Changing our Understanding of Health
A
The concept of health holds different meanings for different people and groups. These meanings of health have also changed over time. This change is no more evident than in Western society to day, when notions of health and health promotion are being challenged and expanded in new ways.
B
For much of recent Western history. Health has been viewed in the physical sense only. That is, good health has been connected to the smooth mechanical operation of the body, while ill health has been attributed to a breakdown in this machine. Health in this sense has been defined as the absence of disease or illness and is seen in medical terms. According to this view, creating health for people means providing medical care to treat or prevent disease and illness. During this period, there was an emphasis on providing clean water, improved sanitation and housing.
In the late 1940s the World Health Organization challenged this physically and medically oriented view of health. They stated that "health is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is not merely the absence of disease" (WHO, 1946). Health and the person were seen more holistically (mind/body/spirit) and not just in physical terms.
C
The 1970s was a time of focusing on the prevention of disease and illness by emphasizing the importance of the lifestyle. and behavior. of the individual. Specific behaviors which were seen to increase risk of disease, such as smoking, lack of fitness and unhealthy eating habits, were targeted. Creating health meant providing not only medical health care, but health promotion programs and policies which would help people maintain healthy behaviors and lifestyles. While this individualistic healthy lifestyles approach to health worked for some (the wealthy members of society), people experiencing poverty, unemployment, underemployment or little control over the conditions of their daily lives benefited little from this approach. This was largely because both the healthy lifestyles approach and the medical approach to health largely ignored the social and environmental conditions affecting the health of people.
D
During the 1980s and 1990s there has been a growing swing away from seeing lifestyle. risks as the root cause of poor health. While lifestyle. factors still remain important, health is being viewed also in terms of the social, economic and environmental contexts in which people live. This broad approach to health is called the socio-ecological view of health. The broad socio-ecological view of health was endorsed at the first International Conference of Health Promotion held in 1986, Ottawa, Canada, where people from 38 countries agreed and declared that:
The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, a viable income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic requirements. (WHO, 1986)
It is clear from this statement that the creation of health is about much more than encouraging healthy individual behaviors and lifestyles and providing appropriate medical care. Therefore, the creation of health must include addressing issues such as poverty, pollution, urbanization, natural resource depletion, social alienation and poor working conditions. The social, economic and environmental cont
A. Y
B. N
C. NG
Passage Three
The whole industrial process, which makes many of the goods and machines we need and use in our daily lives, will unavoidably create a number of waste products which upset the environmental balance. Many of these waste products can be prevented or disposed of (外置) properly, but clearly while more and more new goods are produced and made complex, there will be new, dangerous wastes to be disposed of, for example, the Waste products from nuclear power stations. Many people see pollution as only part of a larger and more complex problem, that is, the whole process of industrial production and consumption of goods. Others see the problem mainly in connection with agriculture, where new methods are helping farmers grow more and more on their land to feed our ever-increasing population.
Whatever reasons behind it, there is no doubt that much of the pollution caused could be controlled if only companies, governments and people would make more efforts. In the home there is an obvious need to control litter (乱扔的废物) and waste. Food comes wrapped up three or four times in packages that all have to be disposed of; drinks are increasingly sold in bottles or tins which cannot be reused. This not only causes a litter problem, but also is a great waste of resources, in terms of glass, metals and paper. Advertising has helped this process by persuading many of us not only to buy things we neither want nor need, but also to throw away much of what we do buy. Pollution and waste combine to be a problem everyone can help to solve by cutting out unnecessary buying and careless disposal of the products we use in our daily lives.
What will happen if the industrial process continues according to the passage?
A. Environmental balance will be achieved easily.
B. Less land will be used for agriculture.
C. New environmental problems will have to be dealt with.
D. World population will be reduced.
Why does the writer mention food and drinks in Paragraph 2?
A. To show the problem of litter and waste.
B. To show the problem of overproduction.
C. To show how they are consumed.
D. To show how they are wrapped.