次の英文を読んで設問に答えなさい。

Hara hatchi bu, the Okinawan people's habit of eating only till they are 80 percent full. is thought to be one of the secrets of their extraordinary health and longevity. (    ア    ) having one of the highest percentages of people in the world who live past 100, Okinawans (A)appear to be less prone to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Indeed, ever since it was discovered in the 1930s that laboratory rats fed a caloric-restricted (CR) diet 《    あ    》, scientists have (B)pursued caloric restriction research in the hopes of finding novel strategies for extending human life and preventing disease. Given the growing older population at risk for memory problems and the rising rates of obesity, the role of diet in maintaining peak brain performance has taken on added importance.

(    イ    ) the links between caloric restriction and longevity are still not fully proven in humans, short-term human trials have clearly shown that CR can improve many vital surrogate health markers, such as body weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and insulin levels, blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and measures of inflammation. High insulin levels and inflammation have both been linked to cognitive problems. In mice, reducing calories also promotes neurogenesis and slows certain Alzheimer's-related changes in parallel with reductions seen in blood insulin and inflammation. (    ウ    ), there is great interest in examining the effects of CR on brain health in humans and in comparing its effects with those of other diets (for example, diets rich in healthier unsaturated fats) that may also help memory.

A recent study on caloric restriction and memory led by the neurologist Agnes Floel and her colleagues at the University of Munster took the first step in examining $[\text{I}]$this issue. They recruited 50 older (ages 50 to 80 years) adults with a normal memory. Subjects on average were slightly overweight. The researchers (C)assigned the volunteers to three groups, based on their age, gender and weight. Group 1 got a diet with 30 percent reduced daily calories and normal levels of other essential nutrients; the minimal level was set at 1,200 calories daily to (D)prevent malnourishment. Group 2's diet had 20 percent increased unsaturated fatty acids with no increase in total fat-thus boosting the ratio of healthy (unsaturated) to unhealthy (saturated) fats. The control was Group 3-who had a diet as usual. None of the participants were advised to change their exercise habits. The researchers gave subjects in the first two groups individualized dietary plans and monitored their diet via self-reports. All subjects underwent memory and blood tests before and after the three months in the trial.

At the end of three months, the reduced-calorie diet group showed a small reduction in body weight (by 2.4 kilograms), whereas the other two diet groups showed a slight increase in weight (by about one kilogram). There was, however, a highly significant (about 20 percent above baseline) improvement in the CR group's ability to recall words they had on a list (called delayed recall), and they also made fewer errors. Their memory improvement tended to be correlated with reductions in blood insulin and markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein and TNF-alpha). Memory did not change in the other two diet groups.

This study is commendable because it is the first prospectively planned trial in older adults to demonstrate memory benefits of a low-calorie diet. The replication in humans of some of the findings seen in earlier animal studies provides an important proof of concept step that will encourage and guide the design of larger future studies. (    エ    ), it demonstrated improvements in the type of memory (delayed recall) that is typically the first to fail in very early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

As with any single center pilot study, this study also has some limitations (many of which the authors acknowledge), such as: small sample size, considerable differences in baseline characteristics of the three groups, unreliability of diet self-reports, the possibility of chance findings from multiple comparisons, greater social contact with subjects in diet groups, and highly variable adherence to diet as evidenced by the small weight loss in the CR group. (    オ    ), the results should be considered preliminary, but promising.

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=caloric-restriction-intelligence)

注
• longevity: 長寿
• prone to: ～に罹りやすい
• diabetes: 糖尿病
• obesity: 肥満
• surrogate: 代理の
• inflammation: 炎症
• cognitive: 認知の
• neurogenesis: 神経発生
• unsaturated fat: 不飽和脂肪
• neurologist: 神経学者
• malnourishment: 栄養不良
• boost: 押し上げる
• commendable: 称賛に値する
• replication: 再現
• adherence: 厳守

• 問1. 空所( ア )～( オ )に入れるのに最もふさわしい語句を選び、それぞれ番号で答えなさい。
  • ア:
    • (1) As for
    • (2) Because of
    • (3) In addition to
    • (4) In spite of
  • イ:
    • (1) Although
    • (2) As
    • (3) Because
    • (4) If
  • ウ:
    • (1) For instance
    • (2) Fortunately
    • (3) However
    • (4) Thus
  • エ:
    • (1) Further
    • (2) In other words
    • (3) Nevertheless
    • (4) Unfortunately
  • オ:
    • (1) All the same
    • (2) For these reasons
    • (3) Similarly
    • (4) Sooner or later
• 問2. 下線部A～Dの各語について、次に指示するそれぞれの形を書きなさい。
  • A: appearの名詞形
  • B: pursueの名詞形
  • C: assignの名詞形
  • D: preventの形容詞形
• 問3. 空所《 あ 》には次の6つを並べ替えた表現が入る。(1)～(6)の番号を適切な順序に並べなさい。
  • (1) almost
  • (2) as long as
  • (3) lived
  • (4) their
  • (5) twice
  • (6) well-fed counterparts
• 問4. 下線部$[\text{I}]$の'this issue'が指していることは何かを述べた次の記述の空所に入る適当な日本語を答えなさい。ただし空所( a )には5～10文字、空所( b )には5文字まで、空所( c )には5～10文字の表現を入れること。
  人間の場合、(    a    )は(    b    )に対してどのような影響を与えるのか、そしてその影響は(    c    )の場合にも同じかどうか、という問題
• 問5. Agnes Floelらの実験結果をまとめた次の表の(1)～(6)の欄を理めて完成させたい。その効果が見られた欄には丸を、見られなかった欄にはバツを記入するものとしたとき、丸の入る欄の番号をすべて答えなさい。

  	体重の減少	記憶力の向上
  Group 1	(1)	(2)
  Group 2	(3)	(4)
  Group 3	(5)	(6)