In the recent past, medical researchers have begun to emphasize the fact that heart disease is associated with stress, smoking and a lack of exercise, and we can often reduce the risk of heart disease by paying more attention to these factors.
     More and more people are realizing that there is a connection between heart disease and the way they live. As a result of(因为，由于) this new awareness, attitudes toward health are changing. In the past, people tended to think that it was sufficient for good health to have a good doctor who could be relied on to know exactly what to do when they became ill. Now they are realizing that merely receiving the best treatment for illness or injury is not enough. They are learning that they must take more responsibility for their own health. Today many people are changing their dietary habits and eating food with less fat and cholesterol. Many are paying more attention to reducing stress in their lives. The number of smokers in the United States is now far below the level of twenty years ago as many people succeed in breaking the habit and as fewer people take it up . More and more people are aware of the benefits of regular exercise like(prep.) walking, running, or swimming; some have begun to walk or ride bicycles to work instead of driving. Millions have become members of health clubs and have made health clubs one of the fastest growing businesses in the United States today. And now the beneficial effects of these changing attitudes and behaviors are beginning to appear: an encouraging decrease in deaths from heart disease.
   
    LESSoN SEVENTEEN
                                 TEXT  A
                             panic and Its Effects
      one afternoon while she was preparing dinner in her kitchen, Anne peters, a 32-year-old American housewife, suddenly had severe pains in her chest accompanied by shortness of breath. Frightened by the thought that she was having a heart attack, Anne screamed for help. Her husband immediately rushed Anne to a nearby hospital (where her pains were diagnosed as having been caused by panic, and not a heart attack).
   
   
   
   
  Heart attack
  Birth rate—interest rate
  He died of skin cancer.
  He died from car accident.
  Severity—be severe on /with sb. / sth.
  Be short of---be lack of
  Near by
  The beach is quite near by.
  Diagnosis—diagnostic
  At the present time---currently
  Conductor---wood is poor
  Conductor.
  Reveal---uncover
  Approximate to sth.
  Symptomatic
  Stand---tolerate
  Remarkable person/ book
  Upset—worried
  Tremble of cold/ fear
  Claim sth. Back
  Drug user / dealer
  Drug store
  Multifunctional
  Don’t mention it.
  Finally—at last—in the end
  Confirmation---confirmative
  Reconfirm
  Until now—until then
  Still—although—though—nevertheless