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

It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California option al. 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 option al. Small wonder, Americans life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute 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 call possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious ex ample 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 be yond, 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 over funding the quest for unlikely cures while under funding 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 本题为主旨大意题。通读全文可知，文章的中心思想是人们对死亡的不同态度。选项C“应当把死亡看作生活中很自然的事情”概括了文章的主要意思，所以是本题的答案。选项A“药物可以延长人的生命”，选项B“活到一定年龄后，生命就没有意义”，以及D“过度的要求增加医疗费用”都不能概括全文的大意。
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