Select the most appropriate title for the passage.

Concept

The title of a passage must name the subject that the passage as a whole develops. Two tests settle it: the passage has to actually treat that subject, and the title has to span the whole passage rather than fit only a stray line of it. A title naming a subject the passage never takes up is ruled out, however plausible that subject sounds on its own.

Applying the test to this passage

The passage works in two stages. It first explains the condition itself: with advancing age the lens of the eye hardens, loses its transparency and turns opaque, so light is obstructed from entering the eye, sight blurs, a single object may be seen as several images, and the afflicted person finally loses vision.

It then turns to what brings the condition on — old age, a hereditary defect present at birth, injuries to the eye, long exposure to sunrays, smoking, and ultraviolet radiation, which the passage further links to skin cancer. These are matters of age, heredity, injury, habit and exposure, that is, of a person's overall health and way of living.

So the passage treats cataract on two levels at once: as a loss of sight, and as a condition bound up with general health. A title that fits must carry both of these.

Checking each candidate title against the passage

• Current Trends in Pharmacotherapy of Cataracts — the passage names no medicine and no line of drug treatment anywhere, so that subject is never developed in it.

• Advances in Cataract Surgery — no operation, no technique and no improvement in any procedure is described in the passage.

• Cortical Cataracts: Problems & Solutions — the passage never separates out any one variety of the condition, and it puts forward no remedies.

• Beyond Vision: Cataract and Health Status — this spans both stages of the passage, the loss of sight and the health-and-lifestyle factors behind the condition.

The most appropriate title for the passage is therefore “Beyond Vision: Cataract and Health Status”.