问题 单项选择题

The idea of test-tube babies may make you either delighted at the wonders of modern medicine or irritated while considering the moral, or legal, or technological implications of starting life in a laboratory. But if you’ve ever been pregnant yourself, one thing is certain: You wonder what it’s like to carry a test-tube baby. Are these pregnancies normal Are the babies normal

The earliest answers come from Australia, where a group of medical experts at the Queen Victoria Medical Center in Melbourne have taken a look at the continent’s first nine successful "in vitro" pregnancies. The Australians report that the pregnancies themselves seemed to proceed according to plan, but at birth some unusual trends did show up. Seven of the nine babies turned out to be girls. Six of the nine were delivered by Caesarean section (剖腹产手术). And one baby, a twin, was born with a serious heart defect and a few days later developed life-threatening problems.

What does it all mean Even the doctors don’t know for sure, because the numbers are so small. The proportion of girls to boys is high, but until there are many more test-tube babies no one will know whether that’s something that just happened to be like that or something special that happens when egg meets sperm in a test tube instead of a Fallopian tube (输卵管). The same thing is true of the single heart defect; it usually shows up in only 15 out of 60,000 births in that part of Australia, but the fact that it occurred in one out of nine test-tube babies does not necessarily mean that they are at special risk. One thing the doctors can explain is the high number of Caesareans. Most of the mothers were older, had long histories of fertility problems and in some cases had had surgery on the Fallopian tubes, all of which made them likely candidates for Caesareans anyway.

The Australian researchers report that they are quite encouraged. All the babies are now making normal progress, even the twin with the birth defects.

What is the author’s attitude toward the idea of test-tube babies().

A. Optimistic.

B. Pessimistic.

C. Delighted.

D. Irritated.

答案

参考答案:A

解析:

作者态度题。文章最后结尾说,所有的试管婴儿,包括那个天生心脏病的孪生儿,现在都在正常发育生长。由此可知,作者对试管婴儿这一事物是持乐观态度的,故A为正确答案。

单项选择题
问答题

Exactly where we will stand in the long war against disease by the year 2050 is impossible to say. (46) But if developments in research maintain their current pace, it seems likely that a combination of improved attention to dietary and environmental factors, along with advances in gene therapy and protein targeted drugs, will have virtually eliminated most major classes of disease.

From an economic standpoint, the best news may be that these accomplishments .could be accompanied by a drop in health-care costs. (47) Costs may even fall as diseases ’are brought under control using pinpointed, short-term therapies now being developed. By 2050 there will be fewer hospitals, and surgical procedures will be largely restricted to the treatment of accidents and other forms of trauma. Spending on nonacute care, both in nursing facilities and in homes, will also fall sharply as more elderly people lead healthy lives until close to death.

One result of medicine’s success in controlling disease will be a dramatic increase in life expectancy. (48) The extent of that increase is a highly speculative matter, but it is worth noting that medical science has already helped to make the very old (currently defined as those over 85 years of age) the fastest growing segment of the population. Between 1960 and 1995, the U.S. population as a whole increased by about 45%, while the segment over 85 years of age grew by almost 300%. (49) There has been a similar explosion in the population of centenarians, with the result that survival to the age of 100 is no longer the newsworthy feat that it was only a few decades ago. U.S. Census Bureau projections already forecast dramatic increase in the number of centenarians in the next 50 years: 4 million in 2050, compared with 37, 000 in 1990.

(50) Although Census Bureau calculations project an increase in average life span of only eight years by the year 2050, some experts believe that the human life span should not begin to encounter any theoretical natural limits before 120. years. With continuing

(49) There has been a similar explosion in the population of centenarians, with the result that survival to the age of 100 is no longer the newsworthy feat that it was only a few decades ago.