Beginner/Elementary Reading Text

Life Longevity

Tortoises are famous for living for a long time. They can often live for two hundred years.
I don’t think I want to live that long, but, these days, we are all living longer. This article
about long life made me think a lot. Do I want to live to be a hundred? Do you?

A long and healthy life?

How long will a baby born today live? A hundred years? A hundred and
twenty years? Scientists are studying genes that could mean long life for
us all.

There are already many, many people who live to more than a hundred. In fact,
there are now so many healthy, elderly people that there’s a name for them: the
wellderly. These are people over the age of eighty who have no major illnesses
such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.

There are many scientific studies of communities where a healthy old age is
typical. These include places like Calabria in southern Italy and the island of
Okinawa in Japan. In Calabria, the small village of Molochio has a population
of about 2,000. And of these people, there are at least eight people over a
hundred years old. Researchers ask people like this the secret of their long
life. The answer is almost always about food and is almost always the same: ‘I
eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.’ ‘I eat a little bit of everything.’ ‘I never smoke, I
don’t drink.’

So, in the past, scientists looked at things such as diet and lifestyle for an
explanation of long life. But these days they are also looking at genetic factors.
Researcher Eric Topol says that there are probably genes that protect people
from the effects of the ageing process. The new research into long life
investigates groups of people who have a genetic connection. One interesting
group lives in Ecuador. In one area of the country there are a number of
people
with the same genetic condition. It’s called Laron syndrome. These people don’t grow very tall
– just over one metre. But Laron syndrome also gives them protection against
cancer and diabetes. As a result, they live longer than other people in their
families. On the other side of the world, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu,
there’s another group of long-lived men. They are Japanese-Americans but
they have a similar gene to the Laron syndrome group.

In Calabria, researchers constructed the family trees of the 100-year-old

 people. They looked at family information from the 19th century to today. They
think that there are genetic factors that give health benefits to the men. This is
interesting because generally, in Europe, women live longer than men.

So what really makes people live longer? Probably, it’s a combination

of genes, the environment and one more thing – luck.

Key Words
diabetes (n) a medical condition which affects the amount of sugar in a person's
blood
diet (n) the food an animal or person usually eats
disease (n) a serious problem that affects someone's body and health
elderly (adj) quite old or very old
factor (n) a cause of something or an influence on a result
healthy (adj) strong and not ill
high blood pressure (n) an illness that affects the way your blood moves around your body
illness (n) a problem with your health
lifestyle (n) the way that a person lives and the activities they do
research (n) the careful study of something in order to learn facts about it
 Longevity
Life Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension

Read the article and choose the 5 The ‘wellderly’ are …

correct option. a over 100 years
old. b over 80
1 What do scientists investigate to try years old.
andunderstand long life? c elderly people with health problems.
a people’s lifestyles and where
they live 6 According to the article, …
b genetic factors and a some places have an unusual
environmental factors number of very old people.
c people’s diet and what kind b Italy and Japan are very
of activities they do healthy places to live.
c people who live in small villages
2 What do diabetes, heart problems live longer.
andhigh blood pressure have in
7 The typical reason people give for
common?
theirlong life is:
a They are common illnesses in
old age. b Scientists can learn a lot a diet
b a secret
about age
c there are many different reasons
when they study these
illnesses.
c People in Ecuador don’t 8 Laron syndrome …
suffer from these illnesses. a is a problem for people with
diabetes. b is only found in
3 What do some people from Ecuador Ecuador and Hawaii.
c is the result of a genetic condition.
andOkinawa have in common?
a They have diabetes.
9 Laron syndrome shows scientists that …
b They have a genetic
syndrome. c They live a some people don’t grow tall.
long healthy lives. b there is a genetic reason for old
age. c some conditions only
affect men.
Read the article again and choose
the correct option. 10 Scientists think that … a healthy old age.
a different factors lead to
4 According to the article, … b more European men than women
a scientists are investigating live to
people who are 120 years old. c in the past, more people lived to
b scientific advances mean we
will all live to at least 100 years.
c scientists have found genes
that might influence how long
we live.
 Longevity
Life Extra Activities

Vocabulary practice
1 Choose the correct word.
1 Everyone knows that smoking is a cause of many illnesses / diabetes.

2 I help my elderly / healthy neighbour – I take him shopping on Fridays.

3 Some factors / diseases affect children more than adults.

4 Young people today don’t have a good lifestyle / diet, they eat too
much fast food.

2 Complete the table with words from the text.

noun adjective verb

1
gene –

2
health –

3
ill –

4
investigation –

5
– live

6
lucky –

7
protection –

8
– research
 3. Complete the sentences with words from the table in Exercise 2.

