Question

【題目】We discuss the issue of when to help a patient die. Doctors of our generation are not newcomers to this question. Going back to my internship(實習)days, I can remember many patients in pain, sometimes in coma(昏迷), with late, hopeless cancer. For many of them, we wrote an order for heavy medication—morphine(嗎啡)by the clock. This was not talked about openly and little was written about it. It was essential, not controversial.

The best way to bring the problem into focus is to describe two patients whom I cared for. The first, formerly a nurse, had an automobile accident. A few days later her lungs seemed to fill up; her heart developed dangerous rhythm disturbances. So there she was: in coma, on a breathing machine, her heartbeat maintained with an electrical device. One day after rounds, my secretary said the husband and son of the patient wanted to see me. They told me their wife and mother was obviously going to die; she was a nurse and had told her family that she never wanted this kind of terrible death, being maintained by machines. I told them that while I respected their view, there was nothing deadly about her situation. The kidney(腎) failure she had was just the kind for which the artificial kidney was most effective. While possibly a bit reassured, they were disappointed. Here was the head surgeon seemingly determined to keep everybody alive, no matter what.

Within a few days the patient's pacemaker(起搏器) could be removed and she awoke from her coma. About six months later, the door of my office opened and in walked a gloriously fit woman. After some cheery words of appreciation, the father and son asked to speak to me alone. As soon as the door closed, both men became quite tearful. All that came out was, “We want you to know how wrong we were.”

The second patient was an 85-year-old lady whose hair caught fire while she was smoking. She arrived with a deep burn; I knew it would surely be deadly. As a remarkable coincidence there was a meeting for discussion going on at the time in medical ethics(道德). The speaker asked me if I had any sort of ethical problem I could bring up for discussion. I described the case and asked the students their opinion. After the discussion, I made a remark that was, when looking back, a serious mistake. I said, "I'll take the word back to the nurses about her and we will talk about it some more before we decide." The instructor and the students were shocked: "You mean this is a real patient?" The teacher of ethics was not accustomed to being challenged by actuality. In any event, I went back and met with the nurses. A day or two later, when she was making no progress and was suffering terribly, we began to back off treatment. Soon she died quietly and not in pain. As a reasonable physician, you had better move ahead and do what you would want done for you. And don't discuss it with the world first. There is a lesson here for everybody. Assisting people to leave this life requires strong judgment and long experience to avoid its misuse.

【1】The first patient’s husband and son wanted the doctor_____.

A. to save her life

B. to end her life

C. use an artificial kidney

D. to maintain her life with machines

【2】In the early days when a patient had got a deadly, hopeless illness, _______.

A. doctors would inject more morphine into the patient to end his life

B. doctors would turn him away and ask him to go back home and wait for death

C. doctors would write a new order for their medical treatment to ease their pain

D. doctors would discuss their treatment plan with the patient and write down the solution

【3】At the meeting, the author discussed with the students_____.

A. the importance of mercy killing

B. the relationship between mercy killing and ethics

C. the case about an old lady

D. the process to practice mercy killing

【4】The author suggested that doctors_____ before they assist a patient in killing himself.

A. do what they are wanted to do

B. discuss with the others about the decision first

C. be required to do so first by the patient

D. make sure there is no other choice left

【5】Through the two patients mentioned in the text, the author thinks that on the issue of helping a patient die, doctors need to be _________.

A. cruel and cautious

B. experienced and thoughtful

C. pessimistic and determined

D. considerate and optimistic

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】C

【4】D

【5】B

【解析】

試題分析：文章以一個問題開頭：醫(yī)生應(yīng)該在什么時候結(jié)束病人的生命以減輕病人的痛苦，接著以作者的兩個例子說明，作為理智而又經(jīng)驗豐富的醫(yī)生，不能放棄可以拯救病人的每一線希望，知道最后一線希望也消失時才能采用這種安樂死的辦法。

【1】B細節(jié)理解題。 由文章第二段They told me their wife and mother was obviously going to die; she was a nurse and had told her family that she never wanted this kind of terrible death, being maintained by machines.可知病人的丈夫和兒子是來傳達病人的愿望的，因為她從沒有想過這個可怕的病魔，她不想用儀器來維持自己的生命，所以她想要結(jié)束自己的生命。所以她的丈夫和兒子是在告訴醫(yī)生讓他結(jié)束病人的生命的。故選B。

【2】A推理判斷題。由文章開頭I can remember many patients in pain, sometimes in coma(昏迷), with late, hopeless cancer. For many of them, we wrote an order for heavy medication—morphine(嗎啡)by the clock.可知很多處于痛苦中或昏迷中或是得了無法醫(yī)治的癌癥時，醫(yī)生們更多的選擇是攝于嗎啡以此結(jié)束病人的生命，從而減輕他們的痛苦。所以選項A正確。

【3】C細節(jié)理解題。由文章最后一段可知，這里談?wù)摰氖且晃?5歲的病人，她燒傷嚴重，所以“我”和學生們開始討論關(guān)于這位老人的情況，在最后一段中I described the case and asked the students their opinion。也可以看出“我”和學生討論的是老人的病情。故選C。

【4】A作者觀點題。從最后一段的最后一句話Assisting people to leave this life requires strong judgment and long experience to avoid its misuse.可知，在作者看來作為醫(yī)生要盡一切辦法來挽救病人的生命，只要還有一線希望，都不能放棄拯救病人，更不能濫用權(quán)力。所以作者的意思是在最后的一線希望都沒有時，才可以考慮結(jié)束病人的生命。故選A。

【5】C 細節(jié)理解題。最后一段中Assisting people to leave this life requires strong judgment and long experience to avoid its misuse和As a reasonable physician, you had better move ahead and do what you would want done for you.可知，醫(yī)生要想結(jié)束病人的生命，自身必須要有豐富的經(jīng)驗，還要有理性的思維。Reasonable與thoughtful意思相近。故選C