When it comes to getting older, humans aren't so special after all. It turns out

When it comes to getting older, humans aren't so special after all. It turns out their pattern of aging isn't too different from most other primates, such as chimps, monkeys and baboons, new research shows.

A team led by Anne Bronikowski of studied data on primate aging collected over decades around the world and compared it with statistics on modern Americans. Aging was defined as the increased risk of dying from natural causes while getting older. Some experts have thought that because people have relatively long life spans, humans aged differently from other mammals.

The research team believed that any major difference between humans and primates was most likely to show up with modern people, rather than a hunter-gatherer culture, Bronikowski said in a telephone interview. "And the fact that we don't find a difference there is more compelling."

The basic pattern they found is a relatively high risk of dying in infancy(幼儿时期), a low risk of death during the juvenile years and then an increased risk of dying as aging progressed. Also, they found that in most cases males don't live as long as females. The authors wrote it in a study published online Thursday in the Journal Science.

The only exception to the general pattern was the muriqui monkey in Brazil ; males and females have similar life spans. Unlike other primates, muriqui males do not compete with each other for access to females. Instead, they cooperate with each other, explained co-author Karen Strier, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied muriquis since 1982. The researchers said the reason males of other species die earlier than females may be a result of stress of competition.

    Joseph W. Kemnits of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Ceter called the study “an important step” because it provides the first assessment of patterns of aging in large populations of nonhuman primates living in their natural environments. Kemnits was not part of the research team.

    “The study of other primates contributes to understanding human aging because we share so much of our basic physiology,” added anthropology professor Kristen Hawkes of the , who was not part of the research team.

67. What is the main idea of the passage?

   A. Humans and apes have similar aging pattern.

   B. Males don’t live as long as females.

   C. Humans aged differently from other mammals.

   D. Males and females have similar life spans.

68. Who is the research team member?

   A. Bronikowski.     B. Karen Strier.   C. Kemnits.      D. Hawkes.

69. The underlined word “juvenile” in . 4 refers to ______.

   A. old              B. early           C. adolescent    D. babyhood

70. Which section does the passage belong to?

   A. Entertainment.    B. Science.       C. Politics.       D. Technology.

试题答案

AACB