全球身高排行榜

全球身高排行榜

1914年，美国人和北欧人的身高为全球最高。100年后，他们被甩在后面。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

comprehensive 综合的；广泛的[kɒmprɪ'hensɪv]

Nordic 北欧人的；日耳曼民族的['nɔ:dik]

continental 大陆的[kɒntɪ'nent(ə)l]

susceptibility 敏感性；感情[sə,septɪ'bɪlɪtɪ]

prostate 前列腺的['prɒsteɪt] ovarian cancer|卵巢癌

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为： 那么，您的阅读速度相当于 每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分2秒 母语为英语者的朗读速度 140

2分23秒 母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度 250

1分25秒 母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度 350

0分50秒 母语为英语的速读高手 1000

The world is growing taller — but very unevenly （508 words）

By Clive Cookson in Manchester

-----------------------------------------------------

In 1914 Americans and Scandinavians were the tallest people in the world. A century later other north Europeans have left them behind, with Dutch men and Latvian women the global height champions in 2014.

Overall, the world has grown taller over the past 100 years as economic prosperity and better nutrition have spread. But that growth has been uneven, according to the first comprehensive study of human height released on Monday at the European Science Open Forum in Manchester, England.

In the tallest countries a century ago — the US, Canada and Nordic countries — there has been relatively little change. In fact, growth stopped in the US in the early 1970s and there has been a slight decline in height there since 2000, partly due to falling nutritional standards.

The fastest increases in average height have taken place in a belt stretching across continental Europe, the Middle East and the temperate parts of Asia. Iranian men are 16.5cm taller on average today than 100 years ago, while South Korean women are 20cm taller.

“Our study shows that the English-speaking world, especially the US, is falling behind other high-income nations in Europe and Asia-Pacific,” said Professor Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, who led the research. It included measurements of 18.6m people at the age of 18 in 179 countries and was carried out by an international consortium of 800 scientists called NCD-RisC, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, and is published by the online journal eLife.

Mary De Silva, head of population, environment and health at the Wellcome Trust which co-funded the research, said: “The most striking finding is that despite the huge increases in height seen in most countries, there is still a considerable gap between the shortest and tallest.”

Men in the Netherlands averaged 183cm (6ft 0in) in 2014 while their counterparts in East Timor, the world’s shortest, were 160cm (5ft 3in). Women were tallest in Latvia (170cm, 5ft 7in) and shortest in Guatemala (149cm, 4ft 11in).

Height is strongly influenced by nutritional and environmental factors, including maternal health before birth and diet during childhood, though genes play a role too. In general, taller people tend to suffer less disease and to live longer, though research shows that greater height may carry some health risks including more susceptibility to prostate and ovarian cancer.

Prof Ezzati said the height data highlighted global disparities in health, with the loss of height in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa causing particular concern. In Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda, young adults are 5cm shorter on average today than they were 40 years ago — though still taller than 100 years ago.

Professor Elio Riboli, director of the school of public health at Imperial College London, said of the recent decline in height in the US, the first industrialised country to see a halt in growth: “Immigration is one hypothesis to explain this but quality and equality of nutrition is another. There was a time when the US was the land of plenty but nutrition there is becoming worse and more unequal.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. Which country’s men are the global height champions in 2014?

A. Latvia

B. America

C. Holland

D. Scandinavia

2. How many comprehensive study of human height is there now?

A. 0

B. 1

C. 2

D. 3

3. Which area is not mentioned to refer to the great changes that have taken place on average height?

A. continental Europe

B. Nordic countries

C. the Middle East

D. the temperate parts of Asia

4.Who tend to suffer less disease and to live longer in general?

A. shorter people

B. fat people

C. thin people

D. taller people

[1] 答案 C. Holland

解释：荷兰男子和拉脱维亚女子摘得2014年全球身高桂冠。

[2] 答案 B. 1

解释：曼彻斯特欧洲科学开放论坛刚刚公布了首个全面人类身高调查。

[3] 答案 B. Nordic countries

解释：在2014年身高最高国家中（美国、加拿大和北欧国家），身高变化相对较小。平均身高增长最快的是欧洲大陆、中东和亚洲温带国家。

[4] 答案 D. taller people

解释：一般来说个子高的人比较少得病并且更加长寿，尽管这份报告指出达到一定高度会更容易罹患前列腺疾病和卵巢癌。