首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
If asked, "What are health decisions?", most of us would answer in terms of hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making
If asked, "What are health decisions?", most of us would answer in terms of hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making
admin
2011-01-05
53
问题
If asked, "What are health decisions?", most of us would answer in terms of hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health which go beyond this limited area; for example, whether or not to smoke, exercise, drive a motorbike, or drink alcohol really. The ways we reach decisions and form attitudes about our health are only just beginning to be understood.
The main paradox is why people consistently do things which are known to be very hazardous. Two good examples of this are smoking and not wearing seat belts. Both these examples underline elements of how people reach decisions about their health. Understanding this process is crucial. We can then more effectively change public attitudes to hazardous, voluntary activities like smoking.
Smokers run double the risk of contracting heart disease, several times the risk of suffering from chronic bronchitis and at least 25 times the risk of lung cancer, as compared to non-smokers. Despite extensive press campaigns ( especially in the past 20 years) , which have regularly told smokers and car drivers the grave risks they are running, the number of smokers and seat belt wearers has remained much the same. Although the number of deaths from road accidents and smoking are well publicised, they have aroused little public interest.
If we give smokers the real figures, will it alter their views on the dangers of smoking? Unfortunately not. Many of the "real figures" are in the form of probabilistic estimates, and evidence shows that people are very bad at processing and understanding this kind of information.
The kind of information that tends to be relied on both by the smoker and seat belt non-wearer is anecdotal, based on personal experiences. All smokers seem to have an Uncle Bill or an Auntie Mabel who has been smoking cigarettes since they were twelve, lived to 90, and died because they fell down the stairs. And if they don’t have such an aunt or uncle, they are certain to have heard of someone who has. Similarly, many motorists seem to have heard of people who would have been killed if they had been wearing seat belts.
Reliance on this kind of evidence and not being able to cope with "probabilistic" data form the two main foundation stones of people’s assessment of risk. A third is reliance on press-publicised dangers and causes of death. American psychologists have shown that people overestimate the frequency (and therefore the danger) of the dramatic causes of death (like aeroplane crashes)and underestimate the undramatic, unpublicised killers (like smoking) which actually take a greater toll of life.
What is needed is some way of changing people’s evaluations of and attitudes to the risks of certain activities like smoking. What can be done? The "national" approach of giving people the "facts and figures" seems ineffective. But the evidence shows that when people are frightened, they are more likely to change their estimates of the dangers involved in smoking or not wearing seat belts. Press and television can do this very cost-effectively. Programmes like Dying for a Fag (a Thames TV programme) vividly showed the health hazards of smoking and may have increased the chances of people stopping smoking permanently.
So a mass-media approach may work. But it needs to be carefully controlled. Overall, the new awareness of the problem of health decisions and behaviour is at least a more hopeful sign for the future.
For answers 51-55, mark
Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
Usually, smokers assess the dangers of smoking according to ______ , not the publicized data.
选项
答案
anecdotes(personal experiences)
解析
参见第五段第一句。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/rK8K777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Writeareportinaround120wordstodescribethewaterdistributionontheearthandwriteitontheanswersheet.
NEWYORKMay26,(Reuters)—AttorneyDennisKeniganjustspentaweekrisingatdaybreaktoanswere-mailsandfieldconferencec
NEWYORKMay26,(Reuters)—AttorneyDennisKeniganjustspentaweekrisingatdaybreaktoanswere-mailsandfieldconferencec
WriteareportonwintersportsinChinainabout120wordsontheanswersheet.WARMINGUPParticipationinjunioricehockeyl
Doctorsoftentellpatientstotakeacertainkindofmedicineinorderto【D1】______anillness.Forexample,apatientmaynee
Doctorsoftentellpatientstotakeacertainkindofmedicineinorderto【D1】______anillness.Forexample,apatientmaynee
Doctorsoftentellpatientstotakeacertainkindofmedicineinorderto【D1】______anillness.Forexample,apatientmaynee
SeveralresearchgroupsintheUnitedStatesareconductinggeneticresearchaimedatretardingaging.Ifthebreakthroughsofr
Thepolicemanlookedme______severaltimesandobviouslydislikedwhathesaw.
随机试题
《城乡规划法》规定,城乡规划主管部门可以在城乡规划确定的建设用地范围以外作出规划许可。()
某市A房地产开发公司(以下简称A公司)拟开发建设一大型商业用房,通过出让方式获得5公顷土地,支付土地出让金3750万元。A公司为了融资,将该土地使用权抵押给B建行,获得2000万元贷款,并办理了抵押登记,当工程建设一段时间后(经评估该在建工程的价值为220
一束由红、蓝两单色光组成的光线从一平板玻璃砖的上表面以入射角θ射入,穿过玻璃砖自下表面射出。已知该玻璃对红光的折射率为1.5。设红光与蓝光穿过玻璃砖所用的时间分别为t1和t2,则光线从0°逐渐增大至90°的过程中()。
Atrulyinformeddinerwouldchoosearestaurantbasedonthequalityofthemenuandthechef’sexperience.Thediscerninginves
一项关于婚姻状况的调查显示,那些起居时间明显不同的夫妻,虽然每天相处的时间相对较多,但每月爆发激烈争吵的次数,比起那些起居时间几乎相同的夫妻明显要多。因此,为了维护良好的夫妻关系,夫妻之间应当注意尽量保持基本相同的起居规律。以下哪项如果为真,最能削弱上述论
认识的主体和客体与主观和客观是等同的。
以下攻击不属于主动攻击的是______。
Theimmensechangeofthecityastonishedeverymemberoftheconference.
ThetwoboysinChicagowereWhichofthefollowingdoesthewriterciteasasourceofmoralvoid?
A、asenseoffrustrationB、hauntedbytheunknownthingsC、confidentbutmoodyD、successfulyetunsatisfiedD
最新回复
(
0
)