春高口译笔试真题.docVIP

SECTION 2: READING TEST? Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C) or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.? Question 1-5 Life expectancy in the richest countries of the world now exceeds the poorest by more than 30 years, figures show. The gap is widening across the world, with Western countries and the growing economies of Latin America and the Far East advancing more rapidly than Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Average life expectancy in Britain and similar countries of the OECD was 78.8 in 2000-05, an increase of more than seven years since 1970-75 and almost 30 years over the past century. In sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy has increased by just four months since 1970, to 46.1 years. Narrowing this health gap will involve going beyond the immediate causes of disease-poverty, poor sanitation and infection-to tackle the causes of the causes -the social hierarchies in which people live, says the report published by the Global Commission on the Social Determinants of Health established by the WHO in 2005. Professor Sir Michael Marmot, chairman of the commission, who first coined the term status syndrome, said social status was the key to tackling health inequalities worldwide. In the 1980s, in a series of ground-breaking studies among Whitehall civil servants, Professor Marmot showed that the risk of death among those on the lower rungs of the career ladder was four times higher than those at the top, and that the difference was linked with the degree of control the individuals had over their lives. He said yesterday that the same rule applied in poorer countries. If people increased their status and gained more control over their li