单选题
单选题
Text 3
Could money cure sick health-care systems in Britain, which will be the place to look for proof in 2003. The National Health Service (NHS), which offers free health care financed by taxes, is receiving an emergency no-expense-spared injection of cash. By 2007, total health spending in Britain will reach over 9% of GDP--the same share France had when it was rated the world’s best health service by the World Health Organization in 2000.
The Labor government’s response was not to conduct a fundamental review about how best to reform health care for the 21st century. Rather, it concluded that shortage of money, not the form of financing or provision, was the main problem. In 2002, Gordon Brown, the powerful chancellor of the exchequer, used a review of the NHS’s future financing requirements to reject alternative funding models that would allow patients to sign up with competing insurers and so exercise greater control over their own health care.
Alan Milburn, the health minister, has made some tentative steps back towards the internal market introduced by the Conservative government. It means that a dozen top-ranking hospitals will also have been given greater freedom to run their own affairs. However, these reforms will not deliver real consumer power to patients.
As a result, the return on the money pouring into the NHS looks set to be disappointingly meager. Already there are worrying signs that much of the cash cascade will be soaked up in higher pay and shorter hours for staff and bear little relation to extra effort, productivity and quality. Some improvements will occur but far less than might be expected from such a financial windfall.
Health-care systems in the developed world share a common history, argues David Cutler at Harvard University. First governments founded generous universal systems after the second world war. With few controls over the demand for medical care or its supply, costs then spiraled up. Starting in the 1980s there was a drive to contain expenditure, often through crude constraints on medical budgets which ran counter to rising patient expectations Now this strategy has run its course: a third wave of reforms is under way to increase efficiency and restrain demand through cost-sharing between insurers and patients. Viewed from this perspective, the government’s plan to shower cash on a largely unreformed NHS looks anomalous. But before more fundamental change can be contemplated in Britain, the old system must be shown to be incapable of cure through money. This harsh lesson is likely to be learnt as early as 2003.
A:restrained freedom. B:shortage of funds. C:patients' complaints. D:radical changes.
According to the text, the teacher shortage is something
A:that is in itself a pressing problem. B:that bad teachers are responsible 'for. C:that the government tends to overlook. D:that teaching unions can alone cope with.
A
Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is one of the largest cities in the world. It is also one of the world’s most modern(现代化的)cities. Twice this century, the city was destroyed and rebuilt. In 1923 a major earthquake struck the city. Thousands of people were killed and millions were left homeless as buildings collapsed(倒埸)and fires broke out throughout Tokyo. It took seven years to rebuild the city. During World War Ⅱ ,Tokyo was destroyed once again. As a result of these disasters(灾难), there is nothing of old Tokyo remaining in the downtown area.
After the war, the people of Tokyo began to rebuild their city. Buildings went up at a fantastic(令人惊奇的)rate, and between 1945 and 1960, the city’s population more than doubled. Because the Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 1964, many new stadiums(体育场), parks and hotels were built to accommodate(供给……住宿)visitors from all over the world. As a result of this rapid development, however, many problems have arisen (出现). Housing shortage (缺乏), pollution and waste disposal(处理) have presented serious challenges(挑战) to the city, but the government has begun several programs to answer them.
A:Housing shortage. B:Waste disposal. C:Heavy traffic. D:Pollution.
Man can go on increasing his numbers at the present rate. In the next 30 years man will face a period of crisis. Some experts believe that there will be a widespread food shortage. Other experts think that this is too pessimistic, and that man can prevent things from getting worse than they are now. But remember that two-thirds of the people in the world are under-nourished or starving now.
One thing that man can do is to limit the number of babies born. The need for this is ob- vious, but it is not easy to achieve. People have to be persuaded to limit their families. ’In the countries of the population explosion, many people like big families. The parents think that this brings a bigger income for the family and ensures there will be someone in the family who will look after them in old age.
Several governments have adopted birth control policies in recent years. Among them are Japan, China, India and Egypt. In some cases the results have not been successful. Japan has been an exception. The Japanese adopted a birth control policy in 1948. People were en- couraged to limit their families. The birth rate fell from 34.3 per thousand per year to about 17.0 per year at present.
According to the passage, if we go on increasing the population, we will face ______.
A:a food shortage B:a crisis C:an overpopulation D:a starvation
Man can go on increasing his numbers at the present rate. In the next 30 years man will face a period of crisis. Some experts believe that there will be a widespread food shortage. Other experts think that this is too pessimistic, and that man can prevent things from getting worse than they are now. But remember that two-thirds of the people in the world are under-nourished or starving now.
One thing that man can do is to limit the number of babies born. The need for this is ob- vious, but it is not easy to achieve. People have to be persuaded to limit their families. ’In the countries of the population explosion, many people like big families. The parents think that this brings a bigger income for the family and ensures there will be someone in the family who will look after them in old age.
Several governments have adopted birth control policies in recent years. Among them are Japan, China, India and Egypt. In some cases the results have not been successful. Japan has been an exception. The Japanese adopted a birth control policy in 1948. People were en- couraged to limit their families. The birth rate fell from 34.3 per thousand per year to about 17.0 per year at present.
What the author concerns is ______.
A:birth control B:Japan’s birth control policy C:food shortage in the future D:man in the future
Man can go on increasing his numbers at the present rate. In the next 30 years man will face a period of crisis. Some experts believe that there will be a widespread food shortage. Other experts think that this is too pessimistic, and that man can prevent things from getting worse than they are now. But remember that two-thirds of the people in the world are under-nourished or starving now.
One thing that man can do is to limit the number of babies born. The need for this is ob- vious, but it is not easy to achieve. People have to be persuaded to limit their families. ’In the countries of the population explosion, many people like big families. The parents think that this brings a bigger income for the family and ensures there will be someone in the family who will look after them in old age.
Several governments have adopted birth control policies in recent years. Among them are Japan, China, India and Egypt. In some cases the results have not been successful. Japan has been an exception. The Japanese adopted a birth control policy in 1948. People were en- couraged to limit their families. The birth rate fell from 34.3 per thousand per year to about 17.0 per year at present.
A:a food shortage B:a crisis C:an overpopulation D:a starvation
Throughout the world there is a shortage of human organs for transplants. In Britain, for example, 6000 people are waiting for organs ——5000 for kidneys, and the (51) for hearts, lungs and livers. (52) , only about 1750 kidney, 500 heart and lung, and 650 liver transplants are (53) each year. And the waiting (54) increases at five percent a year. In the United States only half of the 30000 in need of organs (55) them.
Hence the great interest in animal-to-human transplants, known as xenografts or xenotransplants (from the Greek work xenos, meaning strange of foreign) (56) most scientists believe is the only long-term solution to the organ (57). There have been attempts at xenotransplants (58) the beginning of this century but neither has been successful; the longest (59) was a 20-day-old baby called Fae, who in 1984 was (60) the heart of a baboon.
The main (61) with any organ transplant is that the immune system of the patient receiving the organ sees the transplant organ (62) an invader. The immune system therefore launches a massive attack on the invader, activating enzymes knows as complement, which attack the (63) body, eventually killing the patient as well. This rejection has been (64) when transplanting human organs between humans by the close matching of tissue and the long-term use of drugs known as immuno-suppressants, first introduced just over ten years ago. With xenotranplants, however, rejection is even more (65) ; a normal pig’s heart, for example, transfuses with human blood can be destroyed in 15 minutes.
A:shorthand B:short-wave C:shortcoming D:shortage
