2024年4月23日发(作者：迅雷vip账号共享永久2021)

1997

Passage 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 became the first

legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of 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 a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill 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 the

Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But

the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia — where an aging population, 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 the US and Canada,

where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the

dominoes to start falling.

Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death — probably by a

deadly injection or pill — to put an end to suffering. The patient must be 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 Ill law

means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death

from his breathing condition. "I'm not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what

I was afraid of was how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for

oxygen and clawing at their masks," he says.

凌晨3:45进行了最终表决。经过6个月争论和最后16个小时的国会激烈辩论，澳大利亚北部

地区（澳北州）成为世界上第一个允许医生根据绝症病人个人意愿来结束其生命的合法当局。

这一法案是以令人信服的15票对10票通过。几乎同时，该消息就出现在互联网上。身处地

球另一端的加拿大死亡权利执行主席约翰·霍夫塞斯在收到该消息后便通过协会的在线服务

“死亡之网”发了公告。他说：“我们整天都在发布公告，因为这件事的意义不在于它是在澳大

利亚发生的事情，而是因为这是世界历史的一件大事。”

要充分理解这一法案的深刻意义可能需要一段时间。澳北州晚期病人权利法使得无论是内科

医生还是普通市民都同样地力图从道义和实际意义两方面来对待这一问题。一些人如释重

负，另一些人，包括教会，生命权利组织以及澳大利亚医学会成员都对这一决议及其仓促的

通过进行了猛烈的抨击。但这一潮流已无法逆转。在澳大利亚，人口老龄化，延长寿命技术

和公众态度的变化都发挥着各自的作用。其他州也将考虑制定类似的法律来处理安乐死问

题。在美国和加拿大，死亡权利运动正在积蓄力量。观察家们正在等待多米诺骨牌产生的效

应。

根据澳北州所通过的这项新法案，成年病人可以要求安乐死——可能是通过注射致死药

剂或服用致死药片——来结束痛苦。但此前病人必须由两名医生诊断其确实已病入膏肓，然

后再经过7天的冷静思考期，方可签署一份申请证明。48小时后，才可以满足其安乐死的愿

望。对于居住于达尔文现年54岁的肺癌患者利奥德·尼克森来说，这个法律意味着他可以平

静地生活下去而无须整天惧怕即将来临的苦难：因呼吸困难而在煎熬中痛苦地死去。“从思

想上说，我并不害怕死，但我怕的是怎样死，因为我在医院看到过病人在缺氧时苦苦挣扎，

用手抓他们的面罩时的情景。”他说。

1997 Passage 2

A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US is how friendly, courteous, and

helpful most Americans were to them. To be fair, this observation is also frequently made

of Canada and Canadians, and should best be considered North American. There are, of

course, exceptions. Small-minded officials, rude waiters, and ill-mannered taxi drivers are

hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves

comment.

For a long period of time and in many parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break

in an otherwise dull existence. Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the

families who generally lived distant from one another. Strangers and travelers were

welcome sources of diversion, and brought news of the outside world.

The harsh realities of the frontier also shaped this tradition of hospitality. Someone

traveling alone, if hungry, injured, or ill, often had nowhere to turn except to the nearest

cabin or settlement. It was not a matter of choice for the traveler or merely a charitable

impulse on the part of the settlers. It reflected the harshness of daily life: if you didn't take

in the stranger and take care of him, there was no one else who would. And someday,

remember, you might be in the same situation.

Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in helping the weary

traveler. Yet, the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is still very strong in the US,

especially in the smaller cities and towns away from the busy tourist trails. "I was just

traveling through, got talking with this American, and pretty soon he invited me home for

dinner — amazing." Such observations reported by visitors to the US are not uncommon,

but are not always understood properly. The casual friendliness of many Americans

should be interpreted neither as superficial nor as artificial, but as the result of a

historically developed cultural tradition.

As is true of any developed society, in America a complex set of cultural signals,

assumptions, and conventions underlies all social interrelationships. And, of course,

speaking a language does not necessarily mean that someone understands social and

cultural patterns. Visitors who fail to "translate" cultural meanings properly often draw

wrong conclusions. For example, when an American uses the word "friend", the cultural

implications of the word may be quite different from those it has in the visitor's language

and culture. It takes more than a brief encounter on a bus to distinguish between

courteous convention and individual interest. Yet, being friendly is a virtue that many

Americans value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.

