英國百歲老人的長壽秘訣是什么？

“Easy to find and hard to leave.” That is how Sidmouth’s tourism website describes the small seaside town in East Devon， where the red cliffs turn the ocean water pink. The tagline could apply to lives as well as holidays. Almost a third of residents are over 75; locals refer to Sidmouth as “God’s Waiting Room”. “We get a lot of people well into their 90s， 100s，” says a woman in a funeral parlour as an undertaker in a top hat tiptoes past. A card shop has sold “three or four” 100th-birthday cards since it opened in November.

The sea air must help， says Graham Brooks， a 76-year-old who helps look after Sidmouth’s antiques shop and whose mother， Audrey， turned 100 last November. （Mrs Brooks probably owes more to genes， luck and the fact that she never smoked and does not drink， with the exception of half a glass of wine at Christmas.）

There are lots of opportunities in Sidmouth for old people to stay active and socially connected， both good ways to delay the grim reaper. At Fields， the local department store， the café is music-free， the better to hear elderly friends. There are brass-rubbing classes， a ukulele club and jazz evenings.

But places like Sidmouth are the silver lining to a darker story. Although some of its citizens enjoy very long lives， Britain excels at producing much shorter ones， too. Britain’s middling life-expectancy figures disguise extremes. Centenarians tend to cluster more on the south coast， in areas like Bournemouth and Bognor Regis as well as in East Devon. But in many other coastal towns， such as Blackpool， life expectancy is much lower than the national average. London is also not a place for the very old： of the eight local authorities in England and Wales with fewer than ten centenarians per 100，000 population， six are in the capital.

（材料來自The Economist，有刪改）

1.What’s the function of the first paragraph？

A. To introduce the topic.

B. To summarize the passage.

C. To explain the author’s opinion.

D. To give background information.

2. Which of the following isn’t the reason why Mrs Brooks is long-lived？

A. She has good genes. B. She is lucky.

C. She never smoked.   D. She never drinks.

3. Why does the author mention the example of Fields in paragraph 3？

A. To show old people are living a happy life there.

B. To prove the old have chances to stay active and socialize.

C. To demonstrate old people have a positive attitude to life.

D. To show the reason why people are long-lived there.

4. How is the last paragraph mainly developed？

A. By asking and answering.

B. By the time order.

C. By making comparisons.

D. By giving examples.

1.A。（剩余378字）