2. 考研
  3. 【F1】The concept of life expectancy at birth is well understood by most people: the average age in which babies bom today will di

【F1】The concept of life expectancy at birth is well understood by most people: the average age in which babies bom today will di

admin2019-08-08  46
问题    【F1】The concept of life expectancy at birth is well understood by most people: the average age in which babies bom today will die if death rates throughout their life course resemble those today. We have known for decades that in the U.S., on average, women live longer than men; whites live longer than blacks; and the rich and well educated live longer than those with low socioeconomic status.
   【F2】What we are only recently beginning to understand, however, is that educational attainment is becoming the single most important social determinant of longevity in America. The new research shows that college-educated white women are expected to live 9.3 years longer than their low-educated counterparts—those who have not completed high school—compared with only a 2.5-year difference in 1990.
   Variation is perhaps the second most important measure in statistics—the first being the average— summarizing the extent to which observations are spread around the average. 【F3】For example, we can observe two populations with identical life expectancy, but, from an individual perspective, the one with larger variation in life spans will have greater uncertainty in the age of death. If life span variation is very small, most deaths are concentrated close to the average; if variation is large, some individuals will die prematurely, whereas others will survive to a very old age.
   To put it concretely, if you had to bet on how long you will live, your best bet would depend more than anything else on your educational attainment. 【F4】Although betting on how long we will live may seem like an odd endeavor, this is precisely what we do, whether implicitly or explicitly, when we make decisions throughout the course of our life.
   Variation in life spans also affects the social and economic institutions planning for our old age, including the Social Security Administration and programs like Medicare. They too have to balance between contributions and benefits in an era of growing uncertainty about how long we will live. Perhaps more fundamental, the growing inequality in life spans—both in average and in variability—raises questions concerning distributive justice. 【F5】For example, if those at the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder are less likely to survive to old age—and, importantly, face greater uncertainty about their chances of survival—should we institute a differential retirement age? And what would such a scheme look like?
【F5】
选项
答案例如，如果那些社会经济地位较低的人不太可能长寿，并且重要的是，当他们面临更大的生存抉择的不确定性时，我们是不是应该制定一个有差别的退休年龄规定?
解析 ①本句为主从复合句。主句为主谓宾结构的疑问句；条件状语从句由and连接两个分句，均为主谓宾结构。②从句中，介词短语at the lower．．．ladder为后置定语，修饰主语those，说明这些是社会经济地位较低的人；are less like to意为“不太可能……”；破折号后and连接的句子与前一分句并列，主语为those；介词短语about their．．．survival为后置定语，修饰uncertainty，说明是有关生存抉择的不确定性。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/BF2Z777K
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)