去美国访问的人经常带回报告说，大多数美国人对他们友善、好客、乐于助人。公正的说，

人们对加拿大人也有这样的评论，因而，应当认为这是北美普遍的现象。当然也有例外。在

美国，心胸狭隘的官员，举止粗鲁的招待和毫无礼貌的出租车司机也并非罕见。尽管有不如

意的地方，但因为人们常常得出美国人好客的观察意见，因而也就值得议论一番了。

过去很长一段时间，在美国很多地方，旅行者的到来因暂时打破原本的单调生活而受人欢迎。

无聊、孤独是居住相对遥远的家庭的普遍问题。陌生人和旅行者很受欢迎，他们带来了娱乐

消遣，还带来了外面世界的消息。

开拓者的严酷生活现实也促成了这一好客的传统。单独旅行时，如果挨饿、受伤或生病，通

常只能向最近的小屋或村落求助。对旅行者来说，这不是一个选择的问题；而对当地居民来

说，这也并非是行善的一时冲动。它反映了日常生活的严酷：如果你不收留他，那他便无处

求助了。请记住，有一天你也可能处于相同的境遇。

如今，有了很多的慈善组织专门帮助疲惫的旅行者。不过，热情接待陌生人的传统在美国仍

然很盛行，尤其是在远离旅游热线的小城镇。“我只是路过，和这个美国人聊了聊。很快，

他就请我到他家吃饭——这真令人惊奇。”来美国的旅客谈论此类事件很普遍，但并非总能

得到正确理解。很多美国人不经意表现的友好不应被看做是表面或虚假的应酬，而应该看成

是文化传统的历史发展结果。

同任何发达国家一样，一系列复杂的文化特征，信念和习俗构成了美国所有社会交往的

基础。当然，会讲一种语言并不意味着就理解该语言的社会和文化模式。不能正确“诠释”文

化含义的旅行者往往得出错误的结论。例如，美国人所说的“朋友”一词，其文化含义可能与

旅行者语言和文化中的“朋友”大相径庭。要想正确区分礼貌是出于文化习俗还是个人兴趣，

单凭一次公共汽车上的偶遇是不够的。不过，友好是很多美国人推崇的美德，同时希望邻居

和陌生人也能如此。

1997 Passage 3

Technically, any substance other than food that alters our bodily or mental functioning is a

drug. Many people mistakenly believe the term drug refers only to some sort of medicine

or an illegal chemical taken by drug addicts. They don't realize that familiar substances

such as alcohol and tobacco are also drugs. This is why the more neutral term substance

is now used by many physicians and psychologists. The phrase "substance abuse" is

often used instead of "drug abuse" to make clear that substances such as alcohol and

tobacco can be just as harmfully misused as heroin and cocaine.

We live in a society in which the medicinal and social use of substances (drugs) is

pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in

the morning, a cigarette for the nerves. When do these socially acceptable and apparently

constructive uses of a substance become misuses? First of all, most substances taken in

excess will produce negative effects such as poisoning or intense perceptual distortions.

Repeated use of a substance can also lead to physical addiction or substance

dependence. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more

of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of

unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued.

Drugs (substances) that affect the central nervous system and alter perception, mood,

and behavior are known as psychoactive substances. Psychoactive substances are

commonly grouped according to whether they are stimulants, depressants, or

hallucinogens. Stimulants initially speed up or activate the central nervous system,

whereas depressants slow it down. Hallucinogens have their primary effect on perception,

distorting and altering it in a variety of ways including producing hallucinations. These are

the substances often called psychedelic (from the Greek word meaning

"mind-manifestation") because they seemed to radically alter one's state of

consciousness.

从专业角度说，除食品外，任何能改变我们生理和心理机能的物质都是药物。很多人错误地

认为“药物”这个词仅仅指某些药品或是吸毒者服用的违禁化学品。他们没有意识到诸如酒

精、烟草这些我们熟悉的物质也是药物。这也是现在许多内科医生和心理学家使用“物质”这

个更加中性的词的原因。他们常用“物质滥用”而不用“药物滥用”来清楚表明滥用酒精、烟草

这样的物质如同滥用海洛因和可卡因一样有害。

我们生活在一个物质（药物）在医疗和社交方面的使用都很广泛的社会里：用来缓解头痛的

阿斯匹林，用来应酬的酒，早晨用来提神的咖啡，还有定神用的香烟。使用这些物质得到了

社会认可，且显然具有积极的作用，但什么时候就变成滥用了呢？首先，大多数物质的过量

使用都会产生负面影响，如中毒或严重的感知错乱。反复使用一种物质可以导致成瘾或对该

物质的依赖。依赖的最初表现是不断增长的耐药量，要产生预期的效果需要的药剂量越来越

大，而一旦中断使用就会出现难受的停药症状。

影响中枢神经系统、改变感知觉和行为的药物（物质）属于对神经起显著作用的物质，

它们通常分为兴奋剂、镇静剂和幻觉剂。兴奋剂主要起到加速或激活中枢神经系统的作用，

而镇静剂则相反：减缓它的活动。幻觉剂主要影响人的感知，通过多种方式对感知加以扭曲

或改变，其中包括产生幻觉。这些物质常被认为能“引起幻觉”（psychedelic一词源于希腊语，

意为“心灵显现”），因为它们似乎能改变人的意识状态。

1997 Passage 4

No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what

you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner

executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and

threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the

latest manifestation of the soul-searching that has involved the company ever since the

company was born in 1990. It's a self-examination that has, at various times, involved

issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.

At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve

Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and

reduce the company's mountainous debt, which