Passage 1 A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight ties larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the worlds best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith.(Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Koreas LG Electronics in July.)Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market Americas machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of Americas industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride." American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted," according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government," It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity, says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as" a golden age of business management in the United States."
1.The U.S. achieved its predominance after World WarⅡ because_____ .
[A]it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal
[B]its domestic market was eight times larger than before
[C]the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors
[D]the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy
2.The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American_____ .
[A]TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market
[B]semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises
[C]machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions
[D]auto industry had lost part of its domestic market
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
[A]It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried.
[B]Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.
[C]The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.
[D]A long history of success may pave the way for further development.
4.The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the____ .
[A]turning of the business cycle
[B]restructuring of industry
[C]improved business management
[D]success in education 参考答案:
1.C 2.D 3.B 4.A
When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal. With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for whatever Futurist poetry may be even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right, it can hardly be classed as Literature.
This, in brief, is what the Futurist says; for a noise and violence and speed. Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions have undergone a corresponding change. This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of expression. We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modern stress. We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, of finite verbs. Instead of describing sounds we must make up words that imitate them; we must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the same page, and shorten or lengthen words at will.
Certainly their descriptions of battles are confused. But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory notes that a certain line describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge off which they both fall into the river and then to find that the line consists of the noise of their falling and the weights of the officers: Pluff! Pluff! A hundred and eighty-five kilograms. This, though it fulfills the laws and requirements of Futurist poetry, can hardly be classed as Literature. All the same, no thinking man can refuse to accept their first proposition: that a great change in our emotional life calls for a change of expression. The whole question is really this: have we essentially changed?
1.This passage is mainly____ .
[A]a survey of new approaches to art
[B]a review of Futurist poetry
[C]about merits of the Futurist movement
[D]about laws and requirements of literature
2.When a novel literary idea appears, people should try to_____ .
[A]determine its purposes [B]ignore its flaws
[C]follow the new fashions [D]accept the principles
3.Futurists claim that we must____ .
[A]increase the production of literature
[B]use poetry to relieve modern stress
[C]develop new modes of expression
[D]avoid using adjectives and verbs
4.The author believes that Futurist poetry is_____ .
[A]based on reasonable principles
[B]new and acceptable to ordinary people
[C]indicative of basic change in human nature
[D]more of a transient phenomenon than literature. 参考答案:
1.B 2.A 3.C 4.D Passage 3
Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don't know where they should go next.
The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japans rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed.
While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression." Those things that do not show up in the test scores personality,ability, courage or humanity are completely ignored," says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's education committee." Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild." Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World WarⅡ had weakened the "Japanese morality of respect for parents."
But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles." In Japan," says educator Yoko Muro, "its never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure." With economic growth has come centralization; fully 76 percent of Japans 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes(travels to and from work)and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter.
1. In the Westerners eyes, the postwar Japan was_____ .
[A]under aimless development [B]a positive example
[C]a rival to the West [D]on the decline
2.According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society?
[A]Women's participation in social activities is limited.
[B]More workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.
[C]Excessive emphasis his been placed on the basics.
[D]The life-style has been influenced by Western values.
3.Which of the following is true according to the author?
[A]Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder
[B]Japanese education is characterized by mechanical learning as well as creativity.
[C]More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity.
[D]Dropping out leads to frustration against test taking.
4.The change in Japanese Life-style is revealed in the fact that____ .
[A]the young are less tolerant of discomforts
[B]the divorce rate in Japan exceeds that in the U.S.
[C]the Japanese endure more than ever before
[D]the Japanese appreciate their present life. 参考答案:
1.B 2.D 3.C 4.A Passage 5
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition health, distinction, control over ones destiny must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambitions behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have give up on have give up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition-if not always their own the that of their parents and grandparents. There is heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped with the educated themselves riding on them.
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs. The locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is," Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious."
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
1.It is generally believed that ambition may be well regarded if _____.
[A]its returns well compensate for the sacrifices
[B]it is rewarded with money, fame and power
[C]its goals are spiritual rather than material
[D]it is shared by the rich and the famous
2.The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is____ .
[A]customary of the educated to discard ambition in words
[B]too late to check ambition once it has been let out
[C]dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal
[D]impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition
3.Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because____ .
[A]they think of it as immoral
[B]their pursuits are not fame or wealth
[C]ambition is not closely related to material benefits
[D]they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
4.From the last paragraph the conclusion can be drawn that ambition should be maintained_____ .
[A]secretly and vigorously [B]openly and enthusiastically
[C]easily and momentarily [D]verbally and spiritually
参考答案:
1.A 2.C 3.D 4.B
Specialization can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialization was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word amateur does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialization in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.
A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.
Although the process of professionalisation and specialization was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
1.The growth of specialization in the 19th century might be more clearly seen in sciences such as _________.
[A]sociology and chemistry [B]physics and psychology
[C]sociology and psychology [D]physics and chemistry
2.We can infer from the passage that _________.
[A]there is little distinction between specialization and professionalisation
[B]amateurs can compete with professionals in some areas of science
[C]professionals tend to welcome amateurs into the scientific community
[D]amateurs have national academic societies but no local ones
3.The author writes of the development of geology to demonstrate _________.
[A]the process of specialization and professionalisation
[B]the hardship of amateurs in scientific study
[C]the change of policies in scientific publications
[D]the discrimination of professionals against amateurs
4.The direct reason for specialization is _________.
[A]the development in communication
[B]the growth of professionalisation
[C]the expansion of scientific knowledge
[D]the splitting up of academic societies 参考答案:
1.D 2.B 3.A 4.C
A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so called digital divide-the division of the world into the info（information） rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.
