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  3. If your health is in question, you go to the doctor. When the entire planet’s well-being is at issue, it’s the World Health Orga

If your health is in question, you go to the doctor. When the entire planet’s well-being is at issue, it’s the World Health Orga

admin2010-06-11  49
问题     If your health is in question, you go to the doctor. When the entire planet’s well-being is at issue, it’s the World Health Organization you consult. The group’s recently released World Health Report focuses on the future—and the prognosis is excellent. If WHO experts are right, the 21 st century will be peopled by healthy senior citizens, not only in the more developed nations of the West but throughout the world.
    That rosy forecast comes from gains made during the past half century. Infant-and-child-mortality rates have dropped dramatically, major infectious disease such as yellow fever and plague are under control and average life expectancy worldwide has shot up from 48 in 1955 to 66 today. Coming decades will bring more of the same, the WHO predicts. Average life expectancy is expected to hit 73 years by 2025--and that’s only an average. Thousands of babies born at the end of the 20 th century will stick around to sec the dawn of the 22 nd , predicts Muthu, director of the Office of World Health Reporting.
    Of course, there are a few red flags on the world’s health chart, among them a significant gap in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest countries. In 1996, for example, 76 percent of the deaths reported to WHO from Africa were of people under 50.In Europe, only 15 percent of those who died were that young. By 2025, WHO predicts, 57 percent of the African deaths will be under 50, versus 7 percent in Europe—a marked improvement but still a gap. Then there are the costs of progress. More people around the world have access to safe water and sanitation than ever before, and most children are now immunized against major childhood diseases. But economic strides can bring with them heart disease, strokes and cancer, the so-called diseases of affluence that accompany the adoption of high-fat, low-exercise "Western lifestyles".
    Infectious and parasitic diseases still accounted for 173 million deaths last year, but circulatory diseases and cancer made steady gains, accounting for 15.3 and 6.2 million deaths, respectively. That trend, unfortunately, is likely to continue.
    But the largest shadow over world health is the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Unless an effective vaccine or treatment is developed--or, unlikelier still, the entire global population starts practicing safe sex--AIDS could wipe out past gains and threaten future mortality projections. Last year about 1.8 million adults died of the disease, a toll that is likely to rise—but  right now children are the major victims infected, says Dr. Paul Kleihues, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and one of the report’s authors.
Judging from the context, "red flags" (Line 1, Para.3) probably means______.
选项
答案symbols of danger
解析 参见第三段及以后各段举的例子可以看出：In 1996,…76 percent of the deaths…．By 2025,WHO predicts，57 percent of the African deaths will be under 50，……由此可见，高死亡率已开始亮红灯。示警的红旗，即危险的信号。
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