1、专业英语八级（阅读）练习试卷 35及答案与解析 0 When my wife, Meg, suffered a severe stroke that immobilized her left side, I knew we would be facing a grueling odyssey involving several hospitals, dozens of doctors and countless therapy sessions. What I wasnt prepared for was the American Way of Managed Health Care, a s
2、ystem that is bureaucratic and often dysfunctional. Yes, medical practitioners in the United States are generally considered among the best in the world, and my wife primarily had first-rate care, but their back-office practice a business dominated by third-party payers is badly run at worst and woe
3、fully confusing at best. Megs stroke occurred while we were vacationing in the south of France last summer. After being stabilized in the emergency room of a small hospital, she was transferred immediately to a large teaching hospital, where she received excellent treatment in a world-renowned strok
4、e pavilion. When I received the bill for her 21/2-week stay at the Pasteur Hospital in Nice, ! asked the deputy administrator for an itemized statement. I knew Id need to show it to our health-insurance company the one-page invoice for more than 20,000. The administrator was puzzled. There were only
5、 two daily rates, he explained, one for soins intensifs or intensive care and another for non- acute care. There were no extra charges; the numerous ambulance transfers, MRI brain scans, X-rays and assorted tests associated with any serious injury or illness were all- inclusive. In fact, the only su
6、pplement was 10.67 about $13 a day for food which, although not three-star bistro quality, was certainly a bargain, and better than anything you can eat in a U.S. hospital. Im not arguing that the French healthcare system should be a world benchmark, but compared with what we faced when we returned
7、home, it was a model of simplicity and efficiency. Of course, everything in American medical care is a la carte, and the invoices are so dense with codes and abbreviations, its a wonder anyone can decipher them. I often wonder, how much does this cost the American public annually? At one New York ho
8、spital, we received bills from doctors wed never heard of, including one who charged for an office visit when Meg couldnt even get out of bed. The managed care providers computer sent him a check without question. Had he not billed us for the co-payment I never would have noticed the error. Over the
9、 past few months, I spent hours clearing up these kinds of mistakes. A doctor friend who heads a department in a large hospital admitted that these kinds of complaints are all too common. Megs medical tab has reached nearly $300,000, which seems monumental, even given the nature of her catastrophic
10、injury. Thankfully, we were covered for most of it. Yet $90,000 of that figure had little or nothing to do with patient care. Roughly 30 cents of each health-care dollar goes to administration, or the processing of paperwork. If that figure could be reduced by a third, even $30,000 would go a long w
11、ay toward extending her rehab treatments. (Megs 2004 benefits have run out.) When Meg was finally discharged after spending 56 days in hospitals, we received co- payment bills for her medical equipment, including an itemized statement for every extra on her wheelchair (no, the brake extensions, foot
12、 pedals, armrest, anti-tip bars, seat and seat belt are not included). But the provider billed us two ways, one for leasing the chair and another for purchase. Even now, after numerous phone calls, I still dont know whether we own or are renting the wheelchair. The outpatient rehab therapy sessions
13、presented their own set of challenges. The hospital sent a number of bills printed in alphanumeric codes for additional thousands of dollars even though we made the proper co-payments at the time of treatment. Billing administrators barely raised an eyebrow when I told them I had spent too much time
14、 on hold and would no longer bother calling to dispute the charges. (We have since received automated early-morning phone calls asking us to contact the hospital.) Ive checked with others who have had protracted negotiations with health-care providers and insurers over complex medical treatment. The
15、y echo my frustration. Why is it incumbent on the recipient to spend countless hours rectifying the medical administrations mistakes? How much extra does this process add to the nations annual health-care bill? Medicare our government-subsidized system that cares for the elderly has a much better re
16、cord in administrative costs. It spends between three and four cents of every dollar on paperwork and processing. A single-payer system is easier and cheaper to run. Weve had a two-tier health-care system in the United States for a while, and only one tier works. Isnt it time for man-aged care to sl
