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1. NEWS LESSONS / Life expectancy data packed with surprises / Advanced
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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
Life expectancy data packed with surprises
Level 3 Advanced
What do you know?
2
Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). Then check your answers in the text.
1. Life expectancy in the US is longer than in the UK.
2. More than a million people die each year from malaria.
3. In 1970, Brazil had life expectancy of below 30 years.
4. Life expectancy is getting longer in every country in the world.
5. The average age of the world’s population is 40.
6. Fewer people are now dying from “lifestyle” diseases.
Key words
1
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
1. A person’s __________________ is the length of time that they are expected to live.
2. If something is described as __________________, it is extremely large.
3. An __________________ is a medical examination of a dead person’s body to find out why they died.
4. If something is described as __________________, it is very surprising or very unusual.
5. The __________________ opinion is one that is most common or has the most influence.
6. __________________ research is based on real experience or scientific experiments rather than on theory.
7. A __________________ is a small group of people or things that are very close to each other.
8. If two things are __________________, they are connected very closely with each other.
9. A __________________ disease is one that can be passed from one person to another.
10. A __________________ change or difference is one that is clear and noticeable.
lifespan empirical cluster autopsy communicable
startling prevailing marked vast entwined

2. NEWS LESSONS / Life expectancy data packed with surprises / Advanced
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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
Life expectancy data packed with surprises
Level 3 Advanced
Life expectancy data packed
with surprises
Sarah Boseley, health editor
13 December, 2012
1 A girl born today in the UK can expect to live
nearly to the age of 82 on average, while her
brother will live to 78. They would have a longer
life in Andorra (85 and 79 respectively) but are
marginally better off than in the US (81 and
76), while if they lived in the Central African
Republic, they would barely make it out of
middle age (49 and 44). Nonetheless, almost
everywhere in the world, with the exception of
countries such as Lesotho, which have been hit
by HIV and violence, lifespans are lengthening
and the best news is that small children are
substantially less likely to die than they were
four decades ago. There has been a drop in
deaths among under-fives of nearly 60%, from
16.4 million in 1970 to 6.8 million in 2010.
2 That in itself is justification for the enormous
project that the Institute of Health Metrics
and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle has led
over the past five years, involving nearly 500
researchers, to assess the global burden of
disease. Knowing how many children die and
from what cause enables the world to focus its
efforts and resources on keeping them alive.
There are many lessons to be gleaned from the
vast database they have put together, which
will help global organizations and individual
governments to better care for us all – from a
renewed focus on diet to tackling alcohol to
keeping up the efforts against HIV in Africa.
3 The seven papers published by The Lancet
represent a big undertaking and are not without
controversy. IHME has been ambitiously radical
in some of its methods. In the absence of
death registries or medical records, they have
been willing, for instance, to take evidence
from verbal autopsies – deciding the cause of
death by an interview with the family. The most
startling result has been the malaria figure,
released earlier in 2012. IHME said 1.2 million
die of the disease every year – twice as many
as previously thought. The big increase is in
adult deaths. Conventional wisdom has it that
malaria kills mostly children under five.
4 “The way I was taught as a doctor and
everybody else is taught is that, in malarial
areas, you become semi-immune as an adult,”
said Dr Christopher Murray, IHME Director and
one of the founders of the Global Burden of
Disease project. “We originally went with the
prevailing opinion but there has been a shift
as we have become more empirical. African
doctors write on hospital records that adults are
dying of malaria a lot.” But, he adds, their fever
could be something else. The findings have
prompted further studies.
5 Although Margaret Chan, Director General of
the World Health Organization, gave the IHME
study a warm official welcome, some of the staff
are cautious. “We need to be very careful in
assessing the validity [of the figures],” said Colin
Mathers, a senior scientist in the Evidence for
Information and Policy Cluster. “We need to wait
to be persuaded by evidence.” His colleague Dr
Tiers Boerma, Director of the WHO Department
of Health Statistics and Informatics, added:
“People should understand that some of the
numbers are very different and the WHO can’t
jump with any academic publication that states
a different number.” However, said Mathers,
“the fact that IHME has pushed the envelope
with some of these analyses is stimulating”.
One of the main themes, said Murray, was
“incredibly rapid change in the leading causes
of death and the pace of that change is a lot
faster than we expected it to be”.
6 Reduced fertility and longer life expectancies
have meant a rise in the mean age of the
world’s population in a decade, from 26 years
old to almost 30. It has been dramatic in Latin
America, for instance, where countries like
Brazil and Paraguay had life expectancy of
below 30 in 1970 and almost 64 in 2010. That
is a 35-year increase in the mean age of death
over four decades. “In a place like Brazil, the
speed of change is so fast that most institutions
are ill-equipped to deal with it,” Murray said.
7 The second theme, entwined with it, is the shift
outside Africa from communicable diseases
and the common causes of mother and baby
deaths to what are sometimes termed “lifestyle”
diseases, such as heart disease, stroke,
diabetes and cancer – some of which have
significant genetic triggers. That shift has been
particularly marked in Latin America, the Middle
East and south-east and even south Asia,
he said.

