標(biāo)題：Why life expectancy in America is down again?
Overall life expectancy in America fell fractionally in 2017
life expectancy? 預(yù)期壽命
fractionally? ?adv.微小地；極少地
造句：Could you just move a fraction to the right?
? ? ? ? ? ?a fractional increase?
Underlying the drop was a bad year for influenza and a slight increase in the toll of Alzheimer's disease.
underlie? ? v. 是...的深層原因
造句：Psychological problems very often underlie physical disorders.
toll? ?(死亡、事故或?yàn)?zāi)難的)總數(shù)
influenza? 流感? （flu）
overdose? ?n. 過量服藥? ? an overdose of sleeping pills
The figures make dramatic reading. In 1999, suicide took the lives of 10.5 Americans out of every 100,000.
in the intervening years?
surged from 6.1 to 21.7
make (for) adj. reading? （文字、數(shù)據(jù)等）讀起來怎么樣
造句：The story made for interesting reading.
take (sb's) life? 殺死某人? ? ? ?take one's own life? 自殺
intervening? ?發(fā)生于其間的
surge? v.激增，徒增，劇烈上升
historical / historic high? 歷史新高
But drug-overdose rates, which were well below five per 100,000 people between 1950 and 1990, climbed above that rate by the turn of the century, and then spiked dramatically, reaching above 20 deaths per?100,000 people in 2017.
the turn of sth.? 轉(zhuǎn)變時(shí)期；轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)
三個(gè)“上升”比較：
climb? （廣義上的）上升 = raise?
surge? ? 陡然上升
spike? ? 通常指在下跌前上升至非常高
... points to the importance of public health efforts to control the?opioid epidemic.
The recent experience of Dayton, Ohio backs him up: over the past year, opioid deaths have more than halved.?
point to? 指出（重要性）
opioid epidemic 阿片類藥物過量，比如：嗎啡
epidemic 疾病的流行? a gun epidemic, the gun epidemic
halve? v.減半
back sb up? 支持某人，為某人作證
Medicaid （美國面向窮人的）醫(yī)療補(bǔ)助制度
new legislation made it through Congress
... and help rein in the?over-prescription of opioids
make it through ... 通過，熬過，挺過難關(guān)
rein in 抑制，控制
over-prescription （沒有必要的）開藥過量
??
