15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 84)

As heart disease continues to be the number-one killer in the United States, researchers  have become increasingly interested in identifying the potential risk factors that trigger heart attacks. High-fat diets and “life in the fast lane” have long been known to contribute to 5 the high incidence of heart failure. But according to new studies, the list of risk factors may be significantly longer and quite surprising.

          Heart failure, for example, appears to have seasonal and temporal 10 patterns. A higher percentage of heart attacks occur in cold weather, and more people experience heart failure on Monday than on any other day of the week. In addition, people are more susceptible to heart attacks in the first few hours after waking. Cardiologists first observed this morning phenomenon

in the mid-1980, and have since 15 discovered a number of possible causes. An early-morning rise in blood pressure, heart rate, and concentration of heart stimulating hormones, plus a reduction of blood flow to the heart, may all contribute to the higher incidence of heart attacks between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.

          In other studies, both birthdays and bachelorhood have been implicated as risk factors. Statistics reveal that heart attack rates increase significantly for both females and males in the few days immediately preceding and following their birthdays. And unmarried men are more 25 at risk for heart attacks than their married counterparts. Though stress is thought to be linked in some way to all of the aforementioned risk factors, intense research continues in the hope of further comprehending why and how heart failure is triggered

Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pet dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.

Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.

          All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.

One of the most serious changes of old age occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, forexample, result in heart attack.

          Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.

          Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging-believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.

ORESUND BRIDGE

          Imagine driving along a bridge that is so long that you can't even see the other end. The Oresund Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world, (61)________so far ahead into the distance that you can't even tell where the blue of the water (62) ________ the blue of the sky.

          The Oresund Bridge is an amazing example of modern engineering design that links the Scandinavian countries of Denmark and Sweden. It is 8 kilometers long and was (63) ________in July 2000. It crosses the Flinte Channel, the chilly waterway (64) ________the two countries.

          At one stage the bridge turns into a tunnel under the sea. This tunnel is also a record breaker in its own right as it is the longest road and rail tunnel in the world. The engineers built an artificial island near the Danish coast that (65) ________support part of the bridge structure, as well as being the point at which the road disappears underground, before coming out in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.