In the following questions, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Half a century ago, a person was far More likely to die from heart disease. Now, cancer is the No. 1 cause of death. Troubling as this sounds, the comparison is unfair. Cancer is, ,by far the harder problem a condition deeply ingrained in the nature of multicellular life. Given these obstacles, cancer researchers are fighting and even winning smaller battles : reducing the death toll from childhood cancers and preventing and sometimes even curing cancers that strike people in their prime. But when it comes to diseases of the elderly, there can be no decisive victory.
The diseases that one killed earlier in life bubonic plague, smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis were easier obstacles. Each had a precise cause that could be confronted. The toll of heart diseases has been pushed into the future, with diet, exercise and medicine that help control blood pressure and cholesterol. Because of these interventions people between 55 and 84 are increasingly more likely to die from cancer than from heart disease.