文章：
"According to legend......"更多閱讀文章請查閱：//tr.hjenglish.com/page/34146/

作者：郭雯，上海新東方學(xué)?？谧g研究中心成員，口譯教研組閱讀組組長。
博客地址：//blog.hjenglish.com/guowen

今年高口閱讀第一篇文章是社會話題，具體的來說，是社會醫(yī)療福利制度的話題。

本文主題將焦點對準(zhǔn)“強制醫(yī)療保險的利與弊”這個open issue 上，注定了這篇文章以探討為主，作者的觀點會比較明確，但是解決方案會比較模糊。本文與新東方口譯課堂上我們詳細(xì)討論過的“美國槍支持有”問題的文章，結(jié)構(gòu)、觀點上都有相同之處。

According to legend, King Canute of Denmark facetiously tried to stop the rising tide by simply raising his hand and commanding the waters to roll back. The tide, of course, kept rising. Yet （主題開始）policymakers throughout history have followed Canute's lead.From Hillary Clinton and John Edwards to Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, politicians across the spectrum have tried or vowed to solve America's health-care woes （主題進(jìn)一步加強）by enacting an individual mandate--a law requiring every adult to purchase health insurance. Despite its bipartisan support, the individual mandate is bad policy, a vain attempt to command a better result while doing nothing to achieve it.

本段承襲高口文章（也是大部分中高級難度的文章共通的特點）的“鉆石型結(jié)構(gòu)”。即開頭鋪墊，中間主題（就本文來講即雙方觀點碰撞），結(jié)尾補充說明?？忌f不要被開頭的King Canute 嚇到，這只是一個丹麥國王，而作者只是在炫耀歷史知識而已。用普通大眾（頭腦正常的）所不熟知的歷史細(xì)節(jié)嚇唬觀眾，是中外作家的基本功。如果考生能夠循著事實/論述這個路子來梳理段落結(jié)構(gòu)的話，不難看出，段落的主題是用一般進(jìn)行時態(tài)（表示一般性的事實）表達(dá)出來的。即紅字粗體部分。意思是“決策者經(jīng)常通過普及（強制）個人醫(yī)療保險的做法解決醫(yī)療福利問題”。這里讀者應(yīng)該加強閱讀，或者說從這里開始閱讀。在段落結(jié)尾despite提示讀者，作者在加強表達(dá)，順藤摸瓜就能找到bad policy這個關(guān)鍵的，表示觀點立場的詞匯。

Individual mandate supporters (立場細(xì)節(jié)) typically（明顯的錯誤觀點） justify the policy by citing the problem of uncompensated care. When uninsured patients receive health services but don't pay for them, the rest of us end up footing the bill one way or another. So advocates of insurance mandates contend, plausibly enough, that we should make the free riders pay.(錯誤觀點的重復(fù)，至此，本段主題確定)

本段主題在開頭結(jié)尾處用supporters引起讀者注意，用typically 暗示這段承襲上段依然是錯誤觀點的表述。而這個錯誤觀點在首段的主題處已經(jīng)有所表述，所以，本段在free riders, uncompensated care等處出現(xiàn)生詞的話，可以對照首段的含義參照理解。這一段是gist+explanation+gist重復(fù)的模式。本段主題為“支持普及醫(yī)療保險的人認(rèn)為人人皆應(yīng)保險(should make the free riders pay)”。

But how big is the free-rider problem, really?(作者的觀點很快就要出現(xiàn)了)According to an Urban Institute study released in 2003, uncompen- sated care for the uninsured constitutes less than 3% of all health expenditures. Even if the individual mandate works exactly as planned, that's the effective upper boundary on the mandate's impact. （用讓步關(guān)系強調(diào)作者觀點）

本段加強了上一段的意思，并且作者加入了評析。從首句可以看出，通過繼續(xù)使用free riders這樣的詞匯，作者暗示出free-riders 問題并未達(dá)到非得用這種極端方式解決的程度。結(jié)尾處說，他們的計劃最多也不過爾爾。本段的模式是gist + example深入gist 的模式。

OF COURSE, IT WILL NOT WORK exactly as planned. As anyone who has ever driven above 55 mph knows, mandating something is not the same as making it happen. Some people will not comply: 47 states require drivers to buy liability auto insurance, yet the median percentage of uninsured drivers in those states is 12%. Granted, that number might be even higher without the mandates. The point, however, is that any amount of noncompliance reduces the efficacy of the mandate. （of course…but 的結(jié)構(gòu)應(yīng)該很熟悉了）

本段結(jié)構(gòu)同上一段，只是論述更加深入。任何不加入社會保險的人都會使對方的方案效果減弱，而事實上，不可能全民皆入保險。

None of this means the uninsured are not a problem.(作者觀點全部呈現(xiàn)出來: 雙重否定，用來強調(diào)未加入醫(yī)療保險的公民同樣不可忽視) Yet the true issue isn't that they cost the rest of us too much. It's that they simply get less care than most people (one reason uncompensated care is such a small fraction of health-care spending). And if the real concern is making health insurance and health care available to those in need, we should focus on reducing health-care prices and insurance premiums.The individual mandate is, at best, a distraction from that goal. （仍然不忘進(jìn)行正反觀點的對比）

本段首句說，雖然全民皆入保險不可能，對方的計劃成為泡影，但是我們在不同意對方觀點的同時，也關(guān)注那些不能加入保險的人們。段尾指出，我們應(yīng)該盡可能幫助這些人加入醫(yī)療保險，享受保障。但是如果強制全民保險則南轅北轍。

Some proposals（大眾觀點，永遠(yuǎn)是靶子） couple mandates with subsidies for the purchase of private insurance. As far as policies to encourage more private coverage go, you could do worse. But as long as the public has to subsidize the formerly uninsured, the problem with free riders has not been solved. We're just paying for them in a different way.

To enact any mandate, legislators and bureaucrats must specify a minimum benefits package that an insurance policy must cover. Yet this package can't be defined in any political way. Each medical specialty, from oncology to acupuncture, will push for its services to be included. Ditto other interest groups. In government, bloat is the rule, not the exception.

Even now, every state has a list of benefits that any health-insurance policy must cover--from contraception to psychotherapy to chiropractic to hair transplants. All states together have created nearly 1,900 mandated benefits. Of course, more generous benefits make insurance more expensive. A 2007 study estimates existing mandates boost premiums by more than 20%.

這三段批判了一些其余的社會觀點，分析了目前各個州的做法，也提出了一些政府決策的原則。

If interest groups have found it worthwhile to lobby 50 state legislatures for laws affecting only voluntarily purchased insurance policies, they will surely redouble their efforts to affect the contents of a federally mandated insurance plan. Consequently, even more people will find themselves unable to afford insurance.Others will buy insurance, but only via public subsidies. Isn't that just what the doctor didn't order?

這里繼續(xù)指出對方觀點欠缺的地方，并指出了這樣做的不良后果。這里注意，到此為止，已經(jīng)有了很多不同的，對于對方觀點的表述方式：50 state legislatures for laws affecting only voluntarily purchased insurance policies; insurance mandate supporters 等等。

A better approach to health reform would focus on removing mandates that drive up insurance premiums. States ought to repeal some or all of their mandated benefit laws, (推動研究加強立法永遠(yuǎn)是作者的解決之道) allowing firms to offer lower-priced catastrophic care policies to their customers. The federal government could assist by guaranteeing customers the right to buy insurance offered in any state, not just their own, enabling patients to patronize companies in states with fewer costly mandates. Indeed, removing mandates would do far more to expand health-care coverage than adding new mandates ever could.

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