Health is far more important than wealth and wisdom. Good health enables us to enjoy our lives and achieve what we hope for in our career. On the contrary, poor health tends to deprive us of our interests in everything around us. How to stay healthy concerns everyone, though we have advanced medicine. This unit is going to tell us how to keep fit and what are modern disease detectives.

Passage 1 The Secrets of a Very Long Life

 

[A]There are several places in the world that are famous for people who live a very long time. These places are usually in mountainous areas, far away from modern cities. Doctors, scientists, and public health experts often travel to these regions to solve the mystery of a long, healthy life; the experts hope to bring to the modern world the secrets of longevity.

[B]Hunza is high in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. There, many people over one hundred years of age are still in good physical health. Men of ninety are new fathers, and women of fifth still have babies. What are the reasons for this good health? Scientists believe that the people of Hunza have these three benefits: ⑴physical work, usually in the fields or with animals; ⑵a healthful environment with clean air and water; and ⑶a simple diet high in vitamins and nutrition but low in fat, cholesterol, sugar, and chemicals.

[C]People in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia are also famous for their longevity. In this area, there are amazing examples of very long-lived people. Birth records are not usually available, but a woman called Tsurba probably lived until age 160; a man called Shirali probably lived until 168. His widow was 120 years old. In general, the people not only live a long time, but they also live well. They are almost never sick, and when they die, they have not only their own teeth but also a full head of hair, and good eyesight.

[D]Vilcabamba, Ecuador, is another area famous for the longevity of its inhabitants. This region—like Hunza and the Caucasus—is also in high mountains, far away from cities. In Vicabamba, too, there is very little serious disease. One reason for the good health of the people might be the clean, beautiful environment: The temperature is about 70°Fahrenheit all year long; the wind always comes from the same direction; and the region is rich in flowers, fruits, vegetables, and wildlife.

[E]In some ways, the diets of the inhabitants in the three regions are quite different. Hunzukuts eat mainly raw vegetables, fruit, and meat; most people there drink the local red wine daily. In Vilcabamba, people eat a small amount of meat each week, but the diet consists largely of grain, corn, beans, potatoes, and fruit.

[F]Experts found one surprising fact in the mountain of Ecuador. Most people there, even the very old, consume a lot of coffee, drink large amount of alcohol, and smoke forty to sixty cigarettes daily!

[G]However, the diets are similar in two general ways: ⑴the fruits and vegetables that the inhabitants of the three areas eat are all natural; that is, they contain no chemicals; and ⑵the people consume fewer calories than people do in other parts of the world. A typical North American takes in an average of 3,300 calories every day; a typical inhabitant of these mountainous areas, between 1,700 and 2,000 calories.

[H]Inhabitants in the three regions have more in common than calories, natural food, their mountains, and their distance from modern cities. Because these people live in the countryside and are mostly farmers, their lives are physically hard. Thus, they do not need to go to health clubs because they get a lot of exercise in their daily work. In addition, although their lives are hard, the people do not seem to have the worries of city people. Their lives are quiet. Consequently, some experts believe that physical exercise and freedom from worry might be the two most important secrets of longevity.

Notes to the Text

public health experts:大众健康专家

longevity: “long life or long duration of life”. The suffix -ity is usually put after an adjective to form a noun. More examples are like reality, activity, humidity, possibility.

in good physical health: （保持）健康的身体状态。 The preposition “in” can be used to describe a state. More examples are in sleep, in a daze.  

benefit: It is a noun in the passage, which means “something that gives you advantages or improves your life in some way”. Some common phrases are have the benefit of , for sb’s benefit. It can be a verb meaning “to bring advantages to someone or improve their lives”.

healthful: benificial to good health of body or mind; a healthful climate, a healthful environment, healthful nutrition, healthful sleep. It has the same meaning with healthy as in a healthy diet.

Vitamins：维他命

Cholesterol:胆固醇

chemicals: It is used as a noun in the passage, which means “a substance used in chemistry or produced by chemistry”.

It can also be a noun meaning “related to chemics or used in chemistry” as in chemical reaction and chemecal weapon.

long-lived: existing for a long time. long-lasting friendship

This is a compound word, consisting of an adjective and the past participle of a verb hyphenated in-betwwen. This is one of the many compounding methods of word formation in English. Words like white-washed (粉刷的) and ready-made（现成的） belong to the same type. They function as adjectives.

