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  3. Less than a year ago, a new generation of diet pills seemed to offer the long-sought answer to our chronic weight problems. Hund

Less than a year ago, a new generation of diet pills seemed to offer the long-sought answer to our chronic weight problems. Hund

admin2010-06-11  42
问题     Less than a year ago, a new generation of diet pills seemed to offer the long-sought answer to our chronic weight problems. Hundreds of thousands of pound-conscious Americans had discovered that a drug known as "fen-phen" could shut off huge appetites like magic, and the FDA had just approved a new drug, Redux, that did the same with fewer side effects. Redux would attract hundreds of thousands of new pill poppers within a few months.
    But now the diet-drug revolution is facing a setback.  Some of the nation’s largest organizations, including Aetna US Healthcare and Prudential Healthcare, have begun cutting back or eliminating reimbursement (退还) for both pills. Diet chains like Jenny Craig are backing away from them too. Several states have restricted the use of fen-phen. Last week the Florida legislature banned new prescriptions and called on doctors to stop current patients from using the drug within 30 days; it also put a 90-day limit on Redux prescriptions. Even New Jersey doctor Shelton Levine, who boasted of Redux on TV and in his book, had stopped giving it to all but his most obese (重度肥胖的) patients.
    The potentially fatal side effects can’t be ignored. The FDA revealed that 82 patients had developed heart problems while on fen-phen, and that seven patients had come down with the same condition on Redux.
    As if that were not bad enough, physicians reported a woman who had been taking fen-phen for less than a month died of hypertension (高血压). And an article in the Jorunal of the American Medical Association last month confirmed earlier reports that both fen-phen and Redux can cause brain damage in lab animals.
    The findings led the New England Journal to publish an editorial advising doctors to prescribe drugs only for patients with severe obesity. Meanwhile, FDA asked drug-makers to put more explicit warnings on fen-phen and Redux labels. So far prescriptions for fen-phen have dropped 56%, and those for Redux 36%.
    All that really does; however, is bring the numbers down to where they should have been all along. Manufacturers said from the start that their pills offered a short-term therapy for the obese, not for people looking to fit into a smaller bathing suit. When limited to these very fat patients, the drugs make sense--because severe obesity carries its own dangers, including heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Too often, however, Redux and fen-phen were sold to all comers, almost like candy. The current setback, says Levine, is a "roller coaster that never should have happened."
The new pills seemed to be a solution to ______.
选项 A、the problem of overweight that has obsessed Americans for a long time
B、the problem that is of great weight and significance
C、heart disease, diabetes, and stroke
D、the side effects of weight-loss drugs
答案A
解析 词汇理解型细节题。参见第1段第1句：我们长久以来一直寻找着由来已久的体重问题的答案，新一代的减肥药似乎提供了这一答案。chronic weight problem=the problem of overweight that has long since troubled people．
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