2014 高考英语阅读理解精英训练二轮精品题（35）及答案 <br />阅读理解 <br />Australia---The vote for euthanasia(安乐死)was finally taken at 3:45 this morning. <br />After six months’ argument and final 16 hours’ hot debates, Australia’s Northern <br />Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the <br />lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The bill was passed by the vote of <br />15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half <br />a world away, by John Hofsess, the director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. <br />He sent it on through the group’s on-line service, Death NET. Hofsess says, &ldquo;We <br />posted it all day long, because this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. <br />It’s world history.&rdquo; <br />The full import may take a while to understand. The NT Rights of the Terminally <br />III law has left physicians and citizens trying to deal with its moral and practical <br />meaning. Some have breathed sighs of relief, but others, including churches, right <br />to life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill <br />and the haste(匆忙,急忙) of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In <br />Australia &mdash; where an aging population, life extending technology and changing <br />community attitudes have all played their part &mdash; other states are going to consider <br />making a similar law to for euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right to die <br />movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes(多米诺骨牌) <br />to start falling. <br />Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death &mdash; <br />probably by a deadly injection or pill &mdash; to put an end to suffering. The patient <br />must be diagnosed as incurably ill by two doctors. After a &ldquo;cooling off&rdquo; period <br />of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish <br />for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54 year old Darwin man suffering from lung <br />cancer, the law means he can get on with living without the fear of his suffering: <br />a terrifying death from his breathing condition. &ldquo;I’m not afraid of dying from a <br />spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I’d go, because I’ve watched <br />people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks,&rdquo; he says. <br />45. According to the text ,which of the following statements is TRUE? <br /> A. Australia now is the only country in the world to pass the law of euthanasia. <br />B. All people in Australia don’t have the same positive attitude to euthanasia. <br /> C. Many patients will ask their doctors for euthanasia because they are afraid of <br />death. <br /> D. According to the law, if a patient requests death, his or her wish will be met <br />after 48 hours. <br />46. The underlined sentence in Para 2, &ldquo;observers are waiting for the dominoes to <br />start falling.&rdquo; means that observers are w...