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The typical feature of quackery is ignorance. Unwary people are easily taken in by claims of the doctors they trust. For example, In the 1800s,psychologists commonly used basket-shaped devices to determine personality, with questionable benefit. Based on the idea that different parts of the brain control different character traits, the devices determined personality by measuring the size and shape of people’s heads!
Of all the ridiculous devices created by quacks, the most inventive was perhaps the“radionic”machine. Inthe early 1900s,quacks claimed radionics could diagnose any sickness, even though the devices were just wooden boxes with lights inside. After radionic diagnosis, patients were sent home with the assurance that they would get well. No medicine was prescribed because, quacks claimed, the radionic machine would broadcast the cure to patients, much like radio stations broadcast music!
The quackery of the 19th and early 20th centuries was not limited to the use of strange devices, nor to crooked doctors. Nor were quack procedures anything new.
The practice of bloodletting had been a popular treatment for over a millennium. In the name of medicine, large volumes of blood were drained from people’s bodies to cure their sicknesses. Death, more often than not, was the outcome, though usually the disease was blamed rather than the loss of blood.
It’s easy to look back on the past and brand questionable medical procedures as quackery. However, hindsight(事后诸葛亮)is 20/20.Perhaps in the future, people will look back on some of today’s medical practices with similar suspicion.
47. In the past, many doctors managed to fool patients by taking advantage of ___________
48. Using a basket-shaped device, psychologists in the 1800s would measure the size and shape of one’s head to ___________.
49. Why didn’t the quacks prescribe any medicine for their patients after radionic diagnosis?
50. As a popular medical treatment in the past, bloodletting usually caused death instead of __________.
51. What is the possible conclusion of the article?
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
You’re in trouble if you have to buy your own brand-name prescription drugs. Over the past decade, prices leaped by more than double the inflation rate. Treatments for chronic conditions can easily top $2,000 a month-no wonder that one in four Americans can’t afford to fill their prescriptions. The solution? A hearty chorus of “O Canada.” North of the border, where price controls reign, those same brand-name drugs cost 50% to 80% less.
The Canadian option is fast becoming a political wake-up call, “If our neighbors can buy drugs at reasonable prices, why can’t we? Even to whisper that thought provokes anger. “Un-American!” And-the propagandists’ trump card (王牌)—“Wreck our brilliant health-care system.” Super size drug prices, they claim, fund the research that sparks the next generation of wonder drugs. No sky-high drug price today, no cure for cancer tomorrow. So shut up and pay up.
