Question

An increase in the number of suicides in South Korea, has led policeman Yoo Byoung-jong to a new job. He patrols(巡逻) Seoul’s bridges to stop desperate people from throwing themselves into the river.

According to South Korea’s health ministry, suicide rates have doubled in a decade and are now the leading cause of death for people in their 20s and 30s.

The country has the fourth-highest suicide rate among the 30 industrialized countries in the Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD). It recorded 22.8 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people in 2003. That’s lower than Hungry, Finland and close neighbour Japan. But the number is growing by about 1 percent each year, faster than for all other OECD nations.

In a move to cut suicides by a fifth by 2010, the health ministry is running a television ad campaign. It opens with a lonely man walking on a bridge. A voice over says: “Think five minutes more before you give it all away. Don’t forget you have a loving family.”

Other ministry plans include setting up more hotlines and training more suicide counselors. Authorities are also limiting websites that provide suicide methods and sometimes even sell toxic(有毒的) chemicals.

    Distressed individuals range from students worried about poor grades to people in debt as well as disgraced politicians.

    Experts say the rising toll(死亡人数) in some way can be blamed on media coverage of recent high-profile suicides. These include top business leaders and celebrities(名人) who apparently lead a number of people to copy their actions.

    “We saved 50 lives this year when people turned to bridges as a place to die after news reports of such deaths by ‘big shots’,” said the 38-year-oldYoo, in December.

    Last July, the government and civil associations urged media to avoid reporting specific methods and locations of suicides. But it is difficult to clearly give reasons for the suicide increase.

 

67. The passage is mainly about    .

  A. suicide problems in Korea                      B. how to reduce suicides in Korea

  C. desperation                                           D. the relations between life and suicide

68. Suicide rates in South Korea    .

  A. have done great harm to the economical development              

  B. are going from bad to worse

  C. didn’t draw special attention of the government                      

  D. arouse international concerns

69. It doesn’t say but implies that    .

  A. present hotlines are not enough for suicide counsellors

  B. people choose suicide as the way to end their lives because they are short of love

  C. cutting suicides by a fifth by 2010 is easy to carry out

  D. authorities manage websites efficiently

70. Lowering the number of reported suicide by celebrities in the media in Korea   .

     A. will be limited                                     

     B. didn’t affect people’s daily life

     C. might cause fewer people to commit suicide                           

     D. damage the fame of media

71. Yoo Byoung-jong’s new job to patrol Seoul’s bridge has    .

     A. made him suffer a lot

     B. prevented people from jumping into water

     C. burdened himself

     D. proved a good way to save lives

Answer 1

ABACD