|
阅读理解题在考研中比重很大,考生在复习的时候要多做阅读理解多做练习,下面太奇考研通过具体的实例,分享一下考研英语阅读理解的剖析方法以及答题技巧。
When Catholicclergy or "pro-life" politicians argue that abortion laws should betightened, they do so in the belief that this will reduce the number ofterminations. Yet the largest global study of abortion ever undertaken castsdoubt on that simple proposition. Restricting abortions, the study says, haslittle effect on the number of pregnancies terminated. Rather, it drives womento seek illegal, often unsafe backstreet abortions leading to an estimated67,000 deaths a year. A further 5m women require hospital treatment as a resultof botched procedures.
In Africa andAsia, where abortion is generally either illegal or restricted, the abortionrate in 2003 (the latest year for which figures are available) was 29 per 1,000women aged 15-44. This is almost identical to the rate in Europe-28-where legalabortions are widely available. Latin America, which has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws,is the region with the highest abortion rate (31), while western Europe, whichhas some of the most liberal laws, has the lowest (12).
The study,carried out by the Guttmacher Institute in New York in collaboration with theWorld Health Organisation (WHO) and published in a British medical journal, theLancet, found that most abortions occur in developing countries-35m a year,compared with just 7m in rich countries. But this was largely a reflection ofpopulation size. A woman’s likelihood of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a richcountry (26 per 1,000) or a poor or middle-income one (29).
Lest it bethought that these sweeping continental numbers hide as much as they reveal,the same point can be made by looking at those countries which have changedtheir laws. Between 1995 and 2005, 17 nations liberalised abortion legislation,while three tightened restrictions. The number of induced abortionsnevertheless declined from nearly 46m in 1995 to 42m in 2003, resulting in afall in the worldwide abortion rate from 35 to 29. The most dramatic drop-from90 to 44-was in former communist Eastern Europe, where abortion is generallylegal, safe and cheap. This coincided with a big increase in contraceptive usein the region which still has the world’s highest abortion rate, with moreterminations than live births.
The risk ofdying in a botched abortion is only part of a broader problem of maternalhealth in poor countries. Of all the inequalities of development, this isarguably the worst. According to a report published this week by PopulationAction International, a Washington-based lobby group, women in poor countriesare 250 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women in richones. (2)Of the 535,000 women who died in childbirth or from pregnancy-relatedcomplications in 2005, 99% were in developing countries, according to anotherreport by a group of UN agencies, including WHO, also out this week. Africaaccounted for more than half such deaths.As the UN report noted, countries withthe highest levels of maternal mortality have made the least progress towardsreducing it. A woman in Africa has a one in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy orchildbirth, compared with one in 3,800 for a woman in the rich world.
|
|