单选题 When I recently mentioned to a pregnant acquaintance that I was writing a book about egg freezing (and had frozen my own eggs in hopes of preserving my ability to have children well into my 40s), she replied, "You're so lucky. I wish I had known to freeze my eggs. "
She was 40 years old and wanted two children, so she and her husband were planning to start trying to conceive a second child shortly after the birth of their first. "Now everything is a rush," she said. Married at 38, she didn't think to talk to her obstetrician-gynecologist about fertility before then. If her doctor had brought up the subject, she said, she might have put away some eggs when she was younger.
In our fertility-obsessed society, women can't escape the message that it's harder to get pregnant after 35. And yet, it's not a conversation patients are having with the doctors they talk to about their most intimate issues—their OB-GYNs—unless they bring up the topic first. OB-GYNs routinely ask patients during their annual exams about their sexual histories and need for contraception, but often missing from the list is, "Do you plan to have a family?"
OB-GYNs are divided on whether it's their responsibility to broach the topic with patients. Those who take an "ask me first" approach understandably don't want to offend women who don't want children, or frighten those who do. It doesn't take much for an informational briefing to spiral into a teary heart-to-heart about dating woes. Do you reassure a distraught 38-year-old that she's still got time; encourage her to seriously consider having a baby on her own; or freak her out so she settles for a lackluster relationship? And considering that fertility figures are averages (while one woman may need fertility treatment at age 36, another can get pregnant naturally at 42), when is the right age to sound the alarm?
But the biggest impediment to bringing the issue up was that doctors didn't have many good recommendations for a single woman. she could either use an anonymous donor's sperm to have a baby today, or she could fertilize her eggs with it and freeze the resulting embryos for future use.
Now, a better option is gaining credibility. Egg freezing (a technique that allows women to store their unfertilized eggs to use with a future partner when they are older) has been available in the United States since the early 2000s, but success rates at first were low and doctors have been hesitant to push it. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine said the technique shouldn't be "offered or marketed as a means to defer reproductive aging", and deemed it "experimental".
Last week, the doctors' society announced that it was removing the experimental label (though it stopped short of endorsing widespread use of egg freezing to put off having children). After reviewing four randomized controlled trials, it found little difference in the effectiveness of using fresh or frozen eggs in in-vitro fertilization, and said that babies conceived from frozen eggs faced no increased risk of birth defects or developmental problems.
The procedure isn't a panacea. It's terribly expensive—often $15,000—and is not usually covered by insurance. In addition, there's a worrisome lack of data regarding the success rates of eggs frozen by the women at the end of their baby-making days. The majority of the women in the four studies were under 35, and it warned against giving women who want to delay childbearing "false hope" that their frozen eggs will work when they are ready to get pregnant years later. Although estimates of the number of American women who have frozen their eggs for nonmedical reasons are in the thousands, very few have yet returned to thaw them—there are only a couple of thousand babies born from frozen eggs in the world.
Women should be allowed to come to their own conclusions and take their own risks—there's a fine line between doctors' "mentioning" and "suggesting" the procedure—but this is an option they should be hearing about from their OB-GYNs. To standardize the message, professional groups like the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists should create pamphlets that doctors can give to patients. OB-GYN residents also can learn suggested scripts that present the information in a nonbiased, non alarmist way.
I first learned about egg freezing from a friend who had talked to her OB-GYN about whether she should freeze, given her family's history of premature menopause. When I asked my doctor about the procedure, she said she had heard that the success rates had recently improved and gave me the name of a respected fertility doctor. As a result, I stashed away several batches of eggs between the ages of 36 and 38—just before the cutoff at which many doctors no longer consider eggs worthwhile to save.
I was fortunate, because I knew to ask. We must go one step further and expect OB-GYNs to bring up family planning at every annual visit, so that women have the information they need to choose to take charge of their fertility. Perhaps more women will think about freezing in their early to mid-30s, when their chances of success are greater. Or maybe, after being asked about their plans from their very first visit, more will decide to start families when their eggs are at their prime, and won't even need to freeze.
单选题 The author introduced the situation of her acquaintance in the second paragraph ______.