1 My grandparents are elderly but they are very_______

– they never go to the doctors.
2 I want to until I’m at least 90 years old.
3 When I was a child, I had the typical , but now I’m never ill.
4 Good with your exam tomorrow!
5 The university department does interesting_________
into the problems of old age.
6 Scientists think that diabetes has a cause.

Grammar practice
4 Read the sentences from the article. Are they about a
routine (R), a general fact (F), or something happening
at the moment (M).
1 Scientists are studying genes that could mean long life for us all.

2 I eat a little bit of everything.

3 These people don’t grow very tall – just over one metre.

4 In Europe, women live longer than men.

5 But these days they are also looking at genetic factors.

6 I never smoke.

5 Write the correct form of the verb. The letter in brackets

tells you if the sentence is about a routine (R), a general
fact (F), or something happening at the moment (M).
1 I to the doctor’s about once a year. go (R)
2 My brother medicine because he can’t take (M)
sleep.
3 In our family, we never fast food. eat (R)
4 A lot of people on the train or bus to work. study (F)
5 My grandparents with us for a few weeks. live (M)
6 In most countries, more men than women . smoke (F)
GRAMMAR WORKSHEET
PLURAL NOUNS
 Write the plural forms of these special nouns.

1. I can see two (fish) in the fish tank.

2. How many (child) children care there in the school yard?

3. We still need three more forks and (knife) knives for our dinner guests.

4. Many trees lose their (leaf) leaves in the fall.

5. Many (deer) deer live in that forest.

6. Sharks can grow thousands of (tooth) teeth in a lifetime.

7. What is the population of Mexico? How many (person) people live there?

8. Cats like to catch (mouse) mice.

9. I really want to sit down. My (foot) feet are killing me!

10. (Octopus) octopus have eight arms and live in the sea.

11. There are lots of ducks and (goose) geense in this park.

12. The policeman followed the three (man) men out of the bank.

13. Many husbands and (wife) wives eat at restaurants on Valentine’s Day.

14. (Wolf) wolves look very much like large dogs.

15. Farmer Brown has lots of (sheep)sheep.

16. How many (woman) women work in your office?

 Plural nouns
1. Some of these words are wrong. Correct them or write “ok” if they are right.

1. sheeps ..........
2. scissor ..........
3. children ..........
4. persons ..........
5. tomatos ..........
6. jeans ..........
7. wives ..........
8. women ..........
9. fishes ..........
10. pyjama ..........

2. Write is or are.
1. He ....... a very nice person.
2. This pair of scissors ..... brand new.
3. My trousers ...... on the bed.
4. There ........ five people on the bus.
5. Your jeans ....... blue.
6. Maybe your pyjamas ..... in the drawer.
7. Mice........ very annoying in a house.
8. There ........ lots of fish in the pond.
9. The police officer ...... outside the police station.
10. This sheep ....... only two days old.

Quantifiers and nouns

Listening exercise

Making Apple Pie

Part One

The two ingredients they need to buy are ______ and ______.

Part Two
Now, complete these sentences as you listen to Mike and Cathy's conversation for a second
time. Some of the words are quantifiers. Choose the words from the box below:

some - any - few - a little - much - many - a lot

1. We need some apples. Do we have ______?

2. Yes, we have ______of apples.

3. How ______ do we have to use?

4. Now, is there ______ _______?

5. How ______ do we have?

6. We'll have to buy ______ flour. We don't have ____.

7. We only need ______ ________

8. We have ______of salt

9. And quite ______ of _______

10. We don't have ______ sugar!

11. Did you buy ______ _______ yesterday at the store?

12. No, I didn't get ______ . How ______ do we need for the recipe?

13. I think we have ______butter in the fridge.

14. We don't have ______ but there's enough.

Video activities- Individual practice

1. Dog understands 1,022 words

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/dog-understands-1022-
words
2. Eating insects
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/eating-insects

Games
1. Vocabulary game
https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com/vocab-game/
2. General games
https://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/index.html
Extra:

 How much free time do you have?

 How many planets do you think have life on them?
 What is something that your government spends too much money on?
 How much time do you spend on a computer?
 What is something that you can never have too much of?
 When you go shopping what do you usually buy?
 Talk about the quantity of each thing you buy.

Complete the questions with quantifiers.

1.- How ………….… money do you earn?
2.- How …….…… books do you read?
3.- Are there ………. toys in the box?
4.-Is there ………… time left?
5.- How ………….water do you drink?
6.- How …………. points did you win?
7.- Would you like ……….. cookies?
8.-Does he write ………. letters?
9.-How ………. coins do you have?