Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: In March 2004, Joe Ryan got a collection notice from a billing agency for Littleton Adventist Hospital near prefix = st1 /Denver,Colorado. The hospital wanted payment for surgery totaling $41,188. Ryan had never set foot in that hospital. Obviously there was some mistake. "I thought it was a joke," says Ryan. But when he called the billing agency, nobody laughed. Someone named Joe Ryan, using Ryan's Social Security number, had indeed been admitted for surgery. He figured clearing this up would take just a few phone calls. Two years later, Ryan continues to suffer from the damage to his credit rating and still doesn't know if his medical record has been cleared of wrong information. Joe Ryan was the victim of a little-known but frightening type of consumer fraud that is on the rise: medical identity theft, which involves using your name to get drugs, expensive medical treatment and even cheating insurance payments. As Ryan discovered, money isn't the half of it. When someone steals your name to receive health care, his medical history becomes part of your record -- and setting the record straight can be extremely difficult. That's because, in part, the information is distributed among dozens of caregivers, from doctors to medicine stores to insurance companies and labs. "I wanted to help straighten this out," says Ryan, "so I went to the hospital, and they had a three-inch-thick record for me, but they wouldn't let me see it. I showed them my ID, and they said that's not Joe Ryan's signature. Well, of course not! They had this other guy's signature." Ryan had fallen into a victim's Catch-22: If your record doesn't appear to be yours, you may not have the right to see it, much less change it. Ryan's next step was a visit to the Police Department. But the cops concluded there was not much they could do; local law enforcement has little experience with medical ID theft, and cases can end up being considered a civil matter. Question: An even worse consequence of medical ID theft is _ . - some trouble in obtaining insurance payments - a big loss of money and damage to credit rating - the widely spread medical information of the victim - the difficulty in changing the wrong medical history
the difficulty in changing the wrong medical history
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most heated argument across the United States today is the death penalty . Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder , while others think there is no enough proof that the death penalty reduces the number of murders. The argument advanced by those who are against the death penalty is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, that it is a mark of a bad society and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway. In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary action. Throughout recorded history there have always been those peculiar persons in every society who made terrible crimes such as murder. But some are more dangerous than others. For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in time of blind anger, but quite another to coldly plan and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of different degree. While it could be argued with some reason that the criminal in the first instance should be merely kept from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer. The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to discussion. But the majority of people believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is proved by the fact that the death penalty prevents murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was carried out from time to time in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100, 000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been done only once, and the murder rate has risen to10.4 murders for each 100, 000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when killings stopped, does not happen by chance. It certainly shows that the death penalty does stop many murderers. If the law about death penalty is vetoed , some people will be murdered----some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty... Question: It can be inferred that the writer thinks that _ . - the death penalty is the most important problem in the United States today - the second type of murderers (in Paragraph 2) should be sentenced to death - the veto of the law about death penalty is of little importance - the value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime is not to be discussed
the second type of murderers (in Paragraph 2) should be sentenced to death
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Global warming threatens to hold back human progress, and make unachievable all UN targets to reduce poverty, according to some of the world's leading international development groups. In a report published today, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, WWF and 15 other groups say rich governments must immediately address climate change to avoid even "unbearable levels" of worldwide poverty. "Food production, water supplies, public health and people's living environment are already being damaged," the report says. "The world must meet its promise to achieve poverty reduction and also deal with climate change." The report, which draws on UN predictions of the effects of climate change in poor countries over the next 50 years, says poor countries will experience more flooding, declining food production, more disease and the worsening or disappearing of entire ecosystems on which many of the world's poorest people depend. "Climate change needs to be addressed now. The poor will bear the burden of it. The frontline experience of many of us working in international development indicates that communities are having to fight against more extreme weather conditions." Climate change will play havoc with agriculture and water supplies and will increase diseases. "By 2025 the proportion of the world's population living in countries of great water stress will almost double, to 6 billion people. Tropical and sub-tropical areas will be hardest hit -- those countries already suffering from food shortage". Poor countries mostly do not need high-tech solutions, but would most benefit from education, research and being shown how to farm better. The report says unchecked global warming, more than wars or political confusion, will displace millions of people and destabilize many countries. Question: Who should play a leading role in resisting the more extreme weather conditions? - International groups. - Rich countries. - Poor countries. - Tropical and sub-tropical countries.
Rich countries.
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