单选题 Last month the National Health Service (NHS) in England calculated its carbon footprint as the equivalent of 21m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year—just short of the amount emitted by the Drax coal-fired power station in Yorkshire, Western Europe's largest. Unlike the power station's emissions, though, those of the health service have been increasing: they have grown by half since 1990. Other countries fare no better. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that America's health-care industry accounts for 8% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. In Germany, a study by the Viamedica Foundation showed that a hospital's energy expenditure per bed was roughly the same as that of three newly built homes.
The past few years have seen efforts to make things greener. The King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai, for example, was recently remodelled with solar heaters and rainwater-collection units. Many hospitals are switching from standard light-bulbs to compact fluorescent or LED lights. The Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin, Texas, was the first hospital to be certified "platinum" under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards of the United States' Green Building Council--the highest designation there is.
Moves towards energy efficiency are essential to reduce carbon emissions, but they are not enough. "When hospitals start looking at their energy usage, it is only the first step in a long way," says Anja Leetz, executive director of Health Care Without Harm, an organisation whose purpose is to implement more environmentally sustainable health care round the world. The NHS study suggests that energy expenditure is responsible for only a quarter of hospital carbon emissions. Procurement—primarily that of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals—is the main culprit, swallowing 60%. Simply disposing of unused pharmaceuticals contributes over 22,000 tonnes of CO₂ every year.
There are also protocols and procedures which add a lot of carbon without providing a great deal of health. Before the risks of mad-cow disease were understood, the NHS routinely reused its nailclippers Now the one-in-10m estimated risk of transmitting Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the human equivalent of mad-cow, has made it common to use clippers only once. A low risk creates a mountain of waste.
One way to avoid such problems is for people to stay at home and, when necessary, be visited by a podiatrist who uses the patient's own clippers. And this illustrates one of the wisest tactics hospitals and clinics can make use of as they try to become greener: keeping people out and looking after them at home instead. Fewer admissions, lower emissions.
Easier said than done. David Pencheon, the director of the NHS's Sustainable Development Unit, says shifting health care out of hospitals means reworking the system from the inside out. But it is possible. "We have the technology to deliver services in more accurate ways," says Dr. Pencheon. Smaller and more efficient machines, for example, make it easier for treatments like dialysis and chemotherapy to take place in the home.
Consultations, too, need not necessarily involve travel. Kidney-transplant patients at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire are given the option to have three out of four of their quarterly post-operative "visits" conducted by phone. That is a couple of tonnes of CO₂ saved right there.
Like the first wave of environmental responsibility, which focused on energy efficiency and design, moves to decentralise health care in this way can often reduce environmental impacts without sacrificing quality and safety. Much of this greenery could also save money. The Confederation of British Industry, a business lobby group, estimates that 15 billion pounds could be saved by treating chronic diseases at home.

单选题 Which of the following statements about carbon emissions is CORRECT?
A. Carbon emissions of England rank the first in Europe.
B. A hospital emits more carbons per month than a house does.
C. Health-care industry has taken pains to reduce carbon emissions.
D. Hospitals are criticized for the large amount of carbon emissions.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。本题为第一题，从首段开始浏览。第二段首句指出“The past few years have seen efforts to make things greener.”，之后具体给出不同医院采取措施减少碳排放的例子，由此得出[C]符合文意，故为答案。首段首句提到“Last month the National Health Service(NHS)in England calculated its carbon footprint as the equivalent of 21m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year”，之后第三句又指出“其他国家也好不了多少”，这里讨论的是医疗系统的碳排放问题，而非整个国家的碳排放，无法得出[A]项结论；[B]是针对首段末句“In Germany，a study by the Viamedica Foundation showed that a hospital’s energy expenditure per bed was roughly the same as that of three newly built homes”设置的干扰项，[B]中说得过于绝对，也存在例外，故排除；文中指出医院的碳排放量比较多，但并没有提到人们对其进行批判，[D]无依据，排除。

单选题 As to the hospitals' measures to reduce carbon emissions, Anja Leetz's attitude is
A. ambivalent. B. prudent. C. positive. D. negative.

单选题 "Mad-cow disease" is mentioned in the passage to
A. illustrate how widely the disease is spread in hospital.
B. stimulate readers to care about the issue of carbon emissions.
C. support the expert's viewpoint in the previous paragraph.
D. exemplify a massive waste with low efficiency in hospital.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】篇章题。由题干中的mad-cow disease定位至第四段，在首句指出“There are also protocols and procedures which add a lot of carbon without providing a great deal of health.”之后，作者提到疯牛病，指出相当于人类中的疯牛病的“雅氏病”的感染几率导致医院中一次性指甲钳的使用，结果是“A low risk creates a mountain of waste.”。可以判断出，该段首句为主题句，mad-cow disease是作为例证出现在段中，用以支持主题句的，末句是对该段内容的总结，由此得出[D]项推论。mad-cow disease是文中提到的细节，由英文篇章结构可知，细节是为主旨服务的支持性论据，每个段落都有该段落的中心思想，第四段谈论的是医疗服务系统低效率、高碳排放的问题，与疯牛病传播无关，排除[A]；也与前文中专家提到的观点没有直接关联，排除[C]；选项[B]虽然捉到了碳排放，但与本段主题意思相距甚远，排除。

单选题 We can infer from the passage that
A. experts are cautious of the practice of domestic medicine.
B. there are a lot of ways to reduce carbon emissions drastically.
C. organ-transplant operations should be done in the home.
D. some hospitals conducted post-operative visits by phone.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】推断题。按照试题顺序从第五段开始浏览。在该段提到一种解决碳排放问题的看法之后，作者在第六段表达了个人观点“Easier said than done.”，然后引用David Pencheon的话加以证明“shifting health care out of hospitals means reworking the system from the inside out”。之后，话锋一转“But it is possible.”，具体解释可以进行家庭医疗的原因。由此可以看出对于家庭医疗的开展，专家还是持谨慎态度的，[A]符合文意，故为答案。第五段第二句提到一个解决医院碳排放量高这一问题的方案“keeping people out and looking after them at home instead.”，之后就该方案展开说明，文中没有提及其他方法，[B]无依据，故排除；第七段主题句为“Consultations，too，need not necessarily involve travel.”，之后以肾移植病人的周期性回访为例说明主题，并非说器官移植手术应该在家庭开展，排除[C]；文中提到回访时用的是现在时，而[D]使用的是过去时，排除。