Birth records: 出生记录

70° Fahrenheit： Farenheit is the other measurement ot temperature besides Celsius. A Celsius is about 33.8 Farenheit. So 70° Fahrenheit is about 21° Celsius.

wildlife: all living things (except people)that grow in natural conditions. E.g. Chemicals could kill all the wildlife

a small amount of meat: 少量的肉  a small/large amount of water. Like a great/good deal of, the phrase which indicates the quantity of something is used to describe uncountable matter.

consists largely of: 主要包括  mainly consists of

daily: It is used as an adverb in the passage meaning “without missing a day.”

It is also an adjective meaning “occurring every day or measured by the day quota”; a daily newspaper, average daily wage. The word can also be a noun meaning a daily newapaper as in China Daily. Words of the similar uses are weekly, monthly, and yearly.  consume: As a verb in the passage, it means “eat or drink immoderately”.

calorie: It is also spelled as calory. A calorie is a unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree at one atmosphere pressure. It is used by nutritionists to characterize the energy-producing potential in food. The phrase count your calories means “to control your weight”.
consume fewer calories: since calorie is used to characterize the energy-producing potential in food, consume fewer calorie means to use less energy.

have more in common than calories: The lives of the inhabitants in the three regions have some other similarities besides the fact that they consume fewer calories(less energy)than the city residents,

consequently: as a result.

freedom from worry: 无忧无虑

 

Vocabulary

Verbs

consume: As a verb in the passage, it means “eat or drink immoderately”.

Adjectives
long-lived: existing for a long time. long-lasting friendship
This is a compound word, consisting of an adjective and the past participle of a verb hyphenated in-between. This is one of the many compounding methods of word formation in English. Words like white-washed (粉刷的) and ready-made（现成的） belong to the same type. They function as adjectives.

Culture Note

Hunza: On the left is the land of Hunza. It is also called Baltit, a  town in Pakistani-administered northwestern Jammu and Kashmir state, in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Formerly a small principality(小国)under the Mir of Hunza, it joined with Pakistan in 1947. The town, situated on the west bank of the Hunza River, was a stopping place for travelers descending from the Hindu Kush Mountains into the Vale of Kashmir. Surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks such as the Rakaposhi, vast glaciers（冰川） such as the Ulter, and deep gorges, Hunza is accessible by mountain road from Gilgit. Roses, pansies（三色紫罗兰）, lilies, zinnias（百叶草）, and cosmos（大波斯菊） grow wild in the area, as do willow（柳树）, fir（冷杉）, and poplar trees（杨树）. Snow leopard（雪豹）, markhor (a goat), yak（牦牛）, red-striped fox, duck, and Marco Polo sheep are found. The local inhabitants use irrigation to grow crops of rice, corn (maize), fruits, and vegetables.

The Himalayan Mountains: great mountain system of Asia forming a barrier between the Tibetan Plateau to the north and the plains of the Indian subcontinent to the south. The Himalayas include the highest mountains in the world, with more than 110 peaks rising to elevations of 24,000 feet (7,300 metres)or more above sea level. One of these peaks is Mount Everest (Tibetan: Chomolungma; Chinese: Chu-mu-lang-ma Feng; Nepali: Sagarmatha), the world's highest, which reaches a height of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres). The great heights of the mountains rise above the line of perpetual snow.

The Caucasus Mountains: The great historic barrier of the Caucasus Mountains rises up across the wide isthmus(地峡)separating the Black and Caspian seas（黑海和里海） in the region where Europe and Asia converge. Trending generally from northwest to southeast, the mountains consist of two ranges—the Greater Caucasus in the north and the Lesser Caucasus in the south. Mount Elbrus（厄尔布鲁斯峰） in the Greater Caucasus range, at 18,510 feet (5,642 metres), is the highest peak. The watershed of the Greater Caucasus, the backbone of the system, traditionally has been part of the line dividing Europe and Asia; but the whole region is so subject to Asian influences that there is now general agreement on assigning the Caucasus to Asia.

Ecuador：Country of northwestern South America. Ecuador is one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world. Ecuador is unusual among Latin American countries in having two major centres of population and commerce, the vibrant port city of Guayaquil acting as a counterbalance to the capital, Quito, located in the Andean highlands in the north-central part of the country.

Vilcabamba: small range of the Andes Mountains(安底斯山脉)in south-central Peru, extending about 160 miles (260 km)northwestward from the city of Cuzco. The range, marked by the erosive action of rivers that have cut deep canyons, rises to 20,574 feet (6,271 metres)at Mount Salccantay. The Vilcabamba region, was the last refuge for Incas escaping from the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.