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{{B}}Put Down That Tool{{/B}} The British work longer hours than anyone else in the European Union (EU), which may account for Britain’s faster rate of economic growth in the past decade. But the European Commission wants to put a stop to it. In a recent report it notes disapprovingly that, "The UK is the only member state where weekly working time has increased over the last decade." The commission believes that British companies may be systematically violating the EU’s "Working Time Directive ". This demands that Europeans should work a maximum of 48 hours a week on average. [单项选择] Today, the British fleet no longer dominates the high seas: our share of the world’’s merchant fleet has fallen from 40 per cent to around eight per cent. But, in terms of tonnage, the British merchant navy has continued to expand. It can now carry over two-thirds more than it could in 1914, and, almost alone among our traditional industries, shipping has remained a major success story.
Unlike the rest of British industry, ship-owners invested big. In the early 1960s, the shipping companies made full use of government grants and tax concessions. Between 1966 and 1976, British shipping lines invested at a rate of over ￡ 1 million a day. By the early 1970s, it seemed that, somewhere in the world, a new British ship was being launched every week. The result is that Britain has a very modern fleet: the average age of our merchant ships is only six years, and over half the fleet is under five years old. For some time now, British shipping managers have stayed ahead of the competiti
A. has 40 percent of the world’’s share B. is facing bankruptcy C. can carry only two-thirds of what it could in 1914 D. is one of traditional industries in Britain [填空题]A decade ago, the one-day salaries of some women were nearly the same to the men with similar qualifications.
[单项选择] That question "why women live longer than men" can be answered at two levels. An evolutionary biologist would tell you that it is because women get evolutionary bonus points from living long enough to help bring up the grandchildren. Men, by contrast, wear themselves out competing for the right to procreate in the first place. That is probably true, but not much help to the medical profession. However, a group of researchers at John Moores University has just come up with a medically useful answer. It is that while 70-year-old men have the hearts of 70-year-olds, those of their female peers resemble the hearts of 20-year-olds.
David Goldspink and his colleagues looked at 250 volunteers aged between 18 and 80 over two years. All the volunteers were healthy but physically inactive. The team’’s principal finding was that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25% between the ages of 18 and 70, while that of the female heart remains undiminished.
They found that between the age
A. men can’’t recover lost heart function in any way B. men can recover lost heart function at any age C. proper exercise does good to the heart at any age D. it’’s too late to start exercise when men are getting old 我来回答: 提交
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