17、im down and help its patients get better instead of burdening them with needlessly expensive paperwork? 1 “Odyssey“ in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to _. （ A） struggle （ B） treatment （ C） long journey （ D） time 2 Which of the following concerning the French medical system is NOT true ac
18、cording to the author? （ A） The hospital provides good and cheap food. （ B） The hospital provides excellent treatment to patients. （ C） The management system is simple and efficient. （ D） The one-page invoice is not as clear as an itemized statement. 3 Which of the following concerning American heal
19、th-care system is NOT true? （ A） It is complex. （ B） It often does not work. （ C） Treatment bills are not without mistakes. （ D） One third of the authors money went to administration. 4 What is the authors attitude toward American health-care system? （ A） angry （ B） indifferent （ C） hopeful （ D） app
20、reciative 5 The main purpose of the passage is to _. （ A） complain about American health-care system. （ B） appeal for a change in American health-care system. （ C） criticize the system for the high administration costs. （ D） tell the reader about the authors experiences in the whole process. 5 You c
21、an spot them in the grocery store. Theyre the morns with the shopping cart cover thats supposed to protect babies from lurking germs. You can see them on the playground hovering over their toddlers, negotiating toy disputes for their 7-year- olds. Theyre in high school, phoning teachers if their chi
22、ldren bring home anything other than As. Theyre even at college - intervening with professors, setting up their childrens dorm rooms and bank accounts and keeping in near-constant contact with their kids via cell phone and instant messaging. Theyre not just parents, theyre superparents. And while in
23、 many communities the above behavior is par for the parental course, experts say that superparenting is really not so super. Its more like over-anxious, over- vigilant and just plain overdone. Fragile creatures? “Certainly, there are plenty of neglected children in America. But in middle class and u
24、pper middle class communities the coddled kid is becoming the norm,“ says Peter N. Stearns, a social historian at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and the author of “Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America.“ “In the last few decades the belief became popular that childre
25、n are exceptionally fragile creatures and we should treat them that way,“ says Stearns. The fact that many Americans are waiting longer to become parents and are having fewer children has also contributed greatly to the phenomenon. “If you have one or two children rather than four or five obviously,
26、 the individual child becomes much more precious,“ he says. Andrea J. Buchanan, author of “Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It,“ says she sees a clear link between uber-parenting and todays highly educated mommyforce. “When it comes time to have children,“ she says, “many career-oriented
27、 women still end up putting their career on the backburner and their children on the front.“ At the same time, many mothers (and fathers) try to bring the same work ethic to parenting as they once did to their careers: theyre willing to work hard, theyre ambitious and competitive, and they have a de
28、sire for accomplishment, control and results. Buchanan says she thinks the problem starts even before the baby arrives. “I like to use the trip analogy,“ she says. “Instead of just packing your suitcase and reading the tour book, many pregnant women are now made to feel they must learn how to fly th
29、e plane. So this is where it begins. You get sucked into it right then.“ “Parents are given this false notion that they can and should control all aspects of child-rearing from conception to the childs post-doctoral work,“ she says. “The sum effect has been that parenting has become complicated beyo
30、nd what most of us believe we can handle on our own,“ says Dr. Bernardo J. Carducci, a professor of psychology at Indiana University in New Albany, Ind., and the director of its Shyness Research Institute. “As we make parenting more and more complicated,“ he says, “what happens is people are uncerta
31、in of what to do. Every time you have uncertainty, you have anxiety.“ According to Carducci, fear is the stuff of overparenting. Maternal bling-bling “Much of the $6 billion that Americans spend annually on baby gear is spent because marketers have scared us into buying it or because everyone we kno
32、w has a certain stroller or diaper bag,“ Carducci says. Its what he calls maternal bling-bling stuff we get to make us feel like were good parents. “To alleviate your anxiety you buy what the marketers say you need and what the other mothers in Mommy and Me have,“ he says. “Thats conformity. You can
33、 look at a suburban mom and a rapper and see the same thing. Theyre surrounded by this stuff. Its a way to compare yourself to others and announce to the world that youre a good morn.“ “Then, once a child starts school, the chances for overparenting and the pitfalls for not doing so abound,“ says Dr
