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8 p. A5 `" q( R# J Medical consumerism——like all sorts of consumerism, only more menacingly——is designed to be unsatisfying. The prolongation of life and the search for perfect health (beauty, youth, happiness)are inherently self-defeating. The law of diminishing returns necessarily applies. You can make higher percentages of people survive into their eighties and nineties. But, as any geriatric ward shows, that is not the same as to confer enduring mobility, awareness and autonomy. Extending life grows medically feasible, but it is often a life deprived of everything, and one exposed to degrading neglect as resources grow over-stretched andpolitics turn mean.
2 R, `/ |7 A+ @ What an ignoramus destiny for medicine if its future turned into one of bestowing meager increments of unenjoyed life! It would mirror the fate of athletes, in which disproportionate energies and resources—not least medical ones, like illegal steroids—are now invested to shave records by milliseconds. And, it goes without saying, the logical extension of longevism—the “ abolition” of death — would not be a solution but only an exacerbation. To air these predicaments is not anti-medical spleen—a churlish reprisal against medicine for its victories—but simply to face the growing reality of medical power not exactly without responsibility but with dissolving goals.- c$ ]& N, ?) P; [
Hence medicine’s finest hour becomes the dawn of its dilemmas. For centuries, medicine was impotent and hence unproblematic. From the Greeks to the Great War, its job was simple: to struggle with lethal diseases and gross disabilities, to ensure live births, and to manage pain. It performed these uncontroversial tasks by and large with meager success. Today, with mission accomplished, medicines triumphs are dissolving in disorientation. Medicine has led to vastly inflated expectations, which the public has eagerly swallowed. Yet as these expectations grow unlimited, they become unfulfillable. The task facing medicine in the twenty-first century will be to redefine its limits even as it extends its capacities.
5 Z* \& {. K) q; q 24. In the author’s opinion, the prolongation of life is equal to ___.* w. n9 d4 U! M. a' J7 {) m, \# r
A. mobility B. deprivation C. autonomy D. awareness
1 O$ b( c: `& s- B/ { 25. In the second paragraph a comparison is drawn between ___.
0 m9 P# S+ ?% `) T* I A. medicine and life6 y6 \7 j/ `! K
B. resources and energies
( _$ V" E/ }5 ~' r, D" r C. predicaments and solutions1 K( f1 B$ R5 O2 A
D. athletics and longevism$ D) k. |% h$ V$ {; g2 @, g
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/ |; F5 y3 [5 C# c, e$ r q: { The biggest problem facing Chile as it promotes itself as a tourist destination to be reckoned with, is that it is at the end of the earth. It is too far south to be a convenient stop on the way to anywhere else and is much farther than a relatively cheap half-day’s flight away from the big tourist markets, unlike Mexico, for example. Chile, therefore, is having to fight hard to attract tourists, to convince/ a& E7 l" r* G ?; y- K6 v4 n
travellers that it is worth coming halfway round the world to visit. But it is, k0 Z( g1 H" l
succeeding, not only in existing markets like the USA and Western Europe but in: Z! _2 s% ?$ O
new territories, in particular the Far East. Markets closer to home, however, are not being forgotten. More than 50% of visitors to Chile still come from its nearest neighbour, Argentina, where the cost of living is much higher.
9 d$ x2 O0 A: N" I3 T& i. ~; u Like all South American countries, Chile sees tourism as a valuable earner
0 L) a: I! w( F! J of foreign currency, although it has been far more serious than most in promoting its image abroad. Relatively stable politically within the region, it has benefited from the problems suffered in other areas. In Peru, guerrilla warfare in5 ?7 F. `$ q0 Q+ S, N7 [
recent years has dealt a heavy blow to the tourist industry and fear of street crime in Brazil has reduced the attraction of Rio de Janeiro as a dream destination for foreigners.5 I, C- O6 d+ c. L6 J
More than 150,000 people are directly involved in Chile’s tourist sector,
" k3 h9 K' g3 u( P$ R+ A; q an industry which earns the country more than US $ 950 million each year. The state-run National Tourism Service, in partnership with a number of private companies, is currently running a worldwide campaign, taking part in trade fairs and international events to attract visitors to Chile. |