In all events, it is becoming clearer and clearer to scientists that the factors influencing our lifespan are far more subtle and complex than had been previously thought. It now appears that if you wish to live a long life, it isn't simply a matter of adhering to certain precautions … eating the right foods, not smoking, driving with care. You must also have the right attitude. Scientists at the Duke University Medical Center made a 15-year study of 500 persons personalities and found, somewhat to their surprise, that people with a suspicious or mistrustful nature die prematurely far more often than people with a sunny disposition. Looking on the bright side, it seems, can add years to your life span.
11. What social scientists have long felt puzzled about is why .
A) the mortality rate can not be predicted
B) the death toll remained stable year after year
C) a quota for each type of death has not come into being
D) people lost their lives every year for this or that reason
12. In his research, Gerald Wilde finds that technological advances and increases in safety standards .
A) have helped solve the problem of so high death rate
B) have oddly accounted for mortality rates in the past century
C) have reduced mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths
D) have achieved no effect in bringing down the number of deaths
13. According to the theory of “risk homeostasis”, some traffic accidents result from .
A) our innate desire for risk
B) our fast and reckless driving
C) our ignorance of seat belt benefits
D) our instinctive interest in speeding
14. By saying “…statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers” (Para. 2),the author means .
A) wearing seat belts does not have any benefits from the statistic point of view
B) deaths from wearing seat belts are the same as those from not wearing them
C) deaths from other reasons counterbalance the benefits of wearing seat belts
D) wearing seat belts does not necessarily reduce deaths from traffic accidents
15. Which of the following may contribute to a longer life span?
A) Showing adequate trust instead of suspicion of others
B) Eating the food low in fat and driving with great care
C) Cultivating an optimistic personality and never losing heart
D) Looking on the bright side and developing a balanced level of risk
Passage Two
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.
In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货的) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous prices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on.
Governor Gray Davis says,“I'm not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. They’re living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.”
As part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from California's booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along with demand. And hike them they did.
Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says,“ This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to say'help us impose reasonable price caps to help to keep our market stable.”
Federal regulators did ask for longer-term contracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, release
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