Text for the items from 101 to 120.

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A long and healthy life?

----.

1____-------A baby born today could live to be 100, and even 120.

----.This is hard to believe, but a gene could account for both long

----.and healthy life.

4____-------There already is a surprisingly great number of people

----.who have passed the landmark age of 100, which seemed an

----.exceptional achievement for our grandparents´ generation.

7 --Besides being at least 80, the wellderly, as these old people

----.are referred to, are unexpectedly immune to chronic

----.diseases. There have been countless scientific studies of

10 -communities where a healthy old age is typical. These include

----.Calabria in southern Italy and the island of Okinawa in Japan

----.among others.

13____-------In the village of Molochio in Calabria, there are about

----.2,000 inhabitants. At least eight members of this small

----.community are centenarians who neither smoke nor drink

16 -and usually eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. It is thus widely

----.believed that the secret of their long life relies on their

----.lifestyle as well as their eating habits.

19____-------However, such evidence is increasingly being regarded

----.as unreliable and scientists are now looking beyond diet and

----.lifestyle to genetic factors. For Eric Topol, an American

22 -geneticist, “There must be genes that explain why some

----.individuals are protected from the harmful genes that affect

----.the aging process”. Whether this is going to be found out

25 -soon is another interesting question.

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_{Internet: <www.ngllife.com> (adapted).}

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Based on the text, judge the following items.

A synonymous word for “thus”, in “It is thus widely believed” (lines 16 and 17), is the...