There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we've ever had.
Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.
To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure （the basic structural foundations of a society） in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why Americas Second Wave infrastructure-including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be. That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.
1.Digital divide is something _________.
[A]getting worse because of the Internet
[B]the rich countries are responsible for
[C]the world must guard against
[D]considered positive today
2.Governments attach importance to the Internet because it _________.
[A]offers economic potentials
[B]can bring foreign funds
[C]can soon wipe out world poverty
[D]connects people all over the world
3.The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of ______.
[A]providing financial support overseas
[B]preventing foreign capitals control
[C]building industrial infrastructure
[D]accepting foreign investment
4.It seems that now a country's economy depends much on _________.
[A]how well developed it is electronically
[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants
[C]whether it adopts Americas industrial pattern
[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations 参考答案：
1.C 2.A 3.D 4.A
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates （patterns） into which they plug each days events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
1.What is the passage mainly about?
[A]needs of the readers all over the world
[B]causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
[C]origins of the declining newspaper industry
[D]aims of a journalism credibility project
2.The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be.
[A]quite trustworthy [B]somewhat contradictory
[C]very illuminating [D]rather superficial
3.The basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies in their _________.
[A]working attitude [B]conventional lifestyle
[C]world outlook [D]educational background
4.Despite its efforts, he newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its _________.
[A]failure to realize its real problem
[B]tendency to hire annoying reporters
[C]likeliness to do inaccurate reporting
[D]prejudice in matters of race and gender 参考答案:
1.B 2.D 3.C 4.A
Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March,the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel,up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock,when prices quadrupled,and 1979-80,when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth,at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere,could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe,taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price,so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were,and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation,a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy,energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software,consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP(in constant prices)rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that,it oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year,compared with $13 in 1998,this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand,oil-importing emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energy-intensive,and so could be more seriously squeezed.
One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that,unlike the rises in the 1970s,it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economists commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%,and in 1979 by almost 30%.
1. The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is .
[A]global inflation. [B]reduction in supply.
[C]fast growth in economy. [D]Iraqs suspension of exports.
2. It can be inferred from the text that the retail price of petrol will go up dramatically if .
[A]price of crude rises. [B]commodity prices rise.
[C]consumption rises. [D]oil taxes rise.
3. The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries .
[A]heavy industry becomes more energy-intensive.
[B]income loss mainly results from fluctuating crude oil prices.
[C]manufacturing industry has been seriously squeezed.
[D]oil price changes have no significant impact on GDP.
4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that .
[A]oil-price shocks are less shocking now.
[B]inflation seems irrelevant to oil-price shocks.
[C]energy conservation can keep down the oil prices.
[D]the price rise of crude leads to the shrinking of heavy industry.
5. From the text we can see that the writer seems .
[A]optimistic. [B]sensitive. [C]gloomy. [D]scared. 参考答案:
1.B 2.D 3.D 4.A 5.A
Since the dawn of human ingenuity,people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous,boring,burdensome,or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction,they have begun to come close.
As a result,the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics,there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility,they will have to operate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real challenge."While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error,"says Dave Lavery,manager of a robotics program at NASA, "we can't yet give a robot enough common sense to reliably interact with a dynamic world." Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010,researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.
What they found,in attempting to model thought,is that the human brains roughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated—than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant,instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth cant approach that kind of ability,and neuroscientists still don't know quite how we do it.
1. Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in.
[A]the use of machines to produce science fiction.
[B]the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry.
[C]the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work.
[D]the elites cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work.
2. The word "gizmos" (line 1,paragraph 2)most probably means.
[A]programs. [B]experts. [C]devices. [D]creatures.
3. According to the text,what is beyond mans ability now is to design a robot that can.
[A]fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery.
[B]interact with human beings verbally.
[C]have a little common sense.
[D]respond independently to a changing world.
4. Besides reducing human labor,robots can also.
[A]make a few decisions for themselves.
[B]deal with some errors with human intervention.
[C]improve factory environments.
[D]cultivate human creativity. 参考答案:
1.C 2.C 3.D 4.B
The Supreme Courts decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering. Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effect," a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects—a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient mediation to control their pain if that might hasten death."
George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. "It's like surgery," he says. "We don't call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn't intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you're a physician, you can risk your patients suicide as long as you don't intend their suicide."
On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying. Just three weeks before the Courts ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the under treatment of pain and the aggressive use of "ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying" as the twin problems of end-of-life care.
The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life. Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. "Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering," to the extent that it constitutes "systematic patient abuse." He says medical licensing boards "must make it clear…that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension."
1. From the first three paragraphs, we learn that.
[A]doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients pain.
[B]it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives.
[C]the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide.
[D]patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide.
2. Which of the following statements its true according to the text?
[A]Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients death.
[B]Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.
[C]The Court ruled that high-dosage pain-relieving medication can be prescribed.
[D]A doctors medication is no longer justified by his intentions.
3. According to the NAS's report, one of the problems in end-of-life care is.
[A]prolonged medical procedures. [B]inadequate treatment of pain.
[C]systematic drug abuse. [D]insufficient hospital care.
4. Which of the following best defines the word "aggressive" (line 3, paragraph 7)?
[A]Bold. [B]Harmful. [C]Careless. [D]Desperate.
5. George Annas would probably agree that doctors should be punished if they.
[A]manage their patients incompetently.
[B]give patients more medicine than needed.
[C]reduce drug dosages for their patients.
[D]prolong the needless suffering of the patients. 参考答案:
1.B 2.C 3.B 4.A 5.D
