Text 3
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 (课外阅读)
"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 左舷一边；turret 炮塔；cruiser巡洋舰；rule out 排除；salvage vt.打捞；Admiralty 海军部； sea-dog (贬) 海员；desecrate vt. 亵渎；trace out 画出轮廓；turned out to be 结果是；be in sight 看得见，遥遥在望。
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