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NEWS LESSONS / Life expectancy data packed with surprises / Advanced
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
Life expectancy data packed with surprises
Level 3 Advanced
Comprehension check
3
8 The third big finding was, Murray said, “a
surprise to us”. That was the sheer extent of
disability and the toll it took on people who
were living longer but not healthier lives. “The
main causes of disability are different from
the ones that kill you,” he said. They were
mental health problems such as anxiety and
depression, musculoskeletal disorders such as
arthritis and lower back pain – complained of in
every country in the world – anaemia, sight and
hearing loss and skin disease. In addition, there
was substance abuse. “The rates for these are
not going down over time,” he said. “We are
making no progress in reducing
these conditions.”
© Guardian News and Media 2013
First published in The Guardian, 13/12/12
Choose the best answer according to the text.
1. Why are lifespans not increasing in certain countries?
a. because of poverty and malaria
b. because of HIV and violence
c. because of politics and communicable diseases
2. Why did the research team sometimes take evidence from verbal autopsies?
a. because they are more reliable than official autopsies
b. because they had no death registries or medical records to refer to in those cases
c. because they wanted to keep up the efforts against HIV in Africa
3. What was most surprising about the malaria figures?
a. Twice as many people die from it each year as previously thought.
b. Children under five no longer die from it.
c. Adults become semi-immune to malaria in malarial areas.
4. What is the connection between lifespan and disability?
a. People who live longer are less likely to suffer from disabilities.
b. People who suffer from disabilities usually die younger.
c. People are living longer and are therefore more likely to suffer from disabilities.

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NEWS LESSONS / Life expectancy data packed with surprises / Advanced
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
Life expectancy data packed with surprises
Level 3 Advanced
Discussion
7
What are the main findings of the study? Do you feel optimistic after reading this report? Why?
Why not?
Word-building
6
Find the word
4
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. a three-word expression meaning in a slightly better position (para 1)
2. a verb meaning learn small pieces of information by asking questions or watching or listening carefully
(para 2)
3. a two-word expression meaning beliefs or opinions that most people accept as correct (para 3)
4. a three-word expression meaning go to the limits of what you are allowed to do (para 5)
5. a two-word adjectival phrase meaning without the necessary equipment, skills or abilities to do something
(para 6)
6. a noun meaning something that causes a disease to start (para 7)
7. a three-word expression meaning harm or damage someone, especially in a gradual way (para 8)
8. a two-word noun phrase meaning the practice of taking illegal drugs (para 8)
Complete the sentences with the correct form of the word in brackets at the end of each sentence.
1. People in the UK are ___________________ better off than those in the US. [MARGIN]
2. Scientists need to be very careful in assessing the ___________________ of the figures. [VALID]
3. There are mental health problems, such as ___________________ and depression. [ANXIOUS]
4. There has been a shift from ___________________ diseases to lifestyle diseases. [COMMUNICATE]
5. Small children are ___________________ less likely to die than they were forty years ago. [SUBSTANTIAL]
6. There has been an ___________________ rapid change in the leading causes of death. [INCREDIBLE]
Verb + noun collocations
5
Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns or noun phrases in the right-hand column to make
phrases from the text.
1. take
2. focus
3. decide
4. make
5. lead
6. put together
a. a database
b. the cause of death
c. a project
d. a toll on
e. efforts and resources on
f. progress

5. NEWS LESSONS / Life expectancy data packed with surprises / Advanced
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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
Life expectancy data packed with surprises
Level 3 Advanced
KEY
1 Key words
1. lifespan
2. vast
3. autopsy
4. startling
5. prevailing
6. empirical
7. cluster
8. entwined
9. communicable
10. marked
2 What do you know?
1. F
2. T
3. T
4. F
5. F
6. F
3 Comprehension check
1. b
2. b
3. a
4. c
4 Find the word
1. marginally better off
2. glean
3. conventional wisdom
4. push the envelope
5. ill-equipped
6. trigger
7. take a toll
8. substance abuse
5 Verb + noun collocations
1. d
2. e
3. b
4. f
5. c
6. a
6 Word-building
1. marginally
2. validity
3. anxiety
4. communicable
5. substantially
6. incredibly