VOA慢速英语2010年-Health Report - Study Finds Risk of Ea

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A new study examines and compares adult death rates worldwide over the last forty years. For each country, researchers estimated the probability that a fifteen-year-old today will die an early death before the age of sixty. They found that the country with the lowest risk of premature¹ death for women is Cyprus. For men the country with the best rate is Iceland.

The study estimated mortality rates for people age fifteen to fifty-nine in one hundred eighty-seven countries. The report appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal.

Worldwide, in the last forty years, death rates have decreased nineteen percent for men. But the study found that death rates for women have fallen by thirty-four percent.

Chris Murray from the University of Washington in the Pacific Northwest led the study. He says major progress has been made since nineteen seventy in reducing deaths of mothers and children. But he points to growing inequalities in adult mortality -- a "massive spread" between countries with the highest rates and those with the lowest.

Turkish Cypriot women in Nicosia cheer at a political gathering². Women in Cyprus have the lowest rate of premature death

For example, for men in Swaziland, the difference between the best rate and the worst rate is nine times higher. The study did find improvements in sub-Saharan Africa in the last five years, however, possibly as a result of expanded efforts against AIDS.

But in the last twenty years, H.I.V. and the collapse³ of the Soviet⁴ Union helped raise death rates in thirty-seven countries worldwide. Also, the study says the United States fell from thirty-fourth to forty-ninth in female mortality and from forty-first to forty-fifth for men. Those estimates put the country behind western Europe as well as countries like Albania, Chile and Tunisia.

The researchers noted⁵ a big change in the list of countries with the lowest adult mortality over the past forty years. Only three countries have stayed in the top ten for the lowest male death rates all that time. Those countries are Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway.

The researchers say estimating and preventing early deaths in adults is just as important as improving child survival. Millions of children die before their fifth birthday. But the researchers say three times as many adults die before their sixtieth.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁶. Do you have a comment on this story or a general question about health? Go to voaspecialenglish.com or find us on Twitter and Facebook at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

 

1 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。