单选题 Eleven days after her son Benjamin's birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just (67) her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do,she dropped dead (68) a blood clot (凝块).
Pregnancy-related deaths like Coale's (69) to have risen nationwide over the past decade, nearly tripling in the state with the most careful count-California. And (70) they're very rare--about 550 a year out of 4 million births (71) --they're nowhere near as rare as they should be. Pregnancy-related death rate is four times (72) than a goal the federal government (73) for this year. "It's unacceptable," says Dr. Mark Chassin of The Joint Commission, the agency which recently issued a(n) (74) to hospitals to take steps to (75) mothers-to-be. "Maybe as many as half of these are (76) ."
Two years after Coale's death near Annapolis,Maryland, her sister says (77) that list should be warning women about (78) of an emergency, like the clot called deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that can kill (79) it breaks out of the leg and moves to the lung. " (80) she wanted to do was have her own family, and when she (81) gets that privilege, she's no longer (82) us," says Clare Johnson, who says her the sister's (83) risk was being pregnant at age 35.
Pregnancy-related death (84) little public attention in U.S., (85) last year's worry over the flu that killed at least 28 pregnant women. Among the (86) preventable causes are massive bleeding, DVT-caused lung disease and uncontrolled blood pressure.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】考查形容词比较级的含义和用法。pregnancy-related death rate指的是与生育相关的死亡率，“率”在本质上是指一种概率，其高低应是用high或者low，根据后文的it's unacceptable可知此处填higher。表示今年实际的与生育有关的死亡率比联邦政府限定的要高出4倍。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】在句子层面考查名词的含义。hope“希望”，concept“意识；概念”，alert“警报”，program“节目；项目”。上文讲到与生育有关的死亡率比政府限定的要高出很多，所以给医院发出的应是“警报”，故选alert。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】结合句意考查形容词的含义。hopeful“有希望的”，acceptable“可以接受的”，preventable“可阻止的；预防的”，meaningful“有意义的”。前面讲发出了一个警报，让医院采取措施保护准妈妈，接下来应是“(这样的话)或许半数的死亡事故可以被阻止”，选C。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】结合句意考查名词的辨义。mark“标志；分数”，track“小路；轨道”，sign“迹象；符号”，spot“地点；斑点”。此处应该是表示“紧急情况的迹象”，后文举的例子也是属于能导致死亡的一种迹象，选C。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】考查语义逻辑。“DVT能够致死”和“它出现在腿上，然后到达肺部”之间应用if连接，表条件。根据can这个词，也说明后面应该说的是某种条件。而whether“是否”，until“直到……才”，although“尽管”放在这里都说不通。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】考查语义逻辑。Coale想拥有自己的家庭，可当她的愿望“最终”实现了的时候，她却永远离开了。从后文也可知她是高龄产妇，所以有了孩子，可以组建一个完整的家庭是来之不易的，故填finally。virtually“事实上；几乎”，casually“偶然地；随便地”，easily“简单地”。

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】考查动词与名词的搭配。此句是说与生育有关的死亡事件几乎没有引起美国公众的注意。四个词中只有pay和get常与attention搭配，但pay的主语是人，sb.pays attention to sth.(某人对某事关注)，而get的主语是物，表示什么东西受到关注，所以选D。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】考查语义逻辑。前面讲的是公众对于与生育有关的死亡事件的关注度不高，后面讲去年的流行性感冒夺去了28个孕妇的生命在社会上引起了担忧，根据文意，aside from(除……以外)符合。due to“由于”，but for“要不是”，as for“关于……”。