阅读理解。
Increasingly, Americans are becoming their own doctors, by going online to diagnose(诊断) their
symptoms, order home health tests or medical devices, or even self-treat their illnesses with drugs
from Internet pharmacies(药店). Some avoid doctors because of the high cost medical care(忧虑),
especially if they lack health insurance(保险). Or they may stay because they find it embarrassing to
discuss their weight, alcohol consumption(消耗) or couch(睡椅) potato habits. Patients may also
fear what they might learn about their health, or they distrust physicians because of negative
experiences in the past. But playing doctor can also be a deadly game.
Every day, more than six million American thru to the Internet for medical answers-most of
them aren't nearly skeptical(怀疑的) enough of what they find. A 2002 survey by the Pew Internet
& American Life Project found that 72 percent of those surveyed believe all or most of what they
read on health websites. They shouldn't look up "headache", and the chances of finding reliable and
complete information, free from a motivation for commercial gain, are only one in ten, reports an
April 2005 Brown Medical School study. Of the 169 websites the researchers rated, only 16 scored
as "high quality". Recent studies found faulty facts about all sorts of other disorders, causing one
research team to warm that a large amount of incomplete, inaccurate(错误的) and even dangerous
information exists on the Internet.
The problem is that most people don't know the safe way to surf the web. "They use a search
engine(工具) like Google, get 18 trillion choices and start clicking. But that's risky, because almost
anybody can put up a site that looks authoritative (有权威的), so it's hard to know whether what
you're reading is reasonable or not," says Dr. Sarah Bass from the National Cancer Institute.
1. According to the text, an increasing number of American ________.
A. are suffering from mental disorders
B. turn to Internet pharmacies for help
C. like to play deadly games with doctors
D. are skeptical about surfing medical websites
2. Some American stay away from doctors because they ________.
A. find medical devices easy to operate
B. prefer to be diagnosed online by doctors
C. are afraid to face the truth of their health
D. are afraid to misuse their health insurance
3. According to the study of Brown Medical School, ________.
A. more than 6 million American distrust doctors
B. only 1/10 of medical websites aim to make a profit
C. about 1/10 of the websites surveyed are of high quality
D. 72% of health websites offer incomplete and faulty facts
4. Which of the following is the author's argument?
A. It's cheap to self-treat your own illnesses.
B. It's embarrassing to discuss your bad habits.
C. It's reasonable to put up a medical website.
D. It's dangerous to be your own doctor.
5. Which of the following statement is TRUE?
A. Because of health insurance, Americans like to see doctors.
B. It's fun for Americans to play doctors.
C. Recent studies showed that the Internet was not in order.
D. You can trust what you're reading on the Internet.
