Vocabulary

A

As these examples strongly suggest, many of the leading causes of death and disability are social, not medical, problems. Doctors cannot cure cancer or heart disease with shots and pills, as they can cure the "old killers" like diphtheria and tuberculosis. Today most people could improve their health not simply by passively receiving better medical treatment but by ac­tively changing the way they live every day. The health-care system, however, has an important effect on social behaviour.

B

Alcohol. When the sale of alcoholic beverages was restricted during Prohibition, the death rate from cirrhosis of the liver dropped from 11.8 per 100,000 in 1916 to 7.2 in 1932. After the Prohibition amendment was repealed, the death rate from cirrhosis rose steadily to an all- time high of 16 deaths per 100,000 in 1973. In France, where wine production is the coun­try's largest industry, alcoholism is the third most common cause of death, after heart dis­ease and cancer.

C

The study found that a 45-year-old man who practiced three or even fewer of these healthy habits had a remaining life expectancy of 21.5 years (to age 67); if he followed four or five of the rules, he could expect to live 28.0 more years (to age 73); and if he observed six or seven, he would lengthen his life expectancy to 33.0 additional years (to age 78). The research­ers also found that middle-aged people who practiced all seven habits were as healthy as people thirty years younger who practiced none of them. As this study indicates, just a few simple changes in everyday living habits can ap­parently prevent illness and add years to life.

D

As for the relationship of education and health, the economist Victor Fuchs has put it starkly: each additional dollar spent on educa­tion reduces mortality rates more than each ad­ditional dollar spent on medical care. Fuchs's conclusion is based on studies showing that the higher the level of education in a population, the lower its mortality rate. In one such study white men with less than a high-school educa­tion had a mortality rate 64 percent higher than men who had graduated from college. Women who had not completed high school had a mor­tality rate more than twice as high as college.

E

Many deaths from accidents, homicide, and suicide could also be prevented. Almost half of all fatal accidents are caused by automobiles. Popular resistance to lower speed limits and such safety features as seat belts is doubtless a contributing factor. Drunken driving contrib­utes to between 50 and 75 percent of all deaths and injuries in automobile accidents, and the excessive use of alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver, a leading cause of death. The suicide rate is increasing generally, but it has nearly dou­bled among young people since the 1960s. Accidents, murders, and suicides are responsi­ble for three out of four deaths among 15- to 25-year-olds – the only age group for which the mortality rate has risen since 1976.

A

В

1

an amendment

A

захворювання, недуга;

2

to estimate

B

лікування;

3

a bereavement

C

розлад;

4

a threat

D

поліпшення;

5

an illness

E

страждати;

6

a treatment

F

хвороба;

7

a disease

G

оцінювати, прикидати;

8

a disorder

H

вбивство;

9

to suffer

I

загроза;

10

a homicide

J

важка втрата.