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在保持了十几年的上升后，美国人均预期寿命近两年连续下降，其罪魁祸首是阿片类药物滥用危机。2016年，美国有近6万4千人死于过量用药。特朗普称阿片类药物滥用是美国人“意外死亡的首要原因”。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
prescription [prɪ'skrɪpʃn] n. 药方，对策
morgue [mɔːg] n. 太平间，停尸房
rehabilitation [ˌriːəˌbɪlɪ'teɪʃn] n. 复原
fentanyl ['fentənɪl] n. [药]芬太奴
methadone ['meθədoʊn] n. [药]美沙酮
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
Life expectancy in the US fell for the second year in a row in 2016, fuelled by an opioid epidemic that claimed almost 64,000 lives, according to new government statistics.
It comes as the US is gripped by a drug addiction crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of Americans turn to heroin after first becoming hooked on prescription opioids for pain.
A child born last year is expected to live 78.6 years compared with 78.7 in 2015 and 78.9 in 2014, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention （CDC）.
The declines follow more than a decade of rising life expectancy in the US, and have been caused in large part by a sharp rise in the number of people dying from drug overdoses.
“Deaths from drug overdose are an increasing public health burden in the US,” the CDC said in a set of key findings published alongside the statistics.
The number of drug overdose deaths has soared in recent years, the figures show, climbing to 63,632 last year, compared with 52,404 in 2015. In 1999, the number was 16,849.
The rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016, adjusted for age, was 19.8 per 100,000, a 21 per cent increase on the prior year, according to the statistics.
Policymakers have struggled to cope with the epidemic, which was declared a public health emergency by President Donald Trump earlier this year, with local authorities scrambling to set up addiction and rehabilitation centres, and to expand their morgue capacity to account for a rise in deaths.
The CDC figures paint a bleak picture of a divided country where a person's chance of dying from a drug overdose is closely linked to their gender and where they live.
Rates of overdose deaths are significantly higher for males than females. For men, the rate was 26.2 per 100,000 versus 13.4 for women.
The states with the highest rates of overdose deaths were West Virginia with 52 per 100,000, Ohio with 39.1 and New Hampshire with 39, while Nebraska and South Dakota had rates of 6.4 and 8.4, respectively.
The CDC was particularly concerned by the rate of overdose deaths involving a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl, an extremely potent substance that is often mixed with heroin by drug dealers.
In 2016, the rate of deaths involving synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, was 6.2 per 100,000, compared with 3.1 in the prior year and 0.3 in 1999.
Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration said it was working on a joint proposal with the US Customs and Border Patrol, which would see the agencies ask the Trump administration and Congress for extra funding to combat imports of fentanyl.
Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, said the agency had “taken some steps” to stop fentanyl entering the US through international mail facilities, but it still lacked the resources to cope with the influx.
“We've only brought the number of inspectors up from eight to 21 and the number of packages we inspect from 10,000 to 40,000,” said Dr GottlieB.“Our footprint's still relatively small.”
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.The rate of drug overdose deaths increased by 19.8% in 2016.
B.Life expectancy in the US has been rising for decades until 2016.
C.US life expectancy drops for the second consecutive year in 2016.
D.The number of drug overdose deaths has doubled since 1999.
答案 (1)
A.illegal drug trade.
B.prescription opioids overdoses.
C.medical malpractice.
D.lack of public health services.
答案 (2)
A.He has approved extra funding to combat drug trade.
B.He has expanded morgue capacity in the US.
C.He has set up addiction and rehabilitation centres.
D.He has declared a public health emergency.
答案 (3)
A.Women in New Hampshire.
B.Children in South Dakota.
C.Males in West Virginia.
D.Patients in Nebraska.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：C.US life expectancy drops for the second consecutive year in 2016.解释：2016年美国人均寿命连续第二年下降。
(2) 答案：B.prescription opioids overdoses.解释：美国正被毒瘾危机所笼罩，成百上千的美国人最初因为阿片类处方药物上瘾，继而转向海洛因。
(3) 答案：D.He has declared a public health emergency.解释：政策制定者正在努力应对这场毒品危机。今年早些时候，特朗普宣布进入全国公共卫生紧急状态。
(4) 答案：C.Males in West Virginia.解释：一个人死于服药过量的概率和性别、居住地极为相关。男性服药过量死亡的概率远高于女性。服药过量致死率最高的州是西弗吉尼亚州。