Ⅰ. 阅读理解
Do you know that junk food isn’t healthy? Of course you do! Do you eat it anyway? Of course you do! But a new study shows teaching adolescents about the ways food companies fool them into thinking junk food is cool can encourage kids to fight back—by eating healthier.
The pull of junk food can be super-strong. It’s designed to be tasty, which makes eating well one of the great health challenges of our time. Everyone from doctors to the government has been trying to handle it. Yet we keep eating junk food.
Professor Christopher Bryan says, “Food companies want you to want junk food. ” They spend millions of dollars coming up with new ways to promote junk food consumption. They hire scientists to make new junk food almost irresistible. They might do this, for example, by adding more sugar. Rats fed junk food for six weeks will even walk across a floor that gives them electric shocks just to get more of such food.
Food ads often make unhealthy junk food seem healthy by featuring professional athletes, fit-looking pop stars and smiling, active teens. “We thought when the students learned this, it would matter to them, ”Bryan says. He worked with 8th graders at a Texas school. Half of them got a lesson Bryan created. It focused on the ways junk food is advertised, or marketed. A second group received lessons that focused on health. These lessons informed students junk food is bad, and that foods like apples or carrots are a better choice. The students learned a bad diet can lead to major weight gain, and that being overweight puts people at risk for serious diseases. They also learned how eating well now can keep you healthy when you’re older.
After the lessons, the kids in both groups were asked how they felt about junk food. Most didn’t have positive feelings about these unhealthy foods.
【语篇概述】本文为说明文。一项研究表明, 让青少年了解食品公司垃圾食品的推销方式比单纯地告诉他们垃圾食品的危害更能帮助他们吃得更健康。
1. Why does the author mention the questions in Paragraph 1?
A. To express his doubts about junk food.
B. To promote the idea of healthy eating.
C. To describe the situation of junk food.
D. To introduce the topic for discussion.
【解析】选D。推理判断题。本文为饮食健康类话题的说明文, 介绍一项研究发现: 让青少年了解食品公司的垃圾食品的推销方式比单纯告诉他们垃圾食品的危害更能帮助他们吃得健康, 文章第一段中提及的两个问题Do you know that junk food isn’t healthy? Do you eat it anyway? 其目的是为引出文章要讨论的话题作铺垫。故选D项。
2. What remains a great health challenge to doctors?
A. Making people do more exercise.
B. Making people eat healthily.
C. Making people lose weight.
D. Making people prefer junk food.
【解析】选B。细节理解题。由第二段中It’s designed to be tasty, which makes eating well one of the great health challenges of our time. Everyone from doctors to the government has been trying to handle it. 可知, 对医生而言, 让人们吃得健康依然是一个巨大的健康挑战。故选B项。
3. What message does Paragraph 3 mainly try to convey?
A. What makes junk food almost impossible to resist.
B. What influences junk food can have on consumers.
C. How food companies try to get people to reach for junk food.
D. Why food companies promote the consumption of junk food.
【解析】选C。推理判断题。They spend millions of dollars coming up with new ways to promote junk food consumption. They hire scientists to make new junk food almost irresistible. They might do this, for example, by adding more sugar. 由此可以推断, 作者在本段主要是告诉读者食品公司是如何想方设法让人们去吃垃圾食品的。故选C项。
4. Which of the following words can best describe Bryan’s lessons?
A. Shocking. B. Popular.
C. Effective D. Abstract.
【解析】选C。推理判断题。由文章最后一段可知, 课程结束后, 当这些孩子被问及他们对垃圾食品的看法时, 大多数人对这些不健康的食品都不持积极的看法。由此推断, Bryan的课是有效果且非常好的。故选C项。
