106: Longetivity

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Questions about the Video File:

  1. What is an academic guess called?
  2. Select an appropriate title for this presentation instead of its original one.
  3. What specifically scientific breakthrough was made in 1999?
  4. Do athletes have faster or slower heartbeats? Why?
  5. How is it hypothesized to increase the longevity of humans?

 

General Questions:

 

  1. How can you increase your life expectancy?
  2. Which factor tends to influence your longevity more, heredity or environment?
  3. What practically (not theoretically) do you do to live longer?
  4. Which gender (men or women) tends to have a longer longevity? Why?
  5. Do you know any misconception or myth about augmenting your life span?

Related Quotes:

  1. “To sustain longevity, you have to evolve” (Jill Scott).
  2. “If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it” (George Burns).
  3.  “For me, the key to longevity and immortality in a sense has to do with transformation” (Marilyn Manson).

Related Idioms and Expressions:

  1. Hatch, match, dispatch: Figuratively referring to birth, marriage and death of a person:
    1. The hatch, match and dispatch of Julian were all in misery. I hope her afterlife would not follow the same trend.
  2. An apple a day keeps the doctor away: Used to focus on the health benefits of eating an apple every day:
    1. “Take an apple as your snack at school as an apple a day keeps the doctor away” said the mother to her schoolboy.
  3. An early grave: A premature death:
    1. This unhealthy lifestyle will eventually lead you to an early grave.
  4. Not in this lifetime: By no means, in no way:
    1. “I would not trust him anymore after what he did to me, at least, not in this lifetime” said one of the co-founders of the company.
  5. A matter of life and/or death: A very serious situation that requires immediate attention to save lives:
    1. “It’s really a matter of life and death. Let’s take the injured person to the hospital by air ambulance” the emergency surgeon announced. 
  6. Be an old hand at something: To have a lot of experience in handling something:
    1. My friend, Kevin, is technically an old hand at IT. When my computer crashes, I contact him.
  7. Be old before your time: To act and behave wisely and maturely in a surprising manner:
    1. Having to deal with so many problems in life has made my older brother be old before his time.
  8. An old head on young shoulders: A precocious person whose maturity level is far ahead of his/her age:
    1. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Our new young employee is fairly talented and wise. In fact, he is an old head on young shoulders.

Related Words and Phrases:

  1. Octogenarian: An old person who is in his/her eighties:
    1. Only octogenarians and nonagenarians were allowed to join that committee for the elderly. 
  2. Nonagenarian: An old person who is in his/her nineties:
    1. Mr. Smith, a nonagenarian, was the only living survivor of the Holocaust in that press conference.
  3. Life expectancy: The number of years a person is expected to live:
    1. Living in that polluted area for such a long time literally reduced his life expectancy to a high degree.
  4. Life span: The length of life a person should live:
    1. Doing physical exercises regularly was the number one reason for his lengthy life span.
  5. Mortality: The state of having to die sooner or later:
    1. The infant mortality rate has tremendously improved throughout history.
  6. Long-lived: Existing or lasting for so much time:
    1. Her obsession with becoming a top fashion model is really long-lived.
  7. Short-lived: Lasting for a short period of time:
    1. My hope for any improvement in my career was just short-lived.

 

Please leave a response to the following question as a comment: 

Which one is more important to you: the length of your life or the depth of your life? Why?

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Please leave a response to the following question as a comment: 

Which one is more important to you: the length of your life or the depth of your life? Why?

In my notion, depth of life is more important than length of life. We have an expression that says, “live less but like a man”.

Depth of life can ensure our entity and being in this world for eternity and in the other world for hereafter. We know lots of people with low length of life but with glorious reputation like “Mozart (36)” and “Van Gogh (suicide when he was 37 years old)”. Despite the low age, their fame is everlasting.

Even though there are a lot of works done to extend lifespan, often the depth of life is be ignored. All of us have got fear when hear about death, but less of us get fear about the quality of life (depth of life).     

 

“Depth and width of life”, how it could be defined? And how can we determine the indices about this term?

the depth of life
the length of life
is be ignored --> is ignored
when hear about death: when we hear about death
“Depth and width of life”, how it could be defined? And how can we determine the indices about this term?
how could they be defined
about these terms.

To tell the truth I would really be pleased to have them both, but If I am to choose one of them I would definitely say that the depth of my life is much more important. We may live for 80 years doing nothing special. I mean life is not only eating, sleeping and working. I would rather live a short high-quality life than live to become an octogenarian. Some factors such as helping people in need, being kind and generous to others, having an active and purposeful life and being a responsible citizen increase the depth of our life and make us a better person for our society and for ourselves. And I wish I had all these characteristics…
Finally I want to add this quote by H.L. Mencken:
“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”