38.( ) The overall purpose of this
information is to_______.
A. show how the standard of living in poor countries has recently
improved
B. describe how poor countries with large populations feed their
people
C. report on worldwide trends in population and living standards
D. question the reason for high life expectancy in wealthy
countries
(B)
NEW DELHI －Just a few ye housewife. She cooked,
cleaned and looked after her two small children.
Last
year, her life took a tragic turn. Her husband died of AIDS; she was found out
HIV-positive (艾滋病病毒检验呈阳性反应) and her
mother-in-law took her children away from her, saying they would get the
disease. “When friends dropped in for a visit, she would introduce me, saying,
‘She is my son’s widow. She has AIDS,’" said Mala. AIDS is now described
as "explosive (炸药) "around
the world. A study of a hospital in the port city of Durban in south Africa,
where the world’s biggest and Africa’s first AIDS conference opened last
Sunday, found that almost half the beds in medical wards (病房)were
occupied by AIDS patients.
South Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing HIV infections(传染),
with 1,700 people infected daily, adding to the 4.3 million, or 10 percent of
its population, living with HIV. Until now, Asia has been more successful in
holding the AIDS virus(病毒)
than Africa, where the disease has killed about 12 million people.
AIDS is now threatening to surround many of Asia’s
poverty-stricken countries. Countries in Asia, such as Cambodia, and Thailand,
have HIV infection speeds over 1 percent. But the low speeds hide huge numbers
of affected people, because of the population base.
In India, for example, 3.7 million are infected, more than in any
other country except South Africa. In China, an estimated 500,000 people,
mainly drug users, live with HIV/ AIDS. Gordon Alexander, a senior advisor for
UN AIDS in India, estimates(估计)
that the number hit by AIDS in Asia will climb to about eight million over the
next five years from about six million.
In many Asian countries, the battle against HIV is a social
cultural one against public discussion of sexual health and put a nationwide
media campaingn into action to limit the spread of HIV through unsafe sex.
Brenton Wong, an official with Singapore’s Action for AIDS, says the actual HIV
incidence in the city state of 3.9 million people is at least eight times
higher than official data. “Shame and deny is still very, very common so people
are afraid to get tested and many times won’t even tell their families if they
test positive,” said Wong.