Passage Five

It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. American’s life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts (白内障) 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 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. Ask 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.

Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.

The first sentence of paragraph l implies that ______.

Paragraph Nine

Gay marriage is to become legal in England and Wales after the lower house of the British parliament approved the final changes to a law that had Prime Minister David Cameron’s backing. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark victory for gay rights by forcing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages.

Gay marriage gaining legal s______.

Virtually every company with a computer is vulnerable to computer abuse, crime and accident. Security of the computer and of the information and assets contained within it are therefore of paramount importance to management. (46. Skilled computer criminals can break into a computer system far more easily than an armed robber can gain access to a bank vault, and usually with far less risk of apprehension and punishment.) A slight change in a complex program can bring about the misappropriation of thousands of pounds. Accidental erasure of crucial data can paralyse a company’s operations. Anyone familiar with the procedure can gain access to information stored in the computer, no matter how confidential, and use it for his own purposes.

Although the actual extent of computer crime is difficult to measure, most experts agree that it is one of the fastest growing areas of illegal activity. (47. The principal reason for both the growth and the lack of accurate measurement is the difficulty in detecting a well-executed theft. Losses per incident thus tend to be higher than in other types of theft.) Once the computer criminal has compromised the system, it is just as easy to steal a great sum as it is to steal a little, and to continue stealing long after the initial theft. Indeed, the computer criminal may find it more difficult to stop his illicit activity than to start it.

(48. Computer criminals are, for the most part, well-educated and highly intelligent, and have the analytical skills that make them valued employees.) The fact that computer criminals do not fit criminal stereotypes helps them to obtain the positions they require to carry out crimes. Being intelligent, they have fertile imaginations, and the variety of ways in which they use equipment to their advantage is constantly being extended. (49. In addition to direct theft of funds, the theft of data for corporate espionage or extortion is becoming widespread, and can obviously have a substantial effect on a company’s finances.) Another lucrative scheme, often difficult to detect, involves accumulating fractions of pence from individual payroll accounts, with electronic transfer of the accumulated amount to the criminal’s payroll. Employers are hardly concerned with pence, much less fractions of pence. In addition, of course, the company’s total payroll is unaffected. But the cumulative value of fractions of pence per employee in a company with a substantial payroll can add up to a useful gain.Sabotage is also an increasingly common type of computer crime. This can involve disabling the hardware, but is more likely to affect the software. Everyone in the computer business has heard of cases of a “time-bomb” being placed in a program. (50. Typically, the programmer inserts an instruction that causes the computer to destroy an entire personnel data bank, for example, if the programmer’s employment is terminated.) As soon as the termination data is fed into the system, it automatically erases the entire program.

Paragraph Ten

All of us want to feel needed and admired. But unless we hear words of praise from others, how can we know that we are valued friends or co-workers? To give people the feeling of importance and worthiness, you need to always look for something in other people you can admire and praise - and tell them about it.

People need to learn the a______ of praising.

Paragraph Seven

Open enrollment is being used today to get schools to perform better. The reasoning: the best schools will attract the best students. And to be “best”, the school must have a creative principal and teachers. The plan, in extreme cases, can close down poor schools that no longer attract any students.

Schools striving for e ______.

Paragraph Eight

A top U.S. official announced plans to establish a review group to look at the government’s intelligence collection methods and surveillance capabilities. Once established, the group will brief its interim findings to Obama within 60 days of its formation and provide a final report with recommendations in due course.

U.S. to e______ intelligence collection methods.

Paragraph Six

Beijing’s army recruitment efforts have been increasingly hampered in recent years by a decline in the physical fitness of candidates, with many being ruled unsuitable due to common complaints such as being overweight or shortsighted. Around 60 percent of college students who apply for military service cannot pass the physical fitness exam.

Students’ f______ to meet army fitness standards.

Paragraph Four

Tennis is a stop-and-go sport, often with moments of violent activity, requiring a sudden surge of heart action. It is a good sport for those in good physical condition who do suitable daily conditioning exercises, and who do not approach their limit of activity or endurance.

Tennis as a sport a______ only for right people.

Paragraph Five

The edible soybean is a vegetable of high protein content containing 35 to 40 percent of protein and from 18 to 20 percent of oil. It is well supplied with vitamins and mineral salts. Compared with some other foods, soybeans contain one and one-half times as much protein as cheese and peas, eleven times as much protein as milk.

The b______ of soybeans.

Paragraph Three

Israel decided on Sunday to free 26 Palestinian prisoners over the next few days ahead of a new round of peace talks, in the first group of a total of more than 100 inmates it pledged to set free as part of a US-brokered resumption of negotiations.

Israel to r______ 26 Palestinian prisoners.

Paragraph One

In the Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet is a character who contains many inconsistent traits. He is indecisive, but he is also a man of action; his motives are generally lofty, but sometimes they seem wholly selfish. Though basically gentle, he is also ruthless. All these make Hamlet human.

The c______ of Hamlet.