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  3. It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans’ life exp

It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans’ life exp

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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.
The text intends to express the idea that ______.
选项 A、medicine will further prolong people’s lives
B、life beyond a certain limit is not worth living
C、death should be accepted as a fact of life
D、excessive demands increase the cost of health care
答案C
解析 综观全文，可以推断出本文的主旨。从文章第1段的内容可知，在英国，死亡是无法抗拒的；在加拿大，死亡是不可避免的；在加利福尼亚州，死亡则是可以选择的。这种说法不足为怪；在过去的一个世纪里，美国人的平均寿命增加了一倍；医学进步为老年人提供了一种以前不可想象的基本生活条件，但是即使是先进的保健体系也不可能治愈死亡。从第2段的内容可知，死亡是正常的。我们的基因决定我们会衰变、会死亡，即使是在理想的条件下。第3、4段举例说明了一些人的观点和做法，即有人认为不必把有限的资源投入到延长人的寿命的医疗护理中，预防也可以起作用。他们还认为，他们能够应付随着年龄的增长而引发的健康问题。从文章的最后一段内容可知，我们国家投入到医疗护理的费用比日本和瑞典多得多，但日本人和瑞典人的寿命却比我们长，也比我们健康。据此可知，本文主要讲的是，因为死亡是正常的，我们没有必要把巨资投到医疗护理方面。C项与文意相符，因此C项为正确答案。
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