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阅读理解：
The predictability of our mortality rates is something that has long puzzled social scientists. After all, there is no natural reason why 2,500 people should accidentally shoot themselves each year or why 7,000 should drown or 55,000 die in their cars. No one establishes a quota for each type of death. It just happens that they follow a consistent pattern year after year.
A few years ago a Canadian psychologist named Gerald Wilde became interested in this phenomenon. He noticed that mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths throughout the Western world have remained oddly static throughout the whole of the century, despite all the technological advances and increases in safety standards that have happened in that time. Wilde developed an intriguing theory called “risk homeostasis”. According to this theory, people instinctively live with a certain level of risk. When something is made safer, people will get around the measure in some way to reassert the original level of danger. If, for instance, they are required to wear seat belts, they will feel safer and thus will drive a little faster and a little more recklessly, thereby statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers. Other studies have shown that where an intersection is made safer, the accident rate invariably falls there but rises to a compensating level elsewhere along the same stretch of road. It appears, then, that we have an innate need for danger.
In all events, it is becoming clearer and clearer to scientists that the factors influencing our lifespan are far more subtle and complex than had been previously thought. It now appears that if you wish to live a long life, it isn’t simply a matter of adhering to certain precautions „ eating the right foods, not smoking, driving with care. You must also have the right attitude. Scientists at the Duke University Medical Center made a 15-year study of 500 persons personalities and found, somewhat to their surprise, that people with a suspicious or mistrustful nature die prematurely far more often than people with a sunny disposition. Looking on the bright side, it seems, can add years to your life span.
11. What social scientists have long felt puzzled about is why .
A) the mortality rate can not be predicted
B) the death toll remained stable year after year
C) a quota for each type of death has not come into being
D) people lost their lives every year for this or that reason
12. In his research, Gerald Wilde finds that technological advances and increases in safety standards .
A) have helped solve the problem of so high death rate
B) have oddly accounted for mortality rates in the past century
C) have reduced mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths
D) have achieved no effect in bringing down the number of deaths
13. According to the theory of “risk homeostasis”, some traffic accidents result from .
A) our innate desire for risk
B) our fast and reckless driving
C) our ignorance of seat belt benefits
D) our instinctive interest in speeding
14. By saying “„statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers” (Para. 2),the author means .
A) wearing seat belts does not have any benefits from the statistic point of view
B) deaths from wearing seat belts are the same as those from not wearing them
C) deaths from other reasons counterbalance the benefits of wearing seat belts
D) wearing seat belts does not necessarily reduce deaths from traffic accidents
15. Which of the following may contribute to a longer life span?
A) Showing adequate trust instead of suspicion of others
B) Eating the food low in fat and driving with great care
C) Cultivating an optimistic personality and never losing heart
D) Looking on the bright side and developing a balanced level of risk
参考答案与解析：
这是一篇人文类说明文。
第一段中作者提出长期困扰社会科学家的问题，即死亡率遵循一种一成不变的模式。在第二段中作者引用加拿大心理学家Gerald Wilde的risk homeostasis（体内风险平衡）理论分析了原因，并以交通事故为例，指出如果驾驶时系了安全带，这方面原因导致的车祸会降低，但另一方面驾车人因为感到安全可能会开快车，开鲁莽车，从而发生死亡事故。第三段讨论了影响寿命的因素，文中提到，保持长寿，不仅要注意饮食、不抽烟、谨慎驾驶，更要有乐观的生活态度。
11. B) 语义理解题 问的是长期困扰社会科学家的问题是什么，本题依据是第一段最后一句“It just happens that they follow a consistent pattern year after year”，与选项B)“死亡人数年复一年保持稳定”相吻合。
12. D) 细节推论题 本题题干出现在第二段第二句，意思说：虽然有技术进步和安全标准的提高，西方世界的暴力和意外死亡率在整个世纪中保持着奇怪的恒定（static），由此判断，技术进步和安全标准的提高并未降低各种原因的死亡人数，D项正确。
13. A) 细节理解题 问题是“根据体内风险平衡理论，某些交通事故是由于什么原因”，A)“我们天生的冒险欲望”；B)“开快车，开鲁莽车”；C)“无视安全带的好处”；D)“对超速行驶的本能兴趣”。在第二段靠后，作者先列举交通事故例子，然后在最后一句得出结论：It appears, then, that we have an innate need for danger. 符合A项意思。
14. C) 句意理解题 本句大体意思是：从数字统计的角度说，（开快车开鲁莽车导致的死亡人数的增加）抵消了系保险带（引起的死亡人数减少）的好处。cancel out解释为“抵消，对消”。所以C项“因为其他原因引起的死亡对消了系保险带的好处”符合题意。A和D都包含系保险带没有好处，不对，系保险带有benefits，会降低这方面原因导致的死亡事故。B)“系安全带与不系安全带的死亡人数一样”，无此意。
15. C) 语义理解题 问什么有助于长寿，依据最后一段。A)“对别人信任不要怀疑”，不对，倒数第二句是说疑惑心重的人比乐观豁达的人早逝；B项不对，文中说“eating the right foods”，并不等于低脂食物；C项正确，“anoptimistic personality and never losing heart”都是“a sunny disposition”的特征；D项后半部分不对。
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