次の英文を読んで,下の設問に答えなさい。
Last year, 4.2 million babies died.
That is the most recent number reported by UNICEF of deaths before
the age of one, worldwide. We often see lonely and emotionally charged
numbers like this in the news or in the materials of activist groups or
organizations. They produce a reaction.
Who can even imagine 4.2 million dead babies? It is so terrible, and
even worse when we know that almost all died from easily preventable
diseases. And how can anyone argue that 4.2 million is anything other than
a huge number? You might think that nobody would even try to argue
(that, but you would be wrong. That is exactly why I mentioned this
number. Because it is not huge: it is beautifully small.
If we even start to think about how tragic each of these deaths is for the
parents who had waited for their newborn to smile, and walk, and play, and
instead had to bury their baby, then this number could keep us crying for a
long time. But who would be helped by these tears? Instead let's think
clearly about human suffering.
The number 4.2 million is for 2016. The year before, the number was
4.4 million. The year before that, it was 4.5 million. Back in 1950, it was
14.4 million. That's almost 10 million more dead babies per year, compared
with today. Suddenly this terrible number starts to look smaller. In fact
(2)the number has never been lower.
Of course, I am the first person to wish the number was even lower and
falling even faster. But to know how to act, and how to prioritize resources,
nothing can be more important than doing the cool-headed math and
realizing what works and what doesn't. And this is clear: more and more
deaths are being prevented.
comparing the numbers.
(3).
We would never realize that without
