Why do women live longer than men ?

Women generally live about six years longer than men. Evidence suggests that boys are the weaker sex at birth, which means that more die in infancy. Also women do not have as much heart disease as men. In terms of lifestyle, men smoke more than women and thus more die of smoking-related diseases. They drink more and are more aggressive in behaviour, particularly when driving cars, so they are more likely to die in accidents. Also, they generally have more dangerous occupations, such as building work.

Historically, women died in childbirth and men in wars. Hence nuns and philosophers often lived to great ages. Now, childbearing is less risky and there are fewer wars. The country with the highest life expectancy is Japan, where the average age for men is 76 and for women 82.

Exercise 31. Read the words and transcribe them. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Fancy, engineer, glue, decide, newspaper, fuss, sex, waste, grand, prodigy, xylophone, precisely, get, flag, desks, pass, oxen, haste, energy, swim, except, icy, gown, xerox, facial, grew, score, capacity, care, garage.

Exercise 32. Practice reading the following tongue-twister quickly and distinctly. Explain the reading of the consonants in bold.

1. Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie

2. Whatever one toucan can do

Is sooner done by toucans two

And three toucans (it’s very true)

Can do much more than two can do.

A toucan – тукан (a tropical American bird)

III. Reading of vowel combinations (part 1)

Letter combination	Pronunciation	Examples	Exceptions
ea	[ i: ]	lead, meat	great [ greit ], break [ breik ], steak [ steik ]
	[ e ]	bread, ready
ei / ie / ee	[ i: ]	receive, field, see	friend [ frend ]
ai / ay / ey	[ ei ]	Spain, day, grey
au / aw	[ ɔ: ]	because, awful	aunt [a:nt], laugh [ la:f ]
eu / ew	[ ju: ]	neutral, few	Europe ['juərəp]
oi / oy	[ ɔi ]	point, boy
air	[ eə ]	air, chair
eer / ear	[ iə ]	engineer, near	wear [ weə ], bear [ beə ], year [ jeə ]

Exercise 33. Write down the phonetic symbols and practice reading the words.

[ ] pleasant, health, spread, wealth, bread, breath, weapon, dreamt, great;

e a

[ ] read, lead, weak, breathe, sea, dream, please, ease, weak, disease, steak;

ei [ ] receive, receiver, receipt, conceive, bein, ceil, ceiling, seize;

ie [ ] field, bield, wield, grief, grieve, kief, niece, mien, lief, believe, relief;

ee [ ] fee, feet, meet, beef, bee, sleeve, fleet, greed, street;

ai / ay / ey [ ] main, pain, fail, aid, vain, train, saint, bay, nay, say, grey, they, obey;

au / aw [ ] August, cause, Paul, autumn, pause, saw, awful, crawl, laugh;

eu / ew [ ] few, new, knew, stew, neutral, Europe;

oi / oy [ ] join, loin, foil, joy, coin, voice, rejoice;

air [ ] air, chair, fair, hair, pair;

eer, ear [ ] beer, cheer, queer, sheer, dear, clear;

Exercise 34. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Meal, feed, weather, vain, bee, mean, street, pea, obtain, chair, applaud, May, awful, health, seat, fault, air, aunt, news, coin, seize, tree, great, leader, mew, grain, fee, Europe, defeat, grieve, steel, brain, fauna, strain, grey, please, green, wealth, ceiling, paw, fair, conceive, remain, reach, pause, agree, beast, oil, niece, Austria.

Exercise 35. Practice reading the following tongue-twister quickly and distinctly. Explain the reading of the vowels in bold.

Three grey geese in the green grass grazing,

Grey were the geese and green was the grazing.

To graze – щипать траву; the grazing – пастбище