泛读2U8课外阅读

Passage 8 (Unit 8, Book II: Getting Enough Sleep? Dream on. Health)
Is it any wonder that America is also a country of dangerously overweight people?
According to a recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of adults characterized as overweight in the United States has jumped to an astonishing one-third of the population. Overweight in this case means being about 20 percent or more above a person’s desirable weight. Since the figures for “desirable weight”have moved upward over the last decade or so, total poundage – even at 20 percent over – may be considerable.
So are the attendant health risks. Excess weight has been linked to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, adult-onset diabetes and some forms of cancer, among other diseases.
Once, when work and school and the grocery store were a two-mile hike away, Americans could afford the calories they consume. But not now, not when millions spend four or five hours a day in front a TV set – along with a bag of chips, a bowl of buttered popcorn and a six-pack –and there’s a car or two in every driveway.
“There is no commitment to obesity as a public health problem,”said Dr. William Dietz, director of clinical nutrition at the New England Medical Center in Boston. “We’ve ignored it, and blamed it on gluttony and sloth.”
If one definition of a public health problem is its cost to the nation, then obesity qualifies. According to a study done by Dr. Graham A. Colditz, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, it cost America an estimated $68.8 billion in 1990. But what’s wrong blaming it on gluttony and sloth? True, some unfortunate overweight people have an underlying physical or genetic problem. But for most Americans, the problem is with two of the seven deadly sins.
Losing weight is a desperately difficult business. Preventing gain, however, is not. Consumer information is everywhere, and there can be few adults who truly believe that hot dogs, fries, a soda and a couple of Twinkies make a good lunch. But they eat them anyw ay.
As more and more Americans became educated to the risks of smoking, more and more Americans gave up the habit. Now it appears that Americans need an intensive education in the risks of stuffing themselves and failing to exercise as well.
Given the seductiveness of chocolate and cheese, the couch and the car, that habit will be hard to break. But if an ounce of prevention can obviate a pound of fat, it is well worth the struggle.
1. The author sets up the standard of overweight people based on the fact that _____________.
A. the number of overweight people has astonishingly increased
B. people have a different idea about their desirable weight now
C. overweight becomes a threat to people’s health
D. the overweight problem has long been studied
2. By saying “So are the attendant health risks”, the author means __________.
A. America suffers health risks as well as the overweight problem
B. health risks resulted from overweight are serious too
C. overweight is classified as one of the health problems
D. people have also pay much attention to the possible health risks
3. What does William Dietz think of overweight?
A. Overweight should be treated as a public health problem.
B. Overweight should be attributed to gluttony and sloth.
C. Overweight has much to do with nutritional problems.
D. Overweight has nothing to do with the overuse of cars.
4. Most Americans believe that __________.
A. the overweight problem has cost the nation much
B. obesity is related to one’s physical conditions
C. people who are overweight are unfortunate
D. gluttony and sloth are two deadly sins
5. In order to solve the overweight problem, the author suggests that everyone need to __________.
A. be taught to prevent gaining weight
B. be educated to lose weight effectively
C. seek help from consumer information
D. know what makes a healthy dinner。