Text 3 [2002, RC Text 4]
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans’ life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death – and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians – frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient – too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age – say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way” so that younger healthier people can realize their potential.
I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Summer Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives. (439 words)
1. What is implied in the first sentence?
A. Americans are better prepared for death than other people.
B. Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.
C. Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.
D. Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.
2. The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that ________.
A. medical resources are often wasted B. doctors are helpless against fatal diseases
C. some treatments are too aggressive D. medical costs are becoming unaffordable
3. The author’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’s remark is one of ________.
A. strong disapproval B. reserved consent C. slight contempt D. enthusiastic support
4. In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care ________.
A. more flexibly B. more extravagantly C. more cautiously D. more reasonably
5. The text intends to express the idea that ________.
A. medicine will further prolong people’s lives B. life beyond a certain limit is not worth living
C. death should be accepted as a fact of life D. excessive demands increase the cost of health care
Text 4 (課外閱讀)
"The ship sank in minutes ... she went stern first on to her port side and sank very quickly, until just her turrets were visible. She paused then and just disappeared under the sea and was gone." The last moments of the HMS EDIMBURGH, remembered by one of her crew. It was 2 May, 1942. The British cruiser was on her way home from Murmansk. She was carrying a rather unusual cargo in her bomb room -- five and a half tons of gold bullion, payment by the Russians for American armaments.
For nearly forty years she lay undisturbed, 800 feet down at the bottom of the Barents Sea, beneath the icy waters of the Arctic Circle. After the war she was declared a war grave. This and her depth effectively ruled out the traditional methods of salvaging her cargo. No diver could get down to work on the wreck, and no-one would be allowed to blast her open with explosives and grab what he could. So for years the HMS EDINBURGH remained a treasure infinitely desirable but always beyond reach.
Enter now Keith Jessop, who felt sure the cargo could be salvaged. A diver himself once, who had done some small-time salvage, Jessop had been doing a lot of research. He had discovered in the Public Record Office the receipt for the gold bars that confirmed that they had been loaded aboard the cruiser. He also found the secret reports informing the Admiralty that the gold was still in the bomb room when the ship sank. So he had official confirmation that this was not another old sea-dog's yarn about buried treasure. More than that, he was convinced he knew how the gold could be recovered from that depth without desecrating a war grave. The answer lay in a technique called saturation diving, developed in the North Sea and elsewhere for the oil exploration business.
After endless problems a salvage team set off from northern Norway in early May, 1981. By now, the success of the operation was out of Jessop's hands. As the director of operations put it: "It's like searching London for someone in thick fog with only a torch to see with."
Undaunted (=fearless), however, when they reached the search area in the Barents Sea they lowered the sonar equipment overboard to scan the seabed for likely large objects. Incredibly, on their first sweep, something large was traced out on the sonar chart. Experience suggested it was a wreck and, miraculously, it turned out to be the HMS EDINBURGH.
In many ways, the finding of the wreck was the most dramatic moment of the whole mission. A dream had turned into reality. The problem was no longer if, but how. What had started as a gamble became a hard commercial risk. The recovery of the gold was still going to be immensely difficult; indeed, the deepest salvage of its kind had never been attempted. But the journey's end was now in sight. (495 words)
Notes: stern n. 船尾；port side 左舷一邊；turret 炮塔；cruiser巡洋艦；rule out 排除；salvage vt.打撈；Admiralty 海軍部； sea-dog (貶) 海員；desecrate vt. 褻瀆；trace out 畫出輪廓；turned out to be 結(jié)果是；be in sight 看得見，遙遙在望。
