A survey of more than 2,000 people living in the UK has found that those with a higher IQ are more likely to live a longer life. Researchers analysed data from the Scottish Mental Surveys - in which almost every 11-year-old in Scotland was given the same IQ test on the same day in 1932 - and tracked the participants'lives up to when they passed away.

基于對2000多名英國居民的調(diào)查，研究結(jié)果顯示：智商越高的人長壽的幾率越大。研究者分析了來源于蘇格蘭心智調(diào)查的數(shù)據(jù)：1932年，幾乎每個(gè)11歲的蘇格蘭兒童都在同一天接受了相同的智商測試，之后測試者將接受追蹤調(diào)查，直至他們?nèi)ナ馈?/span>

Even when factors such as economic status and employment level were accounted for,the smarter kids ended up living longer than those with lower IQs. These results correlate to several previous studies that have found a link between IQ and mortality when other factors were filtered out.

"Subjects who died before 1 January 1997 had a significantly lower mean IQ at age 11 years than subjects who were alive or untraced," says the report,published in the British Medical Journal. "Our data shows that high mental ability in late childhood reduces the chances of death up to age 76years."

The numbers crunched by Lawrence Whalley from the University of Aberdeen and IanDeary from the University of Edinburgh show that someone with an IQ of 115 atage 11 was 21 percent more likely to be alive at the age of 76 than someone with an IQ of 100 (the general average), as David Z. Hambrick at Scientific American reports.

We don't yet understand why this is the case, but more than 20 longitudinal studies(studies with data points covering a long period of time) carried out aroundthe world have found similar links.

There are some interesting hypotheses: one is that intelligent people are more likely to strap themselves in while driving,choose to eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking, and exercise more of ten. Whalley and Deary found that those with a higher IQ were more likely to quit smoking after its negative health effects were publicised in the 1950s. In other words,smart people might just be better at avoiding things that are going to kill them.

Another hypothesis is that a high IQ is a signifier of a sturdy constitution and a body that's going to last - it's essentially a signifier rather than a cause, some scientists believe. One study published in 2005 found that better reactiontimes specifically helped people live longer - so a high IQ is possibly anindication of an efficient nervous system, rather than being itself a cause oflonger life, the researchers proposed.

Alternatively,or perhaps in addition to the above suggestions, it could be that genes arecontributing to the link between IQ and longevity.

1 crunched

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼(crunch的過去式和過去分詞 )；嘎吱作響；（快速大量地）處理信息；數(shù)字搗弄

參考例句：

? Our feet crunched on the frozen snow. 我們的腳嘎吱嘎吱地踩在凍雪上。 來自《簡明英漢詞典》

? He closed his jaws on the bones andcrunched. 他咬緊骨頭，使勁地嚼。來自英漢文學(xué) - 熱愛生命

2 strap

n.皮帶，帶子；v.用帶扣住，束牢；用繃帶包扎

參考例句：

? She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊帶以便站穩(wěn)。

? The nurse will strap up your wound.護(hù)士會綁扎你的傷口。

3 essentially

adv.本質(zhì)上，實(shí)質(zhì)上，基本上

參考例句：

? Really great men are essentially modest.真正的偉人大都很謙虛。

? She is an essentially selfish person.她本質(zhì)上是個(gè)自私自利的人。

4 genes

n.基因( gene的名詞復(fù)數(shù) )

參考例句：

? You have good genes from your parents, soyou should live a long time. 你從父母那兒獲得優(yōu)良的基因，所以能夠活得很長。來自《簡明英漢詞典》

? Differences will help to reveal thefunctions of the genes. 它們間的差異將會幫助我們揭開基因多種功能。來自英漢非文學(xué) - 生命科學(xué) - 生物技術(shù)的世紀(jì)

5 longevity

n.長命；長壽

參考例句：

? Good habits promote longevity.良好的習(xí)慣能增長壽命。

? Human longevity runs in families.人類的長壽具有家族遺傳性。