NCEIV37 0-0807

Question 1

Lesson 37

Answer 1

Lesson 37 The process of ageing

Question 2

At the age of t

Answer 2

At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous.

Question 3

It has yet to r

Answer 3

It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least.

Question 4

Earlier, we wer

Answer 4

Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable;

Question 5

later, we shall

Answer 5

later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer,

Question 6

however well we

Answer 6

however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.

Question 7

This decline in

Answer 7

This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called ageing.

Question 8

It is one of th

Answer 8

It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually ‘die of old age’,

Question 9

and that this h

Answer 9

and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favor of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty.

Question 10

Some of us will

Answer 10

Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer – on into a ninth or tenth decade.

Question 11

But the chances

Answer 11

But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.

Question 12

Normal people t

Answer 12

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it.

Question 13

We are so famil

Answer 13

We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigor with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes.

Question 14

They have also

Answer 14

They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things ‘wear out’.

Question 15

Most animals we

Answer 15

Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough;

Question 16

and mechanical

Answer 16

and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact run out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present).

Question 17

But these are n

Answer 17

But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages.

Question 18

A run-down watc

Answer 18

A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound.

Question 19

An old watch, b

Answer 19

An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending.

Question 20

But a watch cou

Answer 20

But a watch could never repair itself – it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction.

Question 21

We could, at on

Answer 21

We could, at one time, repair ourselves –well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents.

Question 22

Between twelve

Answer 22

Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power;

Question 23

an illness whic

Answer 23

an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.