文章大意：本文是新闻报道。文章主要介绍英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）负责人表示，通过给患有心脏病的人服用血液稀释药物，大大降低了房颤患者的中风可能导致的死亡或严重残疾，数千人的生命得以挽救。
4 . Thousands of lives have been saved by giving blood-thinning drugs to people with a heart condition that leaves them at risk of a stroke (中风), according to the head of the NHS.
Since January 2022, about 460,000 people in England who suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF)—a dangerously irregular heart rate—have begun taking one of four anticoagulant (抗凝血的) drugs that are proved to reduce stroke risk. Speedy introduction of the drugs has kept 4,000 people alive who would otherwise have died and prevented about 17,000 strokes, according to Amanda Pritchard. Strokes kill about 27,000 people a year in England and lead to about 120,000 being taken to hospital.
A drive to encourage take-up of the drugs means 90% of the 1.5 million people in England with AF are using them. That should result in fewer strokes, which are a leading cause of death and disability, given that AF causes about one in five strokes.
“The rapid introduction of these drugs is a big step forward in providing the best possible care for patients with heart disease”, Pritchard, the leader of NHS (National Health Service) England, will say in a speech today at the King’s Fund health experts’ yearly conference.
The drugs, called direct oral anticoagulants, help keep blood from coagulating, therefore reducing the risk of a clot (凝块) developing and causing a stroke. In 2021 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that doctors use four anticoagulant drugs.
Dr Maeva May, the Stroke Association’s director, thought of the widespread use of the drugs as “fantastic news”, because AF accounts for one in five strokes and strokes in people with AF are more likely to result in death or serious disability.
NHS England has used its spending power to cut deals with the makers of the four drugs, which has made them much more widely available. The British Heart Foundation praised the NHS’s “great progress towards its goal of reducing stroke deaths”.
1. What is the purpose of listing numbers in paragraph 2?
| A．To attract the readers’ attention to strokes. |
| B．To introduce the specific information about AF. |
| C．To show the necessity to introduce anticoagulant drugs. |
| D．To summarize the steps towards reducing deaths. |
2. How do the anticoagulant drugs function?
| A．By identifying signs of strokes. | B．By reducing blood pressure. |
| C．By keeping heart beating. | D．By preventing blood clotting. |
3. What can can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．NHS England plays a big role in popularizing anticoagulant drugs. |
| B．NHS England made a healthy profit on the deal with drug makers. |
| C．The British Heart Foundation managed to cut stroke deaths in England. |
| D．The British Heart Foundation worked with NHS England to fight stroke. |
4. What is the text mainly about?
| A．A breakthrough in stroke prevention. |
| B．NHS England’s life-saving conference. |
| C．How to identify signs of a heart attack. |
| D．How to test the effects of anticoagulant drugs. |
