Dialogues /monologues:

　　1、I seem to be suffering from all the illnesses imaginable.

　　這里的“suffer from”是個固定搭配，“遭受、忍受”的意思。

　　2、To crown it all, I had an accident the other day.

　　To crown it all：更糟糕的是;the other day：前幾天。

　　3、I get short of breath.

　　short of breath：呼吸短促。

　　4、For the sake of your health, keep off alcohol. If possible, give up smoking.

　　談?wù)?“for the sake of” 與“in order to”的區(qū)別：

　　for the sake of “由于……”或者是“看在……的份上”，如：for the sake of God 看在上帝的份上

　　in order to “為了……”，如：Many students listen to the teacher carefully in order to receive a good mark. 學(xué)生上課認(rèn)真聽講是為了得到好成績

　　for the sake of + 名詞

　　in order to + 動詞

　　雖然二者都是表示"為了"這個意思，但可以這么看，前者是為了某個東西，所以+名詞;后者是為了做某事，所以+ 動詞。

　　5、Likewise, many changes are taking place in hospitals, where the costs of medical equipment and care is skyrocketing.

　　同樣，醫(yī)院里正發(fā)生著很多的改變，醫(yī)療設(shè)備與醫(yī)療保健的費用突升猛漲。

　　6、Because of the high costs, patients now spend a limited number of days in the hospital, depending on their illness.

　　因為高價的花費，現(xiàn)在，病人們根據(jù)自身的病情，盡量花更少的時間呆在醫(yī)院里。

　　7、It has worried me a good deal for the last week, and so now I am going to put it on my dressing-table and watch it ache.

　　上周牙疼一直困擾著我，所以現(xiàn)在我要把它擺放在我的梳妝臺，看它還怎么疼!

　　Passage:

　　For all it flaws, medical care in the United States has been reformed gigantically over the past several decades. Deaths from heart disease have fallen by 40 percent since 1970. Thanks to better detection and treatment, cancer advances have helped to raise U.S. life expectancy from an average of 68 years in 1950 to 77 years today.

　　Not only have American lives grown longer, but their quality has improved. The proportion of people over 65 with one or more chronic disabilities—such as the inability to walk, or to get dressed, without aid—declined from greater than 25 percent in 1982 to less than 20 percent in 1999. And the development of vision-correction surgery, among many other drugs and procedures, has allowed many Americans to prolong pleasures historically with youth.

　　Of course, not all the recent improvements in American health and longevity can be directly attributed to our health-care system; some are as much the result of adopting healthier habits( exercise, better diet) or of dropping unhealthy ones (smoking, too much alcohol-drinking). Still, better medical care is the principal cause of improvements in American health and life span over the past 50 years.

　　But the problem is that since 1960 health-care spending has grown significantly faster than the economy, meaning that we’re spending an ever larger portion of our incomes on medical core. In 1960 health care constituted 5.1 percent of the U.S. economy; in 1980 it constituted 8.8 percent; today it constitutes 13.3 percent. Meanwhile, private health-insurance premiums— which rose by 14 percent last year alone— are becoming unaffordable for even Americans. The number of things we can do to pay for them. 41 millions of our citizens are now uninsured. So the key question is not whether health care should be rationed in the United States; it already is. Rather the question is how health care should be rationed. How should the potential benefits of reduced pain, improved quality of life, or extended life be weighted against the high costs of the medications or procedures involved? And who should weigh them? These are hard questions with high moral stakes. But we do hope that the health-care system will cover more people.

　　參考譯文：

　　因為存在缺陷，所以美國的醫(yī)療保健在過去幾十年里進行了重大改革。心臟疾病導(dǎo)致的死亡自1970年以來下降了40%。由于較先進的監(jiān)測和治療，癌癥死亡率自1990年以來一直處于下降趨勢�？偟膩砜�，醫(yī)療進步使美國人均壽命從1950的68歲提高到現(xiàn)在的77歲。

　　美國人不僅提高了壽命，而且還提高了生活質(zhì)量。65歲以上患有至少一種長期殘疾——如在無人幫助下不能獨立行走，或不能自己穿衣——的比例從1982 年的20%以上下降到1990年的20%以下。視力矯正手術(shù)的發(fā)展，以及其他藥品和治療程序的發(fā)展，使得許多美國人歷史性地延長了與年輕有關(guān)的生活樂趣。

　　當(dāng)然，并不是美國人健康和長壽方面取得的所有進步都直接歸功于我們的醫(yī)療保健系統(tǒng)。有些是養(yǎng)成健康習(xí)慣(鍛煉身體、合理飲食)或戒除不健康習(xí)慣(吸煙、過量飲酒)的直接結(jié)果。然而，良好的醫(yī)療保健依舊是過去50多年來產(chǎn)美國人健康改善和生命延長的主要因素。

　　但問題是，自1960年以來，醫(yī)療保健費用的增長速度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過了經(jīng)濟增長速度，這意味著我們的收入中用于醫(yī)療保健上的比例越來越大。1960年醫(yī)療保健費用占美國經(jīng)濟的5.1%;到1980年的時候，就升高到了8.8%;而現(xiàn)在已達(dá)到13.3%了。與此同時，私人健康保險費用——僅去年一年就上升了 14%——讓越來越多的美國人感到難以承受。我們?yōu)榻】刀�采取措施的�?shù)量已經(jīng)超過了美國人的承受能力。目前有4100萬人口還沒有上醫(yī)療保險。因此，關(guān)鍵問題不是在于美國醫(yī)療保健是否應(yīng)該定量配給，因為我們已經(jīng)實現(xiàn)了這個目標(biāo)，而是在于醫(yī)療保健怎樣定量配給。美國人民在痛苦減少、生活質(zhì)量改善或壽命延長等方面所獲得的潛在益處，怎樣才能抵消伴隨而來的藥品或就醫(yī)高消費呢?誰來負(fù)責(zé)平衡呢?沒有很高的道德責(zé)任，這些問題是難以解決的。但是，我們還是希望醫(yī)療保健系統(tǒng)能夠涵蓋更多的人。