读写3级5单-网络挂件 ZHQ制作.doc

Book3 Unit5 I. Information Related to the Text 1. Who is a Jew? Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used. Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion. At times conversion has accounted for a substantial part of Jewish population growth. In the first century of the Christian era, for example, the population more than doubled, from 4 to 8–10 million within the confines of the Roman Empire, in good part as a result of a wave of conversion. 2. Euthanasia The definition of euthanasia is the deliberate ending of the life of a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease. A distinction is frequently made between active- or positive-, or also direct- and passive- or indirect-euthanasia; the former is also called mercy killing when a physician, or someone else in authority, acts directly to cause the patient’s death by the deliberate administration of drugs, the latter is the ending of life by the deliberate withholding of the drugs or other life-sustaining treatment. A further distinction is made between voluntary euthanasia – when explicitly required by the patient – and involuntary euthanasia, when the patient’s will cannot be expressed. 3. Stroke A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. This can be due to lack of blood supply. As a result, the affected area of the brain is unable to function, leading to i