英语四级真题-阅读passage2朗读-2019.6第二套

People have grown taller over the lastcentury, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm on average, andIranian men gaining. 16.5cm. A global study looked at the average height of18-year-olds in 200 countries 1914 and 2014.

The results reveal that while Swedeswere the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men have risen from 12thplace to claim top spot with an average height of 182.5cm. Larvian women.Meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world acentury later, with an average height of 169.8cm.

James Bentham, a co-author of theresearch from Imperial College, London, says the global trend is likely to bedue primarily to improvements in nutrition and healthcare. “An individual’s geneticshas a big influence on their height, but once you average over wholepopulations, genetics plays a less key role,” he added.

A little extra height brings a number ofadvantages, says Elio Riboli of Imperial College. “Being taller is associatedwith longer life expectancy,” he said. “This is largely due to a lower risk ofdying ofcardiovascular（心血管的）diseaseamong taller people.”

But while height has increased aroundthe world, the trend in many countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa causesconcern, says Riboli. While height increased in Uganda and Niger during theearly 20th century, the trend has reversed in recent years, with heightdecreasing among 18-year-olds.

“One reason for these decreases inheight is the economic situation in the 1980s,” said Alexander Moradi of theUniversith of Sussex. The nutritional and health crises that followed thepolicy of structural adjustment, he says, led to many children and teenagersfailing to reach their full potential in terms of height.

Bentham believe the global rtend ofincreasing height has important implications. “How tall we are now is stronglyinfluenced by the environment we grew up in,” he said. “If we give children thebest possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive fordecades to come.”