英國百歲老人的長壽秘訣是什么？

“Easy to find and hard to leave.” That is how Sidmouth’s tourism website describes the small seaside town in East Devon， where the red cliffs turn the ocean water pink. The tagline could apply to lives as well as holidays. Almost a third of residents are over 75; locals refer to Sidmouth as “God’s Waiting Room”. “We get a lot of people well into their 90s， 100s，” says a woman in a funeral parlour as an undertaker in a top hat tiptoes past. A card shop has sold “three or four” 100th-birthday cards since it opened in November.

The sea air must help， says Graham Brooks， a 76-year-old who helps look after Sidmouth’s antiques shop and whose mother， Audrey， turned 100 last November. （Mrs Brooks probably owes more to genes， luck and the fact that she never smoked and does not drink， with the exception of half a glass of wine at Christmas.）

There are lots of opportunities in Sidmouth for old people to stay active and socially connected， both good ways to delay the grim reaper. At Fields， the local department store， the café is music-free， the better to hear elderly friends. There are brass-rubbing classes， a ukulele club and jazz evenings.

But places like Sidmouth are the silver lining to a darker story. Although some of its citizens enjoy very long lives， Britain excels at producing much shorter ones， too. Britain’s middling life-expectancy figures disguise extremes. Centenarians tend to cluster more on the south coast， in areas like Bournemouth and Bognor Regis as well as in East Devon. But in many other coastal towns， such as Blackpool， life expectancy is much lower than the national average. London is also not a place for the very old： of the eight local authorities in England and Wales with fewer than ten centenarians per 100，000 population， six are in the capital.

（材料來自The Economist，有刪改）

1.What’s the function of the first paragraph？

A. To introduce the topic.

B. To summarize the passage.

C. To explain the author’s opinion.

D. To give background information.

2. Which of the following isn’t the reason why Mrs Brooks is long-lived？

A. She has good genes. B. She is lucky.

C. She never smoked. D. She never drinks.

3. Why does the author mention the example of Fields in paragraph 3？

A. To show old people are living a happy life there.

B. To prove the old have chances to stay active and socialize.

C. To demonstrate old people have a positive attitude to life.

D. To show the reason why people are long-lived there.

4. How is the last paragraph mainly developed？

A. By asking and answering.

B. By the time order.

C. By making comparisons.

D. By giving examples.

1.A。解析：推理判斷題。材料第一段先提出一句標語并對此做出解釋，然后提到西德茅斯近三分之一的居民年齡在75歲以上；緊接著再借殯儀館里一位婦女之口說出這里有很多90 多歲和 100 多歲的老人。由此引出文章的話題——英國百歲老人為什么會長壽，故選A。

2.D。解析：細節理解題。材料第二段括號部分的大意為“布魯克斯夫人可能更多地歸功于基因、運氣和她從不吸煙、不喝酒的事實，除了圣誕節時喝半杯葡萄酒”。由此可見，D選項“她從不喝酒”與材料內容不符，故選D。

3. B。解析：推理判斷題。材料第三段的第一句提到“在西德茅斯，老年人有很多機會保持活躍和社交聯系”，第二句則以菲爾茲百貨公司為例論證老年人有很多機會保持活躍和社交聯系，故選B。

4. C。解析：推理判斷題。材料最后一段的第二句提到“盡管英國的一些公民壽命很長，但英國也擅長生產壽命更短的人”。隨后作者分別介紹了百歲老人和平均壽命短的老人居住的不同地點，因此這一段材料主要采用了對比的寫作手法來展開敘述，故選C。