As recently as the 1920s infectious diseases were still dangerous threats to health, modern medicine, especially the development of sulfa drugs and antibiotics, has greatly reduced the risk of death from infections. Today the most dangerous diseases are not contagious but chronic disorders. Four types of disease—heart disease, cancer, stroke, and lung disease—account for over 70 percent of all the deaths in the United States. While modern scientific medicine has been able to relieve the effects and arrest the progress of these diseases in individual cases, it cannot cure or prevent them. The findings of medical research emphatically suggest that the causes of cancer, emphysema, and circulatory disorders are not just physical but also social. The way we live is strongly affecting how healthy we are.
John Knowles, a physician and past president of the Rockefeller Foundation, believes that most Americans are born healthy and suffer from illness or premature death only because of their own misbehaviour or an unhealthy environment. Prevention of disease, he argues, means giving up some "bad" habits—smoking cigarettes, eating too many fats, drinking too much, exercising too little, driving too fast. Knowles's prescription was borne out by a California study that found that longer life expectancy is significantly related to a healthy life style.
For five and a half years 7000 adults followed a few sensible rules:
Three meals a day at regular hours and no snacking;
Breakfast every day;
Moderate exercise two or three times a week;
Adequate sleep (seven or eight hours a night);
No smoking;
Moderate weight;
No alcohol or alcohol in moderation.
1____________________________________________________________
Most of the leading causes of death would be affected by similar changes in the social environment. Eighty percent of the deaths from cancer and heart disease may be "premature"; that is, they occur in relatively young people and are believed to be preventable. Heart disorders and strokes (46 percent of all deaths) are related to diet, cigarette smoking, undetected hypertension, and lack of exercise. Cancer (22 percent of all deaths) is correlated with smoking, eating fatty and refined foods, and breathing chemically polluted air. Stress, the hallmark of modern urban societies, seems to play an important role in heart disease and strokes. Moreover, the emotional strain of adjusting to loss and change often precedes the onset of other illnesses. The death rate for widows and widowers, for example, is ten times higher in the first year of bereavement than it is for others the same age. In the year following a divorce those who are divorced are twelve times more likely to get sick than married people.
2____________________________________________________________
There is much evidence to show that social action would prevent many of these deaths. Let us turn to a few recent examples of how changes in social behaviour have affected health.
Smoking. When the surgeon general's report on the link between cigarette smoking and cancer was released in 1964, 50 percent of the adult population of the United States smoked cigarettes. By 1983, in part because of public education programs and restrictions on cigarette advertising, the proportion of adult smokers had dropped to about 30 percent. If cigarette smoking were stopped entirely, experts estimate that one out of five deaths from cancer would be prevented.
3__________________________________________________________
Accidents. In 1976 Ontario, Canada, made it illegal to drive or ride in a car without wearing a seatbelt. Officials say the use of these safety devices is primarily responsible for the 40 percent drop in traffic fatalities between 1975 and 1982, even though there are many more carson the roads. In the United States new legislation and stricter law enforcement to curb drunken driving are credited with reducing 1983 traffic deaths to their lowest level in 20 years. Nevertheless, experts warn that these measures tend to become less effective as time goes on, and that only a change in American attitudes toward drinking and driving will prevent greater loss of life in the future. Traffic accidents remain the chief cause of death in the 15-to-25-year-old age group.
4 ________________________________________________________________
V VOCABULARY
Task 4. Read the text about Saving Lives through Social Action. Some paragraphs have been removed from the text. Choose from paragraphs A-E the one which fits each gap 1-4.There is one paragraph which you don’t need to use.
| A | As these examples strongly suggest, many of the leading causes of death and disability are social, not medical, problems. Doctors cannot cure cancer or heart disease with shots and pills, as they can cure the "old killers" like diphtheria and tuberculosis. Today most people could improve their health not simply by passively receiving better medical treatment but by actively changing the way they live every day. The health-care system, however, has an important effect on social behaviour. |
| B | Alcohol. When the sale of alcoholic beverages was restricted during Prohibition, the death rate from cirrhosis of the liver dropped from 11.8 per 100,000 in 1916 to 7.2 in 1932. After the Prohibition amendment was repealed, the death rate from cirrhosis rose steadily to an all- time high of 16 deaths per 100,000 in 1973. In France, where wine production is the country's largest industry, alcoholism is the third most common cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. |
| C | The study found that a 45-year-old man who practiced three or even fewer of these healthy habits had a remaining life expectancy of 21.5 years (to age 67); if he followed four or five of the rules, he could expect to live 28.0 more years (to age 73); and if he observed six or seven, he would lengthen his life expectancy to 33.0 additional years (to age 78). The researchers also found that middle-aged people who practiced all seven habits were as healthy as people thirty years younger who practiced none of them. As this study indicates, just a few simple changes in everyday living habits can apparently prevent illness and add years to life. |
| D | As for the relationship of education and health, the economist Victor Fuchs has put it starkly: each additional dollar spent on education reduces mortality rates more than each additional dollar spent on medical care. Fuchs's conclusion is based on studies showing that the higher the level of education in a population, the lower its mortality rate. In one such study white men with less than a high-school education had a mortality rate 64 percent higher than men who had graduated from college. Women who had not completed high school had a mortality rate more than twice as high as college. |
| E | Many deaths from accidents, homicide, and suicide could also be prevented. Almost half of all fatal accidents are caused by automobiles. Popular resistance to lower speed limits and such safety features as seat belts is doubtless a contributing factor. Drunken driving contributes to between 50 and 75 percent of all deaths and injuries in automobile accidents, and the excessive use of alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver, a leading cause of death. The suicide rate is increasing generally, but it has nearly doubled among young people since the 1960s. Accidents, murders, and suicides are responsible for three out of four deaths among 15- to 25-year-olds – the only age group for which the mortality rate has risen since 1976. |
Task 5. Match the column A with column B.
| A | В | ||
| an amendment | A | захворювання, недуга; | |
| to estimate | B | лікування; | |
| a bereavement | C | розлад; | |
| a threat | D | поліпшення; | |
| an illness | E | страждати; | |
| a treatment | F | хвороба; | |
| a disease | G | оцінювати, прикидати; | |
| a disorder | H | вбивство; | |
| to suffer | I | загроза; | |
| a homicide | J | важка втрата. |
Task 6. Fill in the correct wordsfrom the previous exercise into the gaps below (not all words are needed).
