Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners,

so we speak a little slower

and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English. On today's program, we have a report on the limits of human life expectancy.

Brian Lynn brings us this week's science report.

We close the show with the lesson of the day

from Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins.

But first a new study says humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy.

Developments in medical technology and genetic research are not leading to major increases in lifespan overall, the researchers said. The study was published recently in Nature Aging.

We have to recognize there's a limit and possibly change ideas about when people should retire

and how much money they will need to live out their lives.

Said S.J. will need to live out their lives.

Said S J. J. Olshansky of the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Olshansky was the lead writer of the study.

Mark Hayward of the University of Texas

was not involved in the study.

However, he called it a valuable addition to the mortality literature.

We are reaching a plateau in life expectancy, he said.

It is always possible that some new development could push survival to greater lengths,

but we don't have that now, Hayward said.

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