Health Gains in Developing Countries

　　It can be seen from the charts that there have been dramatic changes in life expectancy and infant mortality in developing countries in the past decades. As the chart shows, people's life expectancy soared from 40 years old to 60 years old from 1960 to 1990. Meanwhile, infant mortality declined from 200 to 150 deaths per thousand births.

　　The changes in the charts may be attributed to a number of factors, but the following are the most critical ones. First, developing countries' economy has been developing at a considerably high speed in the past decades. Therefore, people have more extra money to improve their health. Secondly, the advances in medical sciences and boom of medical industry provide citizens with more opportunities to cure their diseases. Last but not least, people have attached greater importance to their quality of life, thus they have spent more money and time to build up their bodies.

　　In a word, these charts are perfect indexes of developing nations' fast expanding economy and people's rising standard of life. Although a series of problems have arisen in the process, it is reasonable for us to believe that they can be solved in the near future with effective measures taken by both the government and the public.

　　(或If this trend continues, developing countries will soon approach the developed countries in terms of health care. People will live longer and healthier lives. The result of this will be happier and more productive populations.)

　　approach [ə'prəutʃ] n. 接近; 途徑，方法

　　expanding [iks'pændiŋ] 擴展的，擴充的

　　quality ['kwɔliti] n. 品質(zhì)，特質(zhì)，才能

　　dramatic [drə'mætik] adj. 戲劇性的，引人注目的，給人深刻印象的

　　mortality [mɔ:'tæliti] n. 必死的命運，死亡數(shù)目，死亡率

　　trend [trend] n. 趨勢，傾向，方位

　　productive [prə'dʌktiv] adj. 能生產(chǎn)的，有生產(chǎn)價值的，多產(chǎn)的

　　reasonable ['ri:znəbl] adj. 合理的，適度的，通情達理的

　　critical ['kritikəl] adj. 批評的，決定性的，危險的，挑剔的

　　boom [bu:m] n. 繁榮，低沉聲，帆杠，水柵