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  3. It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in Ca

It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in Ca

游客2025-04-02  24
问题     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, cataracts removed in a 30-minutes 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 willing 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 Sumner 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. As a physician, 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. [br] In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care ______.
选项 A、more flexibly
B、more extravagantly
C、more cautiously
D、more reasonably
答案 D
解析 本题可参照文章的最后一段。从中可知，一个社会能够花在这项事业上的费用是有限的。作为一名内科医生，我知道，那些费用最昂贵、最引人注目的措施可能没有效果、令人痛苦。我也知道，在日本和瑞典这些医疗保健费用远低于我们的国家里，人们的寿命比我们长，生活得比我们健康。我们国家可能投于探索那些不可能的疗法的费用过多，而投于研究那些能够提高人们生活质量的简单疗法的费用太少。据此可知，美国人在医疗护理方面的投资不合理。D项与文章的意思相符，因此D项为正确答案。
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