Part IV Reading Comprehension （Reading in Depth） （25 minutes）
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer sheet 2.
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.
Every Western doctor is required to take the Hippocratic oath，by which they swear to never harm their patients．Unfortunately，as medical history shows，many doctors did not make good on this promise．Instead，they resorted to quackery(庸医的医术)，and made a living out of fooling people who sought medical help．
In the past，quack doctors claimed to have“fixed”problems from poor eyesight to cancer and smallpox (天花)．They claimed to be able to work medical miracles，relying on public ignorance of medicine for their “success”．In addition，well-meaning doctors often advocated treatments that harmed their patients instead of helping them：procedures such as bloodletting often made worse the suffering they were intended to ease．
The typical feature of quackery is ignorance．Unwary people are easily taken in by claims of the doctors they trust．For example，in the 1800s，psychologists commonly used basket-shaped devices to determine personality，with questionable benefit．Based on the idea that different parts of the brain control different character traits, the devices determined personality by measuring the size and shape of people’s heads!
Of all the ridiculous devices created by quacks，the most inventive was perhaps the“radionic”machine．Inthe early 1900s，quacks claimed radionics could diagnose any sickness，even though the devices were just wooden boxes with lights inside．After radionic diagnosis，patients were sent home with the assurance that they would get well．No medicine was prescribed because，quacks claimed，the radionic machine would broadcast the cure to patients，much like radio stations broadcast music!
The quackery of the 19th and early 20th centuries was not limited to the use of strange devices，nor to crooked doctors．Nor were quack procedures anything new．
The practice of bloodletting had been a popular treatment for over a millennium. In the name of medicine, large volumes of blood were drained from people’s bodies to cure their sicknesses．Death，more often than not,
was the outcome, though usually the disease was blamed rather than the loss of blood．
It’s easy to look back on the past and brand questionable medical procedures as quackery．However, hindsight(事后诸葛亮)is 20／20．Perhaps in the future，people will look back on some of today’s medical practices with similar suspicion．
47. In the past, many doctors managed to fool patients by taking advantage of ___________
48. Using a basket-shaped device, psychologists in the 1800s would measure the size and shape of one’s head to ______.
49. Why didn’t the quacks prescribe any medicine for their patients after radionic diagnosis?
50. As a popular medical treatment in the past, bloodletting usually caused death instead of __________.
51. What is the possible conclusion of the article?
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
You’re in trouble if you have to buy your own brand-name prescription drugs. Over the past decade, prices leaped by more than double the inflation rate. Treatments for chronic conditions can easily top $2,000 a month-no wonder that one in four Americans can’t afford to fill their prescriptions. The solution? A hearty chorus of “O Canada.” North of the border, where price controls reign, those same brand-name drugs cost 50% to 80% less.
The Canadian option is fast becoming a political wake-up call, “If our neighbors can buy drugs at reasonable prices, why can’t we? Even to whisper that thought provokes anger. “Un-American!” And-the propagandists’ trump card (王牌)—“Wreck our brilliant health-care system.” Super size drug prices, they claim, fund the research that sparks the next generation of wonder drugs. No sky-high drug price today, no cure for cancer tomorrow. So shut up and pay up.
Common sense tells you that’s a false alternative. The reward for finding, say, a cancer cure is so huge that no one’s going to hang it up. Nevertheless, if Canada-level pricing came to the United States, the industry’s profit margins would drop and the pace of new-drug development would slow. Here lies the American dilemma. Who is all this splendid medicine for? Should our health-care system continue its drive toward the best of the best, even though rising numbers of patients can’t afford it? Or should we direct our wealth toward letting everyone in on today’s level of care? Measured by saved lives, the latter is almost certainly the better course.
To defend their profits, the drug companies have warned Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies (药房) not to sell to Americans by mail, and are cutting back supplies to those who dare.
Meanwhile, the administration is playing the fear card. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration will argue that Canadian drugs might be fake, mishandled, or even a potential threat to life.
Do bad drugs fly around the Internet? Sure-and the more we look, the more we’ll find, But I haven’t heard of any raging epidemics among the hundreds of thousands of people buying crossborder.
Most users of prescription drugs don’t worry about costs a lot. They’re sheltered by employee insurance, owing just a $20 co-pay. The financial blows rain, instead, on the uninsured, especially the chronically ill who need expensive drugs to live, This group will still include middle-income seniors on Medicare, who’ll have to dig deeply into their pockets before getting much from the new drug benefit that starts in 2006.
52. What is said about the consequence of the rocketing drug prices in the U.S.?
A) A quarter of Americans can’t afford their prescription drugs.
B) Many Americans can’t afford to see a doctor when they fall ill.
C) Many Americans have to go to Canada to get medical treatment.
D) The inflation rate has been more than doubled over the years.
53. It can be inferred that America can follow the Canadian model and curb its soaring drug prices by ________.
A) encouraging people to buy prescription drugs online
B) extending medical insurance to all its citizens
C) importing low-price prescription drugs from Canada
D) exercising price control on brand-name drugs
54. How do propagandists argue for the U.S. drug pricing policy?
A) Low prices will affect the quality of medicines in America.
B) High prices are essential to funding research on new drugs.
C) Low prices will bring about the anger of drug manufacturers.
D) High-price drugs are indispensable in curing chronic diseases.
55. What should be the priority of America’s health-care system according to the author?
A) To resolve the dilemma in the health-care system.
B) To maintain America’s lead in the drug industry.
C) To allow the vast majority to enjoy its benefits.
D) To quicken the pace of new drug development.
56. What are American drug companies doing to protect their high profits?
A) Labeling drugs bought from Canada as being fakes.
B) Threatening to cut back funding for new drug research.
C) Reducing supplies to uncooperative Canadian pharmacies.
D) Attributing the raging epidemics to the ineffectiveness of Canadian drugs.
责任编辑：sealion1986
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