Put the jumbled sentences in the logical order to sum up the information given in the text.

1. But if you try anything like this in London, it will call forth a lot of abuse.

2. This idea is unrealistic because of a lot of abuse which has become a notable characteristic of modern society.

3. It would never happen in London.

4. He handed it over but refused to go to the police.

5. One can try a “citizen’s arrest”, but if he gets facts wrong he can be guilty of “false arrest”.

6. Intervening is an example of active citizenship.

7. In a highly developed society you can get away with scolding somebody for antisocial behaviour.

8. An elderly woman saw a mugger snatch a handbag from a girl.

9. In Egypt I was approached by three boys who wanted to snatch my wallet.

10. She followed him and demanded to return it back.

11. Two passers-by intervened and sent them off their way.

Use the following words and word combinations to speak about the problem raised in the text.

1. Citizens, to become guardians, community.

2. People, to take into one’s hands, minor law, order.

3. Highly disciplined society, Japan, to get away with, to rebuke, antisocial behaviour.

4. Japanese, a sense of respect for authority.

5. A young man, to put one’s feet up, to catch one’s glance, to blush, to remove.

6. The London Underground, to call forth, abuse.

7. To make citizen’s arrest, to get facts wrong, to be guilty of, false arrest.

8. France, strict law, to fail to assist, in danger, a criminal offence.

9. An elderly woman, to behave, active citizen, to push one’s luck.

Unit IV

Pre-reading tasks

1. Look through the key words and expressions and guess what this text is about:

to get older               to live longer                     to increase

life expectancy         genetic engineering            to promote long life

to alter diet               to reduce                            to control

process of ageing      number of calories                 to function efficiently

immune system        intake of vitamin E

Think of and write down 5 questions the answers to which this text might contain.

3. Now look through the text to see:

a) if your guess about the contents of the text was correct;

b) what questions can be answered. (Answer these questions)

1. People are getting older — an obvious truth, isn’t it? Everyone ages with the passing of time. But there is another meaning to this unavoidable fact. It is that people’s life expectancy is increasing and there are a growing number of people in the world who live longer than ever before. In 1900 there were between 10 and 17 million people aged 65 or older; they made up less than 1% of the world’s population. Now there are about 345 million people in this age group, constituting over 6% of the world’s population. Average life expectancy has increased from 26 years 2,000 years ago, to 49 years at the beginning of the twentieth century and to 76 years in many countries today. The Japanese have the longest life expectancy, with women living to an average age of 82.5 and men to 76.2.

2. However, despite the rise in average life expectancy, there does not seem to have been an increase in maximum lifespan. In other words, more people are living longer today than in the past, but the longest time that anyone lives has not changed much over many centuries. The longest that a human is known to have lived is 120 years; this figure compares with maximum life expectancies of 150 years for a tortoise and three-and-a-half years for a mouse. The age of 120 years seems to be a limit for human life. The challenge for scientists is to raise this limit.

3. One way of increasing lifespan may be by means of genetic engineering. Scientists have doubled the life of a certain type of fly from 25 to 50 days by using the flies that live the longest for breeding. It is thought that the flies have over 100 genes which control the process of ageing. Humans probably have more than 1,000 such genes. If some of these can be identified and treated in some way, it may be feasible to delay the ageing process.

4. It may also be possible to increase lifespan by altering diet in various ways. In experiments on rats and other animals, scientists have found that reducing the number of calories taken in by the animals actually increases their lifespan. Although this may seem strange, it is supported by the evidence of a small group of people who lived in a specially-constructed environment in order to see how people can adapt to living on another planet such as Mars. These people grew their own food inside the place where they lived, but because of problems with food production their diet was very restricted for several months. Surprisingly, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels fell and the immune systems of their bodies functioned more efficiently than before. There is obviously a limit of the reduction of calorie intake and most people would probably not be very happy restricting their diet in this way, but scientists may discover a way of producing the effects of calorie restriction without causing feelings of hunger!

5. Another way in which diet may promote long life is through the intake of vitamin E. Scientists studying people over 100 years old found that they had high levels of vitamin E in their bodies, while in an experiment people who took extra vitamin E had 40% less risk of suffering from heart disease than others.

Post-reading tasks