2020年考研英语阅读讲义.pdf

2020考研英语阅读讲义 考试字体简本 2019 年 4 月 Text 1 It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia’s Northern Territory becamethe first legal authority in theworldto allow doctorstotakethe livesof incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: “We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.” The full import may take awhileto sink in.TheNTRights oftheTerminally III law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right to life groups and theAustralian MedicalAssociation, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of itspassage.Butthetideisunlikely toturnback.InAustralia --where an agingpopulation, life extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part -- other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia.In theUS and Canada,where theright to diemovement is gathering strength, observers arewaiting forthedominoesto start falling. Under thenew Northern Territory law,an adult patient can request death --probably by adeadly injection orpill --toput an endto suffering.Thepatientmustbe diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors.After a “cooling off” period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54 year old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally III law me