Eight in 10 Americans eat fast food at least once a month and half eat it every week according, to a Gallup Poll. Yet most people who eat fast food know it’s bad for them. So why do they keep eating it?
The answer is simple: the benefits of eating fast food outweigh the long-term implications for most people. However, once you read these reasons why all those trips to the drive through may be slowly killing you, you may just want to stop eating fast food after all.
1. Fast food makes you fat.
A 15-year study of over 3,000 people found that eating fast food is linked to weight gain and insulin resistance. In others words, fast food makes you fat and increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. You probably know this already. But here’s something you may not know.
2. Fast food is addictive.
The more you eat fast food, the more you crave it. One study found that fast food is “a potentially addictive substance that is most likely to create dependence in vulnerable populations.” If you eat fast food once a week or more, you may be addicted to it.
3. Fast food is affecting your kids.
According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Kids have an amazing ability to recall ads they’ve seen. Fast food marketers know this, and design ads accordingly. Research shows strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity.
4. Fast food “burgers” don’t have much burger in them.
One study found that most fast food burgers are composed of about 50 percent water and the actual meat content is only 2.1 to 14.8 percent. So what makes up the rest of it, you ask? Chemical fillers and preservatives, mostly. That’s why we see read horror stories about burgers that don’t go bad.
5. Even “healthy” fast food isn’t that healthy.
Fast food restaurants are catering to consumer demands to produce healthier options. The problem is, their definition of “healthy” is quite lax. One of the healthiest dishes at Burger King, the Garden Fresh Salad Chicken Caesar with TENDERGRILL Chicken and dressing, still has almost 500 calories and 28 grams of fat, and nearly a day’s worth of sodium.
6. Fast food is inhumane to animals.
Okay, this one may not be a reason why fast is killing you, but it’s still a compelling reason to stop eating fast food. 9 billion animals were slaughtered in the US alone in 2012 and much of that meat is for your fast food burgers and chicken sandwiches. Large factory farms resemble more of a “business” than a “farm.” Animals suffer in crowded spaces where they rarely have access to the outdoors or sunlight. They are pumped full of antibiotics to combat disease, which runs rampant in these conditions. Livestock is one of the biggest sources of pollution and environmental negligence, according to the UN.
7. Fast food sodas are loaded with sugar.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the cheap sweetener most fast food restaurants use in their sodas, desserts, and many other products. Princeton University researchers linked HFCS consumption to obesity in an animal study. Rats given HFCS gained more weight and body fat than those given table sugar.How many factors are mentioned which can account for the reason why fast food is slowly killing you?
| A．Seven. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
According to the text, we know that_____.
| A．many people keep eating fast food because they know nothing about the harm which fast food will bring them |
| B．fast food plays a key role in children’s growth |
| C．eating fast food is connected to weight gain and insulin resistance. |
| D．many fast food restaurants are can offer a good and healthy meal to consumer |
What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To help us make right decisions | B．To advise us to stop eating fast food |
| C．To tell us how to keep fit | D．To encourage us to be humane to animals |
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| A．Four adults book one day tour. |
| B．Three adults book on the same tour. |
| C．Four adults book two day tours. |
| D．Three adults book at least two day tours. |
According to the passage, The John Muir Trust is probably a group which .
| A．helps you save money | B．is ready to save tourists from danger |
| C．helps you make a tour plan | D．works on environmental protection |
Which of the following is NOT the characterist
ic of the tour of Scotland?
| A．No insurance. | B．Small group. |
| C．Sustainable tourism. | D．Local guide. |
In which part of a newspaper will you most possibly see this advertisement?
| A．Editorial & Opinion | B．Fashion & Style |
| C．Business Today | D．Leisure Time |
Across the world, 1.1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. More than 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation (卫生设备).
The combination proves deadly. Each year, diseases related to inadequate (不充足的) water and sanitation kill between 2 and 5 million people and cause an estimated 80 percent of all sicknesses in the developing world