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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, 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 eyed ’’thing 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 $ I, 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 7Os, 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 amd 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 author’’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’’ s remark is one of
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"The Hurricane," with a running time of about two and one half hours is a powerful story about prejudice, racism and one man’s will to survive. Lesra, played by Vicellous Reon Shannon, a troubled black teenager, has been taken care of by three white Canadians in Toronto. They are sincere about helping him live a good life and encourage him to read and write. Lesra finds a book about a boxer, is fascinated by the boxer’s story and writes him a letter. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Denzell Washington, writes back to Lesra from his prison cell and they begin a correspondence that eventually leads to Carter’s exoneration for the crime that he didn’t commit. The movie, based on a true story, takes place in Patterson, New Jersey, exposing the depths of racism in all of our United States, not just the South. I think movies like this will help us, albeit ever so slowly, to move our society away from fear, irrationality and prejudice and towards building communities that are filled with compassion, empathy and justice for all! The beginning of this picture is a little confusing although there is some narrative, which always helps. The first few scenes are abrupt and I need to acquaint myself with the quick changes. There are a number of flashbacks that take place as Lesra begins to read the book. There are quite a few dates and places that appear as sub-titles at the beginning of scenes. At the end of the movie there is a written epilogue that is crucial for you to know. The first half of this film has many challenges including a scene when Hurricane is left in "the hole." What you hear is all the voices in his mind; his internal dialogue. The second half of the story is much easier to follow. By this time you are familiar with the characters and things start falling into a reasonable sequence. The movie ends with a long court scene that is easy to follow and totally inspiring. The theater broke out into spontaneous applause at the end. The first half of the film seems ______
Questions 25 and 26 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the news. Arab leaders had ______
Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill. This development―and its strong implications for US politics and economy in years ahead―has enthroned the South as America’’s most densely populate region for the first time in the history of the nation’’s head counting. Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people―numerically the third-largest growth ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records except for the Depression years. Americans have been migrating south and west in larger numbers since World War Ⅱ , and the pattern still prevails. Three sun-belt states―Florida, Texas and California―together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980 than a decade earlier. Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 8th and San Antonio from 15th to 10th―with Cleveland and Washington D. C. , dropping out of the top 10. Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement out of the snow belt, census officials say. Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too―and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday’’s "baby boom" generation reached its child-bearing years. Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west as joined by a related but newer phenomenon: More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too. Some instances: Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states reproved the most rapid growth rate―37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast area with only 5 percent of the US population. Among states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively. Except for Florida and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western state with 7.5 million people―about 9 per square mile. The flight from overcrowdedness affects the migration from snow belt to more-bearable climates. Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West. There, California added 3.7 million to its population in the 1970s, more than any other state. In that decade ,however, large numbers also migrated from California, mostly to other parts of the West. Often they chose―and still are choosing―somewhat colder climates such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska in order to escape smog, crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State. As a result, California’’s growth rate dropped during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent―little more than two thirds the 1960s’’ growth figure and considerably below that of other Western states. Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s ____________.
Questions 29 and 30 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the news. Which of the following statements is true, according to the news
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