physical health but of your mental health.
单选题
The aim of the study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society is____.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society ，可将答案定位在文章第一段最后一句。
文章第一段末句指出：“《美国老年病学会志》上面的一项新研究通过检验246人的性格特征来研究这个问题，这些人都是寿命在100岁以上的老人的子女。”其中的“这个问题”指的是上文的“但是人的性格对长寿有什么影响?拥有某些性格特征会让人活得更长久吗?”由此可知，这项研究的目的是检验性格对人寿命的影响，故本题选A。
单选题
What does the author imply about outgoing and sympathetic people?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词outgoing and sympathetic people，可将答案定位在文章第二段。
文章第二段指出，该研究表明，更加外向、更加活跃的人更容易长寿。寿命长的女性也更有可能富有同情心、乐于与人合作。这些发现与人们期待从进化论中得出的结论相一致：那些愿意结交朋友、乐于助人的人会聚集足够的资源，挺过艰难时期。由此可知，外向并且富有同情心的人更有可能克服困难，故本题选D。选项中的get over hardship同义替换了原文中的make it through tough times。选项C比较容易误选，其中的resourceful意为“机智的，足智多谋的”，与第二段最后一句提到的，这些人gather enough resources(聚集足够的资源)不是一个意思，故排除。
单选题
What finding of the study might prove somewhat out of our expectation?
单选题
What does the recent study of Norwegian mothers show?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词the recent study of Norwegian mothers，可将答案定位在文章倒数第二段。
文章倒数第二段指出，“最近另外一项研究表明，母亲的性格或许也帮助决定了一个人能否长寿。”这项研究的调查对象就是来自挪威的母亲，“研究发现，那些更加焦虑、更加抑郁、更加愤怒的母亲更有可能给孩子准备不健康的饮食。儿童时期的饮食习惯在成年以后也很难打破，这可能意味着，抑郁母亲的孩子最后会去世得较早。”也就是说，如果母亲有焦虑、抑郁等消极的性格，她们的孩子的寿命会受到负面影响，故本题选D。选项中的mothers" negative personality characteristics总结概括了原文中的morns who were more anxious, depressed and angry。选项B比较容易误选，虽然文章中提到是因为这些母亲造成孩子不健康的饮食习惯，从而影响孩子的寿命长短，但是这个研究的主要结论还是母亲的性格对孩子寿命的影响，故排除选项B。
单选题
What can we learn from the findings of the two new studies?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 题干问的是两项新研究的结论，没有明显的关键词，但是可根据出题顺序与文章顺序基本一致的原则，将答案定位在最后一段。这也符合英文文章的写作习惯，最后一段对前文进行总结。
文章最后一段最后一句话指出，“两项研究都表明，长寿并不只是身体健康的问题，还涉及你的心理健康”，故本题选B。选项中的mental and physical health是原文复现，所以这道题还是比较简单的。原文只是说第二个研究发现焦虑和抑郁的母亲会对孩子的寿命有影响，不能说焦虑和抑郁使人寿命变短，故排除A。选项C有点言过其实了，原文的两项研究都表明性格会影响寿命，但是并不是说性格有决定性的作用，故排除。两项研究主要涉及性格方面，故排除D。