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请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

注意:每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题纸上相应题号的横线上。

Is loneliness a health epidemic?

In recent decades, researchers have discovered that loneliness left untreated is not just psychically painful; it also can have serious medical consequences. Rigorous epidemiological studies have linked loneliness and social isolation to heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes and suicide. Vivek Murthy, the former United States surgeon general, has written that loneliness and social isolation are “associated with a reduction in life span similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.”

But is loneliness, as many political officials and pundits are warning, a growing “health epidemic” (流行病)?I don’t believe so, nor do I believe it helps anyone to describe it that way. Social disconnection is a serious matter, yet if we set off a panic over its prevalence (流行) and impact, we’re less likely to deal with it properly.

Anxiety about loneliness is a common feature of modern societies. Today, two major causes of loneliness seem possible. One is that societies throughout the world have embraced a culture of individualism. More people are living alone, and aging alone, than ever. Neoliberal (新自由主义的) social policies have turned workers into insecure free agents, and when jobs disappear, things fall apart fast. Labor unions, civic associations, neighborhood organizations, religious groups and other traditional sources of social solidarity are in steady decline. Increasingly, we all feel that we’re on our own.

The other possible cause is the rise of communication technology, including smartphones, social media and the internet. A decade ago, companies like Facebook, Apple and Google promised that their products would help create meaningful relationships and communities. Instead, we’ve used the media system to deepen existing divisions, at both the individual and group levels. We may have thousands of “friends” and “followers” on Facebook and Instagram, but when it comes to human relationships, it turns out there’s no substitute for building them the old-fashioned way, in person.

In light of these two trends, it’s easy to believe we’re experiencing an “epidemic” of loneliness and isolation. Surprisingly, though, the best data do not actually show a boom in either loneliness or social isolation. Yet the research tells us something more specific. In places like the United States and Britain, it’s the poor, unemployed, displaced (无家可归的) and migrant populations that are suffering most from loneliness and isolation. Their lives are unstable, and so are their relationships. When they get lonely, they are the least able to get adequate social or medical support.

Passage outline

Supporting details

Research finding

Loneliness is likely to cause various kinds of medical consequences unless 1..

The author’s

opinion

♦ Loneliness is not a growing “health epidemic”.

♦ Don’t take loneliness too 2. , which may result in panic and 3.to handle it properly.

An analysis of

possible causes of

loneliness

♦ A culture of individualism has become 4.all over the world.

♦ People are doing5.jobs and traditional sources of social solidarity are declining.

6.to what some companies promised, the development of communication technology are 7.the situation.

♦ Traditional face-to-face communication is the 8.way to build human relationship.

Conclusions

♦ We are 9. by the two trends into believing we are

experiencing a loneliness epidemic, but it isn’t the case.

♦ Some groups of people are still suffering from loneliness and isolation, among whom social and medical support are badly 10..

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