Passage 1Faith in medicine runs deep in America. We spend more per person on health care any other nation. Whether we eat too much ore exercise too little, whether we’re turning gray or feeling blue, we look to some pill or procedure to make us better.We assume that devoting ever more dollars to medicine will bring us longer, healthier lives. But There is mounting evidence that each new dollar we devote to the current health care system brings small and diminishing returns to public health. Today the US spends more than $4,500 per person per year on health care. Costa Rica spends less than $300. Yet life expectancy at birth is nearly identical in both countries.Despite the highly publicized “longevity revolution,” life expectancy among the elderly in the US is hardly improving. Yes, we are an aging society, but primarily because of falling birthrates. Younger Americans, meanwhile, are far more likely to be disabled than they were 20 years ago. Most affected are people in their thirties, whose disability rates increased by nearly 130 percent, due primarily to overweight. Why has our huge investment in health care left us so unhealthy? Partly it is because so many promised “miracle cures,” from Interferon to gene therapies, have proven to be ineffective or even dangerous. Partly it’s because health care dollars are so concentrated on the terminally ill and the very old that even when medical interventions “work,” the gains to average life expectancy are small. And partly it is because of medical errors and adverse reaction to prescription drugs, which cause more deaths than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. Each year roughly 200,000 seniors suffer fatal or life-threatening “adverse drug evens” due to improper drug use or drug interaction.Why don’t Americans live any longer than Costa Ricans? Overwhelmingly, it’s because of differences in behavior. Americans exercise less, eat more, drive more, smoke more, and lead more socially isolated lives. Even at its best, modern medicine can do little to promote productive aging, because by the time most people come in contact with it, their bodies are already compromised by stress, indulgent habits, environmental dangers and injuries.1.Americans in general believe that ___________.A.More money spent on health care may not result in better health.B.Medicine may provide an effective cure for various health problemsC.Health problems caused by bad habits can hardly be solved by medicineD.Higher birthrate can better solve the problem of aging society than medicine.pared with the Americans, Costa Ricans__________A.Have a healthier way of lifeB.Enjoy a longer life expectancyC.Are more dependent on medicineD.Are less concerned about their health3.Which of the following is NOT a reason why health care investment fails to bring a longer life?A.Drug reaction due to improper use of drugs.B.Imbalanced distribution of health care money.C.Soaring prices of both drugs and new therapies.D.Failure of many highly-evaluated medical treatments.4.It is implied in the last paragraph thatA.Medicine should be taken timely before it is too late.B.It is reasonable to question the effectiveness of medicine.C.Poor health conditions leave little room for medicine to work.D.Great efforts should be made to develop new types of medicine.5.The passage is mainly focused on _____.A.The limits of medicineB.The life hazards in the USC.The barriers to a longer lifeD.The problems in health investmentKEYSBACCAPassage 2Just a few years ago, a graduate from Brown University medical school had just a slight understanding about how to care for the elderly. Now, Brown and other U.S. medical schools are plugging geriatric courses into their curricula.The U.S. Census Bureau projects the number of elderly Americans will nearly double to 71 million by 2030. The first members of the Baby Boomer generation, so named for the explosion in births in the years after World War Two, turn 65 in three years. In addition, people are living longer than ever.“The first ripples of the silver tsunami are lapping at the shores of our country, but there is not a coordinated or strategic response taking place in America,” said Richard Besdine, who is director of the geriatrics division at Brown University medical school in Providence.Geriatrics has never been a field of choice for young doctors. Elderly care doctors are paid less than most other physicians and surgeons and the aged can be hard to treat. They have complicated medical histories and their ailments, even such routine illnesses as pneumonia, can be more difficult to diagnose because they may be masked by other conditions. Also, drugs can affect them differently than middle-aged adults. “It’s a hard job; it’s not paid very well; it’s complicated; and there’s very little status within the hierarchy of medical specialties to being a geriatric physician,” said Gavin Hougham, senior program officer and manager of medicine programs at the John A. Hartford Foundation.Out of 800,000 doctors in the U.S., roughly 7,000 are geriatricians, Hougham said. The country needs another 13,000 to adequately care for today’s older population, according to the American Geriatrics Society. The shortfall could reach 36,000 by 2030.To help counter that, private groups are bankrolling medical schools’ emphasis on aging. The Hartford Foundation has given more than $40 million to 27 schools totrain faculty in elderly care, and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation has given more than $100 million to 30 schools to include more geriatrics content.“If they don’t learn it, they still have to deal with it,” Hougham said. “It’s not that not learning geriatrics will cause these older people to go away. They’re coming whether we’re ready or not.1.What does Richard Besdine mean in paragraph 3A.The large amount of the elderly has created a big problem in America.B.The number of the elderly has been growing beyond the capacity of America.C.America is not ready to cope with the the number of the elderly.D.America is no the ideal place for the elderly to spend the rest of their lives.2.The main point of paragraph 4 is ____A.Why geriatric physician are paid less than other physicians.B.Why doctors show little interest in being geriatric physiciansC.What are the major problems with the elderly care industry.D.What can be done to ensure the healthy development of elderly care.3.It can be learned from the passage that in the U.S.,______A.There is a shortage of geriatric physiciansB.More training is needed for geriatric physiciansC.Demand for geriatric physicians varies across states.D.Care for the elderly will depend more on geriatric physicians.4.The fact that