34、. Alexandra Barzvi, clinical coordinator for the Institute of Anxiety and Mood at the New York University Child Study Center. “Many parents are even worked up about which preschool their child gets into,“ she says. “They see it as a very competitive world and they introduce this to their children ri
35、ght away.“ By the time the children are ready to try to get into college, the parental anxiety as well as the childs is often out of control. The Child Study Center recently introduced a workshop to help teens and their parents deal with the anxiety of applying for college. “In our society now, a ch
36、ilds success in school has become emblematic of your success as a parent,“ says Stearns. So if you have a kid who gets into (never mind graduates from) Harvard, thats as good as a stellar (although long-awaited) performance review. “While over-anxious parenting may make us feel better in the short-t
37、erm,“ says Carducci, “there are long-term consequences. Over-anxious parents raise emotionally fragile kids kids who cant stand on their own. They dont know how to make sound decisions and they arent equipped to deal with failure and frustration.“ “Frustration tolerance is the best predictor of self
38、-esteem,“ notes Carducci. When a child can endure failing, pick himself up and carry on, he gains strength and confidence. When he knows hes done something on his own whether he succeeds or fails hell be proud of his effort. Charting their own course On the other hand, if a child is made to believe
39、that he couldnt survive without his dad or morn bailing him out or somehow protecting him, it has the opposite result. Carducci says it sends a clear message to kids that they are incapable of success or decision-making without their parents. Furthermore, many professionals contend overparented kids
40、 are at a higher risk for anxiety disorders and depression. They also tend to have trouble charting their course later in life. “Hot-house raised kids often need a period in which they need to wander later,“ says Stearns. “This isnt bad necessarily, but its not how life used to be. Kids used to grad
41、uate college and then enter the workforce.“ He sees the delayed growing up, where kids meander after college, as their way of reclaiming their childhood leading the less directed and controlled life that they probably shouldve had as youngsters. “Another impact,“ says Stearns, “has been on something
42、 even less intangible.“ “Parenting has become less enjoyable and thats really the shame,“ says Stearns. Dr. George Cohen, a clinical professor of pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that wh
43、ile overparenting can be a problem, theres also the good side of it at least the children are lucky enough to have parents who are vigilant and care, albeit perhaps a little too much. “Finding a happy medium - parenting enough but not too much is sometimes easier said than done,“ says Cohen. Its not
44、 even that people who overparent are fanatics necessarily. Theyre more than likely just confused and uncertain. “A lot of times the reason some parents are overly anxious is because they dont know what to do,“ he says. “They read one article and it tells them to do one thing, another article tells t
45、hem to do the opposite. Parents often dont know what to believe or where to turn.“ A good pediatrician can do an anxious parent a world of good, according to Cohen. “Sometimes people can start out as an overanxious parent but as they become much more comfortable they strike a better balance,“ he say
46、s. Love them the way they are Nobody is suggesting that parenthood can or should be anxiety-free. What they are suggesting is that parents love their children for who they are, not what they want them to be. Most people dont excel in every subject. So getting straight As is probably more about what
47、you want rather than a tree reflection of your childs abilities. 6 According to the author, that does “superparents“ mean? （ A） They are super parents. （ B） They are strict with their childrens academic performance. （ C） They care too much and have done too much for their children. （ D） This is what
48、 most parents have learnt to be parents. 7 Whats the major reason for the overparenting according to the writer? （ A） Children are becoming exceptionally fragile now. （ B） Many parents wait longer to have children and there are fewer children. （ C） Many mothers are better educated. （ D） B and C 8 Wh
49、at does the trip analogy suggest? （ A） These mothers are doing more than what is necessary. （ B） These parents care too much about the children （ C） This may cause delayed growth of the children. （ D） Parents may bring the same work ethic to parenting as they once did to their careers. 9 Among the following which one is not the negative consequence according to the passage? （ A） The kids are emotionally fragile and they cant stand on their own. （ B） They dont know how to make sound decisions
