返回目录
听力音频
听力原文
Today‘s crisis in care for older people in England has two main causes.First,people are living longer with a lot more complex needs. (22)Second, they rely on a system that has long been marked by a poor relation between national health and social-care services. Current services originate in two key measures. They are the National Health Service and the 1948 National Assistance Act. This required local government to provide residential accommodation for older people and supervise care homes run by independent organizations. They also provided home and community services including meals, day centers and home helpers and other subsidized services. The National Health Service was free and wholly publicly provided. It delivered the best health-care for all.
No such vision guided residential and community care though. (23)The care was substantially provided by voluntary services which worked together with local authorities as they long had with eligibility based on income. Today, life expectancy has risen from 66 for a male at birth in 1948 to around 80 now. In addition, there is better overall health and improved medical knowledge and care. This means an unprecedented number of people are surviving longer in conditions requiring expert support. Families provide at least as much care as they ever did. Even so, they can rarely without subsidised support address serious personal needs.
Care for older people faced persistent criticism as these trends became apparent. From the early 1960s, local authorities were required to plan health and welfare services. The aim was to enable older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, but this increased concern about the lack of coordination between free health and paid-for social care. Through the 1970s, a number of measures sought to improve matter. However at a time of financial crisis, funding diminished and little changed. (24)In the 1980s, the government cut spending. Meanwhile, preference for private over public services made management even more difficult. Simultaneously, the number of sick older people grew. Governments emphasized the need to improve services. They did so though while doing little to stop the erosion of available aid. Services were irregular across authorities. Unless you were prepared to pay, they were increasingly difficult to obtain for any but the most severely disabled.
Why has 60 years of criticism produced so little change. (25)Discrimination against older people has a long history. Additionally, those affected by inadequate health and social care are too vulnerable to launch the protests that have addressed other forms of discrimination.
未听先知
预览四道题各选项,由选项中的 day centres, home help services, social care services和 health services等可初步推测,讲座内容与护理机构和社会保障服务有关;再结合 long lifespans、 illnesses和 discriminated等可以进一步推测,讲座内容主要涉及老年人的护理问题。
详解详析
22. What is one cause of the current crisis in care for the elderly in England?
D)。(详解)讲座开头提到,当今英格兰老年人的护理危机主要由两个因素所导致,其中一个因素就是国 家医疗服务与社会护理服务之间的不良关系。因此答案为D)。
23. What does the speaker say about residential and community care?
A)。(详解)讲座中提到,社区护理主要是由与当地政府合作的志愿性机构提供的。因此答案为A)。
24. What made management of care for the elderly more difficult in the 1980s?
C)。(详解)讲座中提到,20世纪80年代,政府削减开支,同时,人们对私人护理机构的偏爱使得对老年 人护理的管理愈加困难。因此答案为C)。
25. What does the speaker say about older people in England?
B)。(详解)讲座最后提到,在英格兰,对老年人的歧视由来已久。因此答案为B)。