private groups have provided money to medical schools _______A.Highlights the inadequacy of government supportB.Emphasizes the importance of more professional trainingC.Demonstrates the increasing impact of private moneyD.Indicates the growing awareness of the related problem5.According to Hougham, the challenge posed by the elderly isA.TemporaryB. universalC. unavoidableD. controllableKEYSCBADCPassage 3How many of today’s ailments, or even illnesses, are purely psychological? And how far can these be alleviated by the use of drugs? For example a psychiatrist concerned mainly with the emotional problems of old people might improve their state of mind somewhat by the use of anti-depressants but he would not remove the root cause of their depression--the feeling of being useless, often unwanted and handicapped by failing physical powers.One of the most important controversies in medicine today is how far doctors, and particularly psychologists, should depend on the use of drugs for “during” their patients. It is not merely that drugs may have been insufficiently tested and may reveal harmful side effects (as happened in the case of anti-sickness pills prescribed for expectant mothers) but the uneasiness of doctors who feel that they are treating the symptoms of a disease without removing the disease itself. On the other hand,some psychiatrists argue that in many cases (such as chronic depressive illness) it is impossible to get at the root the illness while the patient is in a depressed state. Even prolonged psychiatric care may have no noticeable effect whereas some people can be lifted out of a depression by the use of drugs within a matter of weeks. These doctors feel not only that they have no right to withhold such treatment, but that the root cause of depression can be tackled better when the patient himself feels better. This controversy is concerned, however, with the serious psychological illnesses. It does not solve the problem of those whose headaches, indigestion, backache, etc. are due to “nerves”. Commonly a busy family doctor will ascribe them to some physical cause and as a matter of routine prescribe a drug. Once again the symptoms are being cured rather than the disease itself.It may be true to say, as one doctor suggested recently, that over half of the cases that come to the ordinary doctor’s attention are not purely physical ailments. If this is so, the situation is serious indeed.1.The author thinks that drugs used for treating psychological ills______.A.Could be ineffective in some casesually have harmful side effectsC.Can greatly alleviate the illnessesD.Can remove the root causes2.The controversy mentioned in the passage focuses on_____.A.Whether psychologists should use drugs to cure their patientsB.How psychologists should treat their patientsC.The fact that all of the drugs have harmful side effectsD.The extent t to which drugs should be used to fight psychological illness3.The passage indicates that psychologists_____.A.Find it impossible to remove a psychological diseaseB.Feel dissatisfied at treating their patients with drugsC.Believe that the root cause of a disease can be ignoredD.Can do nothing if the patient is in a depressed state4.When treating patients with psychological problem, some doctors feel that they ______.A.Are at a loss for treatmentB.Have no right to use drugsC.Have to cure their patients by any meansD.Should use drugs to treat the symptoms5.A family doctor would normally consider a headache or backache as a result of _____.A.A more serious diseaseB.Some emotional problemC.A physical disorderD.Prolonged workKEYSADBDCPassage 4A report published recently brings bad news about air pollution. It suggests that it could be as damaging to our health as exposure to the radiation from the 1986 Ukraine Chernobyl nuclear power disaster. The report was published by the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. But what can city people do to reduce exposure to air pollution? Quite a lot, it turns out.Avoid walking in busy streets. Choose side streets and parks instead. Pollution levels can fall a considerable amount just by moving a few meters away from the main pollution source--exhaust fumes. Also don’t walk behind smokers. Walk on the windward side of the street where exposure to pollutants can be 50 percent less than on the downwind side.Sitting on the driver’s side of a bus can increase your exposure by 10 percent, compared with sitting on the side nearest the pavement. Sitting upstairs on a double-decker can reduce exposure. It is difficult to say whether traveling on an underground train is better or worse than taking the bus. Air pollution on underground trains tends to be less toxic than that at street level, because underground pollution is mostly made up of tiny iron particles thrown up by wheels hitting the rails. But diesel and petrol fumes have a mixture of pollutants.When you are crossing a road, stand well back from the curb while you wait for the light to change. Every meter really does count when you are close to traffic. As the traffic begins to move, fumes can be reduced in just a seconds. So holding your breath for just a moment can make a difference, even though it might sound silly. There are large sudden pollution increases during rush hours. Pollution levels fall during nighttime. The time of year also makes a big difference. Pollution levels tend to be at their lowest during spring and autumn when winds are freshest. Extreme cold or hot weather has a trapping effect and tends to cause a build-up of pollutants.1.What’s the passage mainly about?A.How to fight air pollution in big cities.B.How to avoid air pollution in big cities.C.How to breathe fresh air in big cities.D.How serious air pollution is in big cities.2.According to the report, air pollution in big cities ____A.Can be more serious than thee 1986 Ukraine Chernobyl nuclear power disaster.B.Cannot be compared with the disaster in ChernobylC.Can release as damaging radiation as the Chernobyl disasterD.Can be more serious than we used to think.3.When you walk in a busy street, you should walk on the side______.A.Where the wind is comingB.Where the wind is goingC.Where the wind is weakerD.Where the wind is strong4.It is implied in the passage that _____.A.People should not take street level transportationB.Tiny iron particles will not cause health problems.C.Air pollution on an underground train is less poisonous5.While waiting to cross a busy street, you should ______.A.Wait a few seconds until the fumes reduceB.Stay away from the traffic as far as possible.C.Hold your breath until you get to the other side of the streetD.Count down for the light to changeKEYSBDACB。