1. Because much of the cost of health care is not covered by insurance, the risk of a long illness is a serious financial __________ to most people in the world.
2. Depression and anxiety are more common among women, while men are more likely to _____ from antisocial personality disorders, alcoholism, and drug abuse.
3. The available research indicates that mental______is not a new problem: the major types of mental ____have been found in every known society, no matter what its way of life.
4. It also appears that social class deeply affects how and where sick persons are treated, and even whether they receive any __________ at all.
5. A longer life span often means the development of chronic __________that require longer and more frequent hospitalization.
Task 7. Fill in the correct word from the box into the gaps below.
| healthy deprived strain rural “rat race” income indicate contribute widespread go up |
1. One way to test the effect of modern life on mental health is to compare urban and ___________ rates of mental illness.
2. Many people assume that the stress and _________of modern life are responsible for the high incidence of mental illness.
3. Some of the reasons why health costs will continue to _________ are discussed below.
4. Another way to test the proposition that modern urban society_____________ to mental disorders is to look for evidence that contemporary rates of mental illness are higher than they were in the past
5. The _________________for success, the impersonality of large urban organizations, and the confusion of rapid social change are all thought to make our psychological environment unhealthy.
6. Mental illness appears to be rather ________________.
7. The available research _____________ that mental illness is not a new problem: the major types of mental disorders have been found in every known society, no matter what its way of life.
8. In fact, two social factors — ______ and education – largely determine what kind of health we have.
9. A connection between mental illness and ________living conditions has long been suspected.
10. The way we live is strongly affecting how ____________ we are.
Task 8. Are the following statements about the text true (T) or false (F)?
| 1. | A few simple changes in everyday living habits cannot apparently prevent illness and add years to life. | T / F |
| 2. | Cancer is correlated with smoking, eating fatty and refined foods, and breathing chemically polluted air. | T / F |
| 3. | We cannot prevent the deaths from homicide, suicide, accidents. | T / F |
| 4. | Today the most dangerous diseases are chronic disorders. | T / F |
| 5. | Prevention of disease means giving up some "bad" habits – smoking cigarettes, eating too many fats, drinking too much, exercising too little, driving too fast. | T / F |
Task 9. Now look through the text again and find words which mean the same as:
| 1. completely | 6. avertable |
| 2. up to date | 7. a dowager |
| 3. to / a ban | 8. to make or become better |
| 4. incessant | 9. to less painful |
| 5. a proof | 10. killing |
Task 10. Rearrange the letters to form a word used in the text.
| racnec | aa serious illness caused by a group of cells in the body increasing in an uncontrolled way; | ||
| nteuecoenarmg | b neither very great nor very small in amount, size, strength, or degree; | ||
| cagdbnuork | ca condition in which your blood pressure is extremely high; | ||
| tveualea | d a medicine or treatment that makes someone who is ill become healthy; | ||
| eulqtyai | e bad behaviour or behaviour that offends other people; | ||
| xaunois | fdrinks such as wine and beer that can make people drunk; | ||
| egavera | g a crash involving a car, train, plane, or other vehicle; | ||
| billiguna | h a law, or a set of laws. |
Task 11. Choose the best option to complete the sentences.
1. Modern medicine is able to relieve the effects and arrest the progress but it cannot__________.
a) reduce the number of ill people
b) cure or prevent them
c) guarantee a full recovering
2. Heart disorders and strokes are related to __________________.
a) diet, cigarette smoking, undetected hypertension, and lack of exercise.
b) breathing chemically polluted air
c) smoking, eating fatty and refined foods
3. For three out of four deaths among 15- to 25-year-olds are responsible _______.
a) accidents, murders, and suicides
b) cancer and strokes
c) homicide, murders
4. If cigarette smoking were stopped entirely, experts estimate _____________.
a) that one out of five deaths from cancer would be prevented
b) that one out of five deaths from heart diseases would be prevented
c) that one out of seven deaths from cancer would be prevented
5. An important role in heart disease and strokes plays _________.
a) smoking
b) drugs
c) stress
Task 12. Use the words from the right side to make the expressions with the words from the left side. Then make up sentences with them.
| refined | environment |
| sulfa | disorder |
| heart | food |
| social | drugs |
| circulatory | disease |
v
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Task 13. Rewrite the following sentences using the words in bold type. Do not change the meaning of the original sentence. Use between 3-8 words.
1. “If I were you I’d give serious consideration to changing jobs.” – the counselor said to him.
The counselor _________________________ a job change. URGED
2. “You really ought to reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat” – the doctor said.
The doctor ___________________the amount of saturated fat I ate.CUT
3. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt at all”, – the nurse told to girl.
The nurse______________________________hurt.ASSURED
4. “It will soon be time for your medication”, – said the nurse.
The nurse_ ____________________________for medication.INFORMED
5. “How long have you been experiencing these symptoms?” – asked the GP.
The GP________________________________the sympthoms.ENQUIRED
Task 14. Complete this text with these verbs from the box.
Дата: 2016-10-02, просмотров: 187.
