at an alarming speed的意思是"以惊人的速度"

1）We are driving at the speed of 60 miles an hour. (我们正以每小时60英里的速度行驶。)

2）He is running at top speed. (他正以最快速度奔跑。)

3）Tom is working at it at full speed. (汤姆正在拼命地干。)

4）He found the small town changing at an astonishing speed. (他发现那个小城正以惊人的速度变化着。)

3. Today in Britain, for example, about four hundred people a day die of heart disease.

在英语中die of和die from都表示"死于"，这两者之间的区别在于：

die of 通常指因疾病、情感而死。如：

1） The lady died of grief after the death of her husband. (丈夫去世后，这位女士也因哀伤而死。)

2） In that country many children died of malnutrition. (在那个国家，许多孩子死于营养不良。)

3） I'm dying of boredom. (我烦死了。)

4） Many sheep died of starvation in the thick snow.（许多绵羊在厚厚的积雪中饿死。）

die from 通常指死于意外的原因及不正常的原因。如：

1） My grandfather died from a heart attack.（我爷爷死于心脏病。）

2） She died from a traffic accident.（她死于一场交通事故。）

3） He is said to have died from working too hard till late every night.（据说他因每晚熬夜而劳累致死。）

4） The workman died from the explosion.（那位工人因发生爆炸而死。）

4. Western health-care systems are spending huge sums of money on the surgical treatment of the disease.
　　首先我们看一下，spend…on 和spend … in 的区别。它们共同的意思是"把…发费在…上"。

当spend 的宾语是金钱时，spend on 后面接名词，spend in 后面接动名词，in 有时可省略。

当spend 的宾语是时间时， spend on 和 spend in 后都可接名词或动名词，接名词时意思相同；接动名词时 spend on 的含意是"把时间花在…上"， spend in 的含意是"在…上花了时间"。如：

1）He spends nearly one third of his monthlyincome (in) buying books.（他把每月收入的三分之一用来买书。）

2）She spent a great deal of money on the new car.（她花了许多钱买这辆新车。）

3）He doesn't spend much time on his homework.（他花在做作业上的时间不多。）

4）She spent three hours (in )watching TV.（她看电视耗掉了三个小时。）

我们再来看一下cost，spend，pay，take的区别。

spend和pay的主语只能是人；cost的主语是物。take在接时间主语也可以是人。take和cost还可以用动词不定式或动词不定式短语作真实主语，而it作形式主语。

pay的搭配范围较窄，多接金钱；cost的搭配范围很宽，除了金钱和时间外还可以接劳力、精力、财富、健康甚至生命等。

spend 可接动名词，而cost，pay，take只接动词不定式。

spend，take，pay可用于被动结构；而cost不能用于被动结构。

1）That bike cost me 350 yuan. （那辆自行车花了我350元。）

2）The work cost me a lot of time and effort.（这项工作花了我大量的时间和精力。）

3）Careless driving cost him his life.（粗心驾车使他丧了命。）

4）I paid him 200yuan for this painting.（我付他200元买了这幅画。）

5）They refused to pay us the money.（他们拒绝给我们付钱。）

6）They spend all his earrings. （他挣多少花多少。）

7）They spend a lot of money on advertising.（他们花大笔的钱做广告。）

8）Two hours a day were spent in practising.（每天花两个小时进行训练。）

9）The work took us a week to finish.（我们花了一星期的时间完成这项工作。）

10）It takes him an hour to finish his homework every day.（他每天要用一小时完成作业。）

5. This emphasis on treatment is clearly associated with the technological advances that have taken place in the past 10 to 15 years.

在emphasis的后面通常接介词on，常用于搭配使用的动词有place，put，lay等 ，如：

He places (puts，lays) great emphasis on education. 他特别强调教育的重要。)

associate with 意思是"使…联系在一起"，"交往"。

1）We naturally associate the name of Darwin with the doctrine of evolution.

(我们很自然地把达尔文的名字和进化论联系在一起。)

2）They were closely associated with each other during the war.（战争期间，他们之间关系密切。）

3）Rain fall is associated with humidity.（下雨与湿度有关。）

4）They prefer to associate with young people.（他们更喜欢与年轻人交往。）

6. …modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques and procedures.

请注意本句中的enable 是动词，其用法是 enable sb. to do sth. 在词汇部分我们已有详细讲解，再请看两个例句：

1) His patienceenabled him to make the child tell him the truth. （他的耐心使他能让那孩子对他说实话。）

2) His efficiencyenabled him to finish the work a head of schedule. （他的高效率使他能提前完成这项工作。）

7．…it causes the costs of general hospital care to rise.

本句中cause用作动词，cause sb. to do sth. （使某人做某事），cause sth. to happen （使某事发生），如：

1) What caused you to change your mind?（什么使你改变了主意？）

2） What caused the boat of turn over? （是什么致使翻船？）

1) His laziness caused him to fall behind others.（他的懒惰使他落在了别人后面。）

句中的cost 不是动词，而是个名词，意思是"费用、开销"。

1) The price is high because production costs are very great. (价格昂贵，因为生产成本极大。)

2) There is no way to reduce the living cost.（没有办法降低生活费用。）

8. After hospitals buy the expensiveequipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery, they must try to recover the money they have spent.

本句中的equipment 是不可数名词，不能在后面加s。equipment后面的谓语动词也用单数形式。

1) The modern equipmentenables them to double their production.（现代化的设备使他们能把产量翻倍。）

2) They decided to buy some new equipment.（他们决定购买新设备。）

3) Advanced equipment is necessary for this work.（干这个活需要先进的设备。）

还请注意，recover 在本句中的意思是get back（回收）。

1) We must try to recover lost time.（我们必须设法弥补失去的时间。）

2) They recovered increased costs through higher prices.（他们通过提高价格来补偿上涨的成本。）

9. In the past, people tended to think that it was sufficient for good health to have a good doctor who could be relied on to know exactly what to do when they became ill.

That引导的是一个宾语从句。在这个宾语从句中，it 做形式主语，真正的主语是to have a good doctor. Who引导的是一个定语从句，修饰doctor。what to do 做know的宾语。这句话的意思是，"过去，人们往往认为有个可以信赖的好医生就足以使他们有好身体，因为这个医生知道在他们生病时究竟该做什么。"

1. at an alarming speed

2. die of

3. spend money on

4. emphasis on

5. associate with

6. take place

7. enable sb. to do sth.

8. increase in

9. benefit from

10. point out

11. cause…to…

12. be encouraged to do sth.

13. not at all

14. pay attention to

15. as a result

16. rely on

17. take responsibility for

18. succeed in

19. take up

20. be aware of

21. instead of

22. decrease in

Text B Dieting Your Way to Health