Ejercicio 3.3 - Vocabulary · Inglés PAU Galicia Extraordinaria 2021

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Both men and women have grown taller over the last century, says a study by Imperial College, London. While Swedes were the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men are now top, with an average height of 182.5cm. Latvian women, meanwhile, have become the tallest in the world, with an average height of 169.8cm. James Bentham, a co-author of the study, says that the global trend is likely to be due primarily to improvements in nutrition, hygiene and healthcare: “Most populations would grow to similar heights if they were all in the same conditions.”

Extra height brings a number of advantages: “Being taller is associated with longer lives,” he says, “due to less risk of dying of cardiovascular disease.” Taller people, on average, will also have larger salaries and higher levels of education. For both sexes, European countries now take the top 10 positions for height. That, says Bentham, could be due to the introduction of a welfare state in many European countries.

By contrast, men from Timor-Leste are the shortest, while the title for the shortest women remains with the female population of Guatemala. American men occupied third place in 1914 but have dropped to 37 th place in 2014. That, the authors suggest, could be due to worse levels of nutrition and greater inequalities. The trend in many countries in north and sub-Saharan Africa is also causing concern: “One reason for the decrease in height in Africa is the economic situation in the 1980s”. Nutritional and health crises mean that many children and teenagers do not reach their full height. Bentham believes the global trend of increasing height has important consequences: “How tall we are is influenced by our environment when we are young,” he said. “If we give children the best possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive for decades to come.”

3.3. Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given here: (0.75 points)

a.

b.

c.