Just seven years ago, the Jarvik-7 artificial heart was being cheered as the model of human
creativeness. The sight of Barney Clark-alive and conscious after trading his diseased heart for a
metal-and-plastic pump-convinced the press, the public and many doctors that the future had
arrived. It hadn’t. After monitoring production of the Jarvik-7, and reviewing its effects on the
150 or so patients (most of whom got the device as a temporary measure) the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration concluded that the machine was doing more to endanger lives than to save
them. Last week the agency cancelled its earlier approval, effectively banning (禁止) the device.
The recall may hurt Symbion Inc., maker of the Jarvik-7, but it won’t end the request for
an artificial heart. One problem with the banned mode is that the tubes connecting it to an external
power source created a passage for infection. Inventors are now working on new devices that
would be fully placed, along with a tiny power pack, in the patient’s chest. The first sample
products aren’t expected for another 10 or 20 years. But some people are already worrying that
they’ll work—and that America’s overextended health—care programs will lose a precious
$2.5 billion to $5 billion a year providing them for a relatively few dying patients. If such
expenditures (开支) cut into funding for more basic care, the net effect could actually be a decline
in the nation’s health.
31. According to the passage, the Jarvik-7 artificial heart proved to be _____.
(A) a technical failure
(B) a technical wonder
(C) a good life-saver
(D) an effective means to treat heart disease
32. From the passage we know that Symbion Inc. _____.
(A) has been banned by the government from producing artificial hearts
(B) will review the effects of artificial hearts before designing new models