  • A. because she thought it was the fault of the acquaintance's doctor
  • B. to show that such a rush could have been avoided if her OB-GYN had mentioned the topic of fertility or given advice on family planning earlier
  • C. to show sympathy for her acquaintance
  • D. to demonstrate the difficulties of conceiving a second child shortly after the birth of the first
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 对文章中隐含意思作出推测的能力。由第一段You're so lucky. I wish I had known to freeze my eggs. 可见，这个熟人很羡慕作者，并为自己因不了解卵子冷冻技术而错过选择机会深感遗憾。第二段也提到，如早了解卵子冷冻技术，她也不必如此仓促地生育第二个孩子。可见，信息的闭塞和缺失是造成仓促生育的主要原因，而本文的主旨正是呼吁医生为患者提供必要的信息，以便其更好地安排自己的生育计划，选项B体现了作者的真正意图。文中并没有谴责或批评医生的意思，应排除选项A。选项C的说法过于狭隘。生育二胎的难度并不是本文讨论的内容，选项D也可排除。
单选题 The word "broach" in the sentence "OB-GYNs are divided on whether it's their responsibility to broach the topic with patients" (para. 4) can best be paraphrased by ______.
  • A. avoid
  • B. continue
  • C. break
  • D. bring up
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据上下文正确理解词语的能力。原句位于四段首句，考生若不确定broach的意思，可根据下文内容推断得出。该段第二句就提到，一部分医生采取的是 "ask me first" approach，可见态度与之相对的应是主动进入话题的医生，bring up the topic正有“提起某话题”之意，应选D。avoid(回避)，continue(继续)和break(打破)均与语境不符。
单选题 Which of the following CANNOT be true about fertility according to the passage?
  • A. The older a woman is, the slimmer is the chance for her to get pregnant.
  • B. Some OB-GYNs hold that bringing up the topic of fertility would offend women who don't want children.
  • C. The biggest barrier for some doctors to mention the issue of fertility was that they want to save themselves the trouble of further explaining during annual exams.
  • D. It's difficult to set an age before which women should be given suggestions on family planning or fertility treatment.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 对文章基本内容的理解。考生可依据文中第三至五段的具体内容作出判断。第三段提到，女性在35岁之后受孕难度会有所增加，考生据此结合生物学常识，可判定选项A的说法正确。选项B的内容可在第四段找到依据。选项C与第五段的内容明显不符，实际上最大的障碍在于，医生们对于单身女性的生育问题感到爱莫能助，因此答案为选项C。选项D说法正确，第四段最后一句为判断依据。
单选题 According to the passage, which of the following is the most effective way in spreading information about egg freezing?
  • A. OB-GYNs' mentioning this fertility treatment to patients over 35.
  • B. OB-GYNs' bringing up this option during annual exams.
  • C. Professional groups' creating standard materials which women can get from their doctors.
  • D. Patients' asking their doctors first.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 对文章基本内容的理解。考生在综合理解全文的基础上方能得出答案。题干中的关键词是most effective way。浏览各选项可首先排除选项A和D。选项A将卵子冷冻技术所针对的受益对象限定在35岁以上，这便让35岁以下的群体失去了获得信息的渠道，显然不够有效，况且这样做也有悖于作者希望更多女性从中受益的初衷。选项D依靠女性自己询问医生的做法也显然不是最有效的。比较选项B和C，标准化的信息和宣传资料既可提高信息传播的效率，也可免除部分医生感到触犯他人隐私的尴尬，故应选C。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
  • A. more women wilt benefit from the technology of egg freezing
  • B. the price of egg freezing will go up if more women choose this treatment
  • C. doctors will be ready to recommend egg freezing to their patients
  • D. more women will plan to start families at an early age
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 对文章隐含意思的推测能力。浏览四个选项可知，需要推测的内容主要与卵子冷冻技术将带来的影响有关。由文章第七、八段可知，卵子冷冻技术正不断发展，现已被撕掉“实验”的标签，并且已有一定数量由冷冻卵子受精的婴儿诞生。由此可推测，随着该技术的进一步成熟以及信息的推广，会有更多的女性因此而受益，故选项A正确。选项B和C在文中均无依据，可排除。选项D的说法过于肯定和绝对，曲解了文章的最后一句。