In this section there are several reading passages followed by a total of twenty multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your answer sheet.TEXT A Should doctors ever lie to benefit their patients—to speed recovery or to conceal the approach of death In medicine as in law, government, and other lines of work, the requirements of honesty often seem dwarfed by greater needs: the need to shelter from brutal news or to uphold a promise of secrecy; to expose corruption or to promote the public interest. What would doctors say, for example, to a 46-year-old man coming in for a routine physical checkup just before going on vacation with his family who, though he feels in perfect health, is found to have a form of cancer that will cause him to die within six months Is it best to tell him the truth If he asks, should the doctors deny that he is ill, or minimize the gravity of the illness Should they at least conceal the truth until after the family vacation Doctors confront such choices often and urgently. At times, they see important reasons to lie for the patient’s own sake; in their eyes, such lies differ sharply from self-serving ones. Studies show that most doctors sincerely believe that the seriously ill do not want to know the truth about their condition, and that informing them risks destroying their hope, so that they may recover more slowly, or deteriorate faster, perhaps even commit suicide, As one physician wrote: "ours is a profession which traditionally has been guided by a precept that transcends the virtue of uttering the truth for truth’s sake, and that is as for as possible do harm." Armed with such precept, a number of doctors my slip into deceptive practices that they assume will "do no harm" and may will help their patients. They may prescribe innumerable placebos, sound more encouraging than the facts warrant, and distort grave news, especially to the incurably ill and the dying. But the illusory nature of the benefits such deception is meant to produce is now coming to be documented. Studies show that, contrary to the belief of many physicians, an overwhelming majority of patients do want to be told the truth, even about grave illness, and feel betrayed when they learn that they have been misled. We are also learning that truthful information, humanely conveyed, helps patients cope with illness: helps them tolerate pain better, need less medicine, and even recover faster after surgery. Not only do lies not provide the "help" hoped for by advocates of benevolent deception; they invade the autonomy of patients and render them unable to make informed choices concerning their own health, including the choice of whether to be a patient in the first place. We are becoming increasingly aware of all that can befall patients in the course of their illness when information is denied or distorted. Dying patients especially—who are easiest to mislead and most often kept in the dark—can then not make decision about the end of life: about whether or not they should enter a hospital, or have surgery; about where and with whom they should spend their remaining time; about how they should bring their affairs to close and take leave. Lies also do harm to those who tell them: harm to their integrity and, in the long run, to their credibility. Lies hurt their colleagues as well. The suspicion of deceit undercuts the work of the many doctors who are scrupulously honest with their patients; it contributes to the spiral of lawsuits and of "defensive medicine," and thus it injure, in turn, the entire medical profession. Sharp conflicts are now arising. Patients are learning to press for answers. Patients’ bills of rights require that they be informed about their condition and about alternatives for treatment. Many doctors go to great eloquent bill of rights, believers in benevolent deception continue their age-old practices. Colleagues may disapprove but refrain from objecting. Nurses may bitterly resent having to take part, day after day, in deceiving patients, but feel powerless to take a stand. There is urgent need to debate this issue openly. Not only in medicine, but in other professions as well, practitioners may find themselves repeatedly in difficulty where serious consequences seem avoidable only through deception. Yet the public has every reason, to be wary of professional deception, for such practices are peculiarly likely to become deeply rooted, to or the social sciences can there be comfort in the old saying, "what you don’t know can’t hurt you."(737 words) From the text we may deduce that the author is inclined to think that doctors should ______.
A. lie to benefit their patients
B. lie to the dying and the seriously ill only
C. lie when serious consequences are avoidable only through deception
D. be honest, with their patients
TEXT B The most damning thing that can be said about the world’s best-endowed and richest country is that it is not only not the leader in health status, but that it is so low in the ranks of the nations. The United States ranks 18th among nations of the world in male life expectancy at birth, 9th in female life expectancy at birth, and 12th in infant mortality. More importantly, huge variations are evident in health status in the United States from one place to the next and from one group to the next. The forces that affect health can be divided into four groupings that led themselves to analysis of all health problems. Clearly the largest group of forces resides in the person’s environment. Behavior, in part derived from experiences with the environment, is the next greatest force affecting health. Medical care services, treated as separate from other environmental factors because of the special interest we have in them, make a modest contribution to health status. Finally, the contributions of heredity to health are difficult to judge. No other country spends what we do per capita for medical care. The care available is among the best technically, even if used too freely and thus dangerously. Given the evidence that medical care is not that valuable and access to care not that bad, it seems most unlikely that our bad showing is caused by the significant proportion who are poorly served. Other hypotheses have greater explanatory power: excessive poverty, both actual and relative, and excessive wealth. Excessive poverty is probably more prevalent in the U.S. than in any of the countries that have a better infant mortality rate and female life expectancy at birth. This is probably true also for all but four or five of the countries with a longer male life Expectancy. In the notably poor countries that exceed us in male survival, difficult living conditions are a more accepted way of life and in several of them, a good basic diet, basic medical care and basic education, and lifelong employment opportunities are an everyday fact of life. In the U.S. a national unemployment level of 10 percent may be 40 percent in the ghetto while less than 4 percent elsewhere. The countries that have surpassed us in health do not have such severe problems. Nor are such a high proportion of their people involved in them. Excessive wealth is not so obvious a cause of iii health, but, at least until recently, few other nations could afford such unhealthful ways of living. Excessive intake of animal protein and fats, and use of tobacco and drugs, and dangerous recreational sports and driving habits are all possible only when one is wealthy. Our heritage, desires, and opportunities, combined with the relatively low cost of bad foods and speedy vehicles, make us particularly vulnerable. Our unacceptable health status, then, will not he improved appreciably by expanded medical resources nor by their redistribution so much as by a general attempt to improve the quality of life for all. (506 words) The author refers to the excessive intake of alcohol, tobacco, and drug in order to illustrate that ______.
A. some health problems cannot be solved by better medical care
B. his use of alcohol and other substances is harmful to health
C. poor health results from tack of proper medical care
D. wealth may contribute to poor health status