Longevity
This word means “long life.”
longevity
The study of how bodies function.
physiology
This word means “spoiled or damaged.”
marred
Caruso said he ate a lot of these while growing up.
figs and beans
Italian officials recorded every citizen’s birth, marriage, and death in these books.
ledgers/registry records
Scientists studied people who lived to be over 100. These people are called:
centenarians
A version of a gene.
allele
To entertain guests with stories or songs.
regale
The centenarians often preferred eating these foods.
fruits and vegetables
Researchers reconstructed these to study longevity in families.
family trees/pedigrees
According to the text, genes probably account for only this percent of longevity.
25 percent
The process of how the body uses energy.
metabolism
A surprising contradiction.
a paradox
Scientists once believed this could increase lifespan.
caloric restriction
Pink registry cards were used for these people.
women
Salvatore Caruso said “No Bacco, no tabacco, no Venere.” This meant no drinking, smoking, or this.
no women
A scientist who studies genes.
a geneticist
To reduce or limit something.
curtail/restrict
Some people possessed a gene that gave them a taste for these bitter vegetables.
broccoli and field greens
Calabria has this number of comuni (townships).
409
The text suggests that besides genes and environment, this factor also affects long life.
chance/luck
This adjective means “not fully understood because it is complicated.”
unfathomed
This phrase describes results that are very confusing and opposite.
wildly contradictory
The monkey experiment showed that restricted diets gave this result.
no longevity advantage
The Archon Genomics X Prize challenged scientists to sequence DNA from this many centenarians.
100