I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53.Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former Surgeon General C.Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s.These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.

　　Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. Ask a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people's lives.

　　57. The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that

　　[A] medical resources are often wasted.

　　[B] doctors are helpless against fatal diseases.

　　[C] some treatments are too aggressive.

　　[D] medical costs are becoming unaffordable.

　　[答案] A

　　[解题思路]

　　the example of cancer patients出现在文章第二段第四句话“The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care”(最明显的例子是晚期癌症的治疗)，它用来具体例证前一句话的观点，即“Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's useless”(由于医疗费用由第三方支付，我们常常要求用尽所有的医疗手段为我们治疗，哪怕这些治疗不起任何作用)。“useless”正是说明很都医疗资源都被浪费了，正好对应于A选项。D选项在该段中没有提及，可以排除。B和C选项都是该段第三句话中的一些细节，并不是作者想通过例子说明的问题。