1. When the HMS EDINBURGH sank __________.
A. she was on her way back to England B. she went down with all the members of her crew
C. she had been missing for several days D. she turned upside-down before disappearing under the water
2. The ship lay undisturbed for nearly 40 years because __________.
A. no explosives were strong enough to blast her open B. no traditional methods of salvaging were feasible
C. no diver was allowed to approach a war grave D. no diver could stand the icy temperatures of the sea
3. Keith Jessop was convinced that the stories about the HMS EDINBURGH were true because _________.
A. he had documentary evidence to prove his case B. he had been told the stories by a reliable old sea-dog
C. he had been sent a secret report from the Admiralty D. he had been doing some diving in that area himself
4. When the salvage team began their attempts to locate the wreck __________.
A. they found their equipment would not operate in thick fog
B. they were assisted by some sophisticated scanning equipment
C. their expensive equipment was almost wrecked on the seabed
D. their sonar equipment was washed overboard by the heavy seas
5. The finding of the wreck meant that _________.
A. their problems were now at an end B. their dream of getting the gold had come true
C. their mission had now been fulfilled D. their promise of success might now be realized
Text 2 Word Study
1. argue argue against …據(jù)理反對(duì); 證明……是不能成立的: 1) All the evidence argued against the theory that the disease was transmitted by water. 所有證據(jù)都證明這個(gè)理論是不能成立的: 這種疾病是由水傳播的。 2) Father argued fiercely against any increase in expenditure for the children’s birth-day party. 父親據(jù)理反對(duì)增加孩子們生日聚會(huì)的花費(fèi)。 argue about 爭(zhēng)論關(guān)于某事：I won’t argue about the matter. argue sb. into doing sth. 通過爭(zhēng)論使某人做某事：We argued him into surrendering the control of the chain company. 我們通過爭(zhēng)論使他放棄對(duì)鏈鎖公司的控制。 同根詞 argument n. 辯論，爭(zhēng)論；論點(diǎn)，論據(jù)。argumentation n. 立論，論證；辯論，爭(zhēng)論。argumentative adj. 愛爭(zhēng)論的，好辯論的。
2. sure adj. 確實(shí)，無疑，有把握：I think he’s coming, but I’m not quite sure. You are sure of a warm welcome. 你一定會(huì)受到熱烈歡迎。You’re sure to fail if you do it that way. You seem very sure of yourself, young man. 小伙子，你未免太自信了吧！ 常用成語：for sure肯定： One thing is sure. We’ve won a great victory. I think he lives there but I couldn’t say for sure. 我想他住在那里，但我不能肯定。 make sure 確保： I think the door is locked, but I’d better go and make sure. 我想門已經(jīng)鎖了，但我最好還是去查一下。 to be sure 當(dāng)然：He’s clever, to be sure, but not very hard-working. 當(dāng)然，他很聰明，但是不怎么勤奮。
3. critical adj. 決定性的，關(guān)鍵的；危急時(shí)刻的。 be critical of 批評(píng)的, 愛挑毛病的: 1) Don’t be so critical of everyone else. (不要對(duì)別人如此挑剔。) 2) If you really understood the difficulties facing the government, you wouldn’t be so critical of its spending reductions.（如果你真地理解政府面臨的困難, 你就不會(huì)對(duì)其削減開支的做法如此挑剔。）
Text 3 Word Study
1. press vt./vi. 1) 按，壓，踩：Press the button to start the engine. (請(qǐng)按按鈕起動(dòng)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)。) I don’t like shoes that press. (我不喜歡緊的鞋。) 2) 熨燙 vt.：Will you press my trousers for me before tomorrow? 3) (人群)擠，涌：The people were pressing so hard against the President’s car that they almost overturned it. 4) 敦促，催逼：His daughters pressed Shelley to join them. It’s no use pressing him; he doesn’t like to be hurried. The matter does not press. (這件事不緊迫。) The police pressed the students back behind the barriers. (警察迫使學(xué)生退到路障后面。)
press n. 新聞界，輿論，報(bào)章雜志（和the連用）：Defend the freedom of the press. (維護(hù)新聞自由。) The press will give us a great backing. (輿論會(huì)大力支持我們的。) The meeting was reported by the press.
同根詞：pressing adj. 緊迫的，急待解決的：Is the matter pressing? Their attention ought to be focused on the more pressing problems. The professor is returning on account of pressing duties at home.
常用成語：1) be pressed for time (money) 缺乏時(shí)間、金錢：We are pressed for time. We must hurry up. (我們時(shí)間不夠。我們必須趕緊。) 2) press ahead with 加緊（努力）：We must press ahead with our efforts to reach an agreement. 3) press for 急切要求： They are pressing for reforms. (他們急切要求改革。) Everyone began pressing him for details. (人人都要求他說明細(xì)節(jié)。)
2. opt v. (=decide to do sth.; choose) 決定做某事，選擇：He opted to go Paris rather than London. （他決定去巴黎而不是倫敦。） Fewer students are opting for science courses nowadays. (現(xiàn)在選修理科的學(xué)生少了。)
同根詞：option n. 選擇余地；選擇權(quán)：1) You have the option of leaving or staying. 2) Every voter should exercise his option. optional 可選擇的；選修的：You don’t have to have this radio in your new car; it’s an optional extra.
3. imagine vt. 想象。同根詞：imaginable(可以想象出的)；imaginary（假想的）； imaginative（有想象力的）：1) He is the most suitable person imaginable. (他是可以想象出的最合適的人。) 2) The story is not real; it is only imaginary. （這個(gè)故事不是真實(shí)的，只是假想的。） 3) The artist’s imaginative use of color delighted the critics. (這位畫家富有想象力的使用色彩使這些評(píng)論家興高采烈。) image影像，偶像，雕像。imagination n. 想像力：He has plenty of imagination.
4. fund n. 基金，積累的一筆�？睿篐ard up families receive cash subsidies from the welfare funds. (經(jīng)濟(jì)困難的家庭從福利基金中得到現(xiàn)金補(bǔ)貼。) fund (復(fù)數(shù)) 資金，存款，現(xiàn)款，錢：Through lack of funds the scheme fell through. (由于缺乏資金，這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃失敗了。) They ought to be furnished with the necessary funds. (他們應(yīng)該得到這些必要的資金。)
fund vt. 資助，為…提供資金：1) We are hoping that the government will fund the project. (我們正在盼望政府給這個(gè)項(xiàng)目提供資金。) 2) The university scientists’ research for a cure of this disease is being funded by the government. (這座大學(xué)的科學(xué)家為治療這種疾病所進(jìn)行的研究正得到政府的撥款。)
