Like every dog, every disease now seems to have its day. World Tuberculosis (infections disease in which growths appear on the lungs) Day is on Saturday March 24th.
Tuberculosis was once terribly fashionable. Dying of "consumption" seems to have been a favorite activity of garret-dwelling 19th-century artists, h has, however, been neglected of late. Researchers in the field never tire of pointing out that TB kills a lot of people. According to figures released earlier this week by the World Health Organization, 1.6 million people died of the disease in 2005, compared with about 3m for AIDS and l m for malaria. But it receives only a fraction of the research budget devoted to AIDS. America’s National Institutes of Health, for example, spends 20 times as much on AIDS as on TB. Nevertheless, everyone seems to getting in on the TB-day act this year.
The Global Fund an international organization responsible fur fighting all three diseases but best known for its work on AIDS, has used the occasion to trumpet its tuberculosis projects. The fund claims that its anti-TB activities since it opened for business in 2002 have saved the lives of over 1m people. The World Health Organization has issued a report that contains some good news. Although the number of TB cases is still rising, the rate of illness seems to have stabilized; the caseload, in other words, is growing only because the population itself is going up.
Even drug companies are involved. In the nm-up to the day itself, Eli Lilly announced a $ 50m boost to its MDRTB Global Partnership. MDR stands for multi-drug resistance, and it is one of the reasons why TB is back in the limelight. Careless treatment has caused drug-resistant strains to evolve all over the world. The course of drugs needed to clear the disease completely takes six mouths, anti persuading people lo stay that course once their symptoms have gone is hard. Unfortunately, those infected with MDR have to be treated with less effective, more poisonous and more costly drugs. Naturally, these provoke still more. non-compliance and thus still more evolution.
The other reason TB is back is its relationship to AIDS. The (global Fund’s joint responsibility for the diseases is no coincidence. AIDS does not kill directly. Rather, HIV, the virus that causes it, weakens the body’s immune system and exposes the sufferer to secondary infections. Of these, TB is one of the most serious. It kills 200 000 AIDS patients a year. However, some anti-TB drugs interfere with the effect of some anti-HIV drugs. Conversely, in about 20% of cases where a patient has both diseases, anti-HIV drugs make the tuberculosis worse. The upshot is that 125 years after human beings worked out what caused TB, it is still a serious threat.
By referring to AIDS in Paragraph 2, the author intends to show （）
A. the US government is reluctant to spend millions of dollars for Tuberculosis
B. the death rate of AIDS is higher ,than that of Tuberculosis
C. the officials did not pay much attention to the research of Tuberculosis in the past
D. compared with AIDS, Tuberculosis can be cured effectively
参考答案：C
解析：
[直击题眼] 第二段第五句：According to figures released．．．1.6 million people died of the disease in 2005， compared with about 3m for AIDS and 1m for malaria。But it receives only a fraction of the research budget devoted to AIDS．America’s National Institutes of Health．．．spends 20 times as much on AIDS as on TB. Nevertheless…
[深层剖析] 本题考查了英文文章一种常见的举例形式：通过对比三种疾病的死亡人数(1.6m for TB，3m for AIDS and 1m for malaria)和政府投入的经费(it receives only a fraction of the research budget devoted to AIDS)，意在突出肺结核病的严重性，但政府缺少关注。同时，在选项[C]中提到in the past正符合作者意图，因为在后半句中有转折nevertheless．．．表明现在的情况。◆注意：此类型题是常考题，这种对比议论的英语思维模式要重点掌握。
[主干扰项分析] 从文中可知政府不是不愿意花钱研究肺结核病，而是因为他们以前没有意识到其严重性。一旦意识到了，全社会都会关注此事，后文中提到的药商的例子正说明此问题。同时，根据此段末句中的转折连词nevertheless之后提到this year的情况知道这种现象已有所好转，故[A]错误。[B]“艾滋病的死亡率比肺结核病的死亡率高”是针对此段第三句和第四句出题。文中说的是死于这三种疾病的人数，并非死亡率。◆注意：这是对概念的偷梁换柱，并且例子本身非答案，例子前后是考点。
[次干扰项分析] [D]中cured effectively指肺结核病比艾滋病更容易彻底治愈，这是一个生活常识，很多考生在没有仔细阅读文章的情况下会主观臆断。但此观点文中却未论述，而且也不是文章的主旨。