Directions: Choose the word which is most similar in meaning to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.

Impaired

Directions: The passage below is followed by a question based on its content. Answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.

It is natural to be healthy, but we have wandered so far astray that disease is the rule and good health is the exception. Of course, most people are well enough to attend to their work, but nearly all are suffering from some illness, mental or physical, acute or chronic, which deprives them of a part of their power. There is too much illness, too much suffering and too many premature deaths. We are losing every year a vast army of individuals who are in their productive prime. The average individual is of less value to himself, to his family and to society than he could be. His bad habits, of which he is often not aware, have brought weakness and disease upon him. These conditions prevent him from doing his best mentally and physically. This abnormal condition has a bad effect upon his descendants, who may not be born with any special defects, but have less resistance at birth than is their due, and consequently fall prey to disease very easily. This state of impaired resistance has been passed on from generation to generation, and we of today are passing it on as a heritage to our children.
Yet it is within the power of each individual to prolong his life beyond what is now considered old age. Under favourable conditions, people should live in comfort and health to the age of one hundred years or more, useful and in full possession of their faculties. Barring accidents, which should be less numerous when people fully realise that unreasonable haste and speed are wasteful, and that life is more valuable than accumulated wealth, human life could and should be a certainty. There should be no sudden deaths resulting from the popular diseases of today.
All civilised nations of which we have record, except the Chinese, have decayed after growing and flourishing for a few centuries, usually about a thousand years or less. Many reasons are given for the decline and fall of nations. Rome especially furnishes food for much thought. However, look into the history of each known nation that has risen to prominence, glory and power, and you will find that so long as they kept in close contact with the soil they flourished on. With the advance of civilisation, the people change their mode of life from simplicity to luxuriousness and complexity. Thus, individuals decay and in the end there is enough individual decay to result in national degeneration. When this process has advanced far enough, these people are unable to hold their own. In the severe competition of nations, the strain is too great and they perish. There is a point of refinement beyond which people can not go and survive.
Nations, like individuals, generally do better in moderate circumstances, than in opulence. Nearly all can stand poverty, but only the exceptional individual or nation can bear up under riches. Nature demands of us that we exercise both body and mind.
Civilisation is not inimical to health and long life. In fact, the contrary is true, for as the people advance, they learn to master the forces of nature and with these forces under control, they are able to lead better, healthier lives, but if they become too soft and luxurious, there is decay of moral and physical fibre, and in the end, the nation must fall, for its individual units are unworthy of survival in a world which requires an admixture of brain and brawn. Civilisation is favourable to long life so long as the people are moderate and live simply, but when it degenerates to sensuous softness, individual and racial deterioration ensue. Too generous supply of food, too little exercise and alcohol are some of the luxuries which are generally introduced with civilisation.
A part of the price we must pay for being civilised is the exercise of considerable self-control and self-denial, otherwise we must suffer.
We look upon this unnecessary waste of life complacently because we are used to it and consequently think that it is natural. It is neither necessary nor natural. If we would read and heed nature's writings, it would cease. Then, people would live until their time came to fade away peacefully and beautifully, as do the golden leaves of autumn or the blades of grass.