内容正文:
2023高考英语北京市名校模拟真题速递
第二期
专题08 阅读表达10篇
(2023·北京·一模)阅读下面短文,根据题目要求回答问题。
One of the basic expectations the public have of doctors is honesty. But what would you think if I told you that research has shown that 70 percent of doctors admitted to lying to their patients? It is inexcusable, surely? Extremely unprofessional and uncaring; a clear break of the doctor-patient relationship. Some of the lies told included reassuring patients that their wives or husbands were still alive, when in fact they were dead. This seems unimaginable but, if I am honest, I have told exactly the same lie to several patients whose spouses had died. Mrs. Walton was in her eighties and desperate to see her husband. She’d been in hospital after a fall and was in pain. She called out for him frequently and couldn’t understand why he wasn’t there to comfort her. She was becoming more and more distressed and would try to get up to find him, despite being at risk of falling again.
“He’s on his way, don’t worry,” the nurses would say and this would calm her down. I confess I said the same thing to her. She’d smile and roll her eyes and say how he was always late for things and tell the same story about him being late for their wedding nearly 60 years ago. But he wasn’t on his way. It was a lie. He’d died two years ago. The truth, if I can use that word, is that it is a kindness to lie sometimes.
Part of the natural history of many of the dementias, in particular Alzheimer’s disease which is what Mrs. Walton had, is that the sufferer loses their short-term memory and the memory of recent events, but retains memories from the distant past. Sufferers are trapped forever in a bewildering past that many realise bares little connection to the present, but are at a loss to explain. It is very distressing and tormenting and many of the behavioural difficulties that I have encountered in those with dementia relate to them feeling upset, scared and confused that they are in a strange place, surrounded by stra