Food and Health

When eating out, you need to make some important decisions: Do you want French fries or onion rings? Ice-cream or cheesecake? Depending on where you live, many of your favorite restaurants may soon add another type of choice to their menus: high or low calorie dishes. New York City is planning to require certain restaurants to put nutritional1 information on their menus. And now, other cities and states around the United States are considering similar rules.

If menu-labeling2 rules show up in a restaurant near you, you may be surprised to learn that a double hamburger with cheese has 990 calories!Most adults and teenagers need about 2,000 calories a day, depending on body size and activity level.

New York City’s new labeling rules will apply only to restaurants that already offer nutrition information on websites, posters, or elsewhere. For now, that includes about half of the nation’s fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Starbucks. Supporters hope that being able to see calorie counts will change what people decide to eat. However, not everyone supports the changes, especially the restaurant industry. For one thing, says National Restaurant Association spokesman Sue Hensley, it’s impossible to come up with exact calorie counts because customers make special re-quests and cooks prepare the food in different ways. Many people believe that the restaurant association is not happy about the rules because they are afraid that people will start to ask for healthier food once they see the facts. Restaurants will then have to do more than just redesign their menus —they’ll have to change their recipes3.

Notes:

1.nutritional adj.营养的

2.label v.贴标签,标注

3.recipe /5resEpi/ n.食谱

1.The last paragraph is mainly about _____.

A. which restaurants people should go in New York

B. the decisions you need to make while ordering food at a restaurant

C. the reasons why the restaurant industry is not happy about the new rules

D. different opinions about New York City’s new labeling rules

2.What is the main idea of this passage?www.examｗ.com

A. How to design wonderful menus to attract customers.

B. Tips that people should follow while eating out.

C. The new menu-labeling rules carried out in New York.

D. Why New York City Government made menulabeling rules.

阅读新题型

The world is getting bigger —not the planet itself, but many of the people in it. In developed parts of the world, from Australia to Europe to the United States, people weigh more than ever before. Even children are joining the ranks of the obese1 in record numbers and scientists are worried about it.

Many people are a little bit overweight, but obesity is much more serious than that. Studies show that weighing too much as an adult can lead to a variety of medical problems including heart disease, high blood pressure and other diseases. Treating all these health problems is getting more expensive. Between 1997 and 1999, obesity-related2 hospital costs for kids averaged3 $127 million a year, up from $35 million a year between 1979 and 1981. If it continues at the present speed, an American official said, today’s obese kids will cost the country about $11 billion in the future.

There are other costs, too. People who are overweight often face a world that is unkind to them. Low spirit and low self-respect are common among obese people.

The progress toward fat can be hard to break. Obese parents are likely to have obese children. And obese kids are likely to become obese adults.

So, how do you know if you’re in danger of becoming obese? Weighing your-self won’t necessarily give you an answer. Some people are naturally heavier than others, and that’s okay. Also, an over-weight athlete is actually healthier than a thin couch potato. Muscle weighs more than fat.

To find out whether you should be concerned, it’s best to talk to doctors. They can tell you more about how your weight should be compared to the weight of others in your age group.

Notes:

1. obese adj.虚胖的,肥胖的

2. relate v.有联系

3. average v.平均为

1. Find in the passage a word closest in meaning to the underlined word "concerned".

2. According to the passage, why does the author say the world is getting bigger? (回答词数不超过8个)

3. Besides health problems, what other problems does obesity bring to children? (回答词数不超过10个)

本期参考答案阅读理解

1-2 D C

阅读新题型

1. Worried.

2. Many people in the world are overweight.

3. They often face a world that is unkind to them