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[ti:The Process of Ageing]
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[00:00.73]Lesson 37
[00:03.12]The process of ageing
[00:11.66]What is one of the most unpleasant discoveries we make about ourselves as we get older?
[00:20.55]At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous.
[00:26.85]It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence: but at this age the likelihood of death is least.
[00:39.39]Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable;
[00:47.25]later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigour and resistance which, though imperceptible at first
[00:56.61]will finally become so steep that we can live no longer,
[01:01.71]however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.
[01:10.10]This decline in vigour with the passing of time is called ageing.
[01:15.34]It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars,
[01:25.35]accidents and diseases we shall eventually 'die of old age', and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person,
[01:36.90]so that there are heavy odds in favour of our dying between the ages of 65 and 80.
[01:44.68]Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer -- on into a ninth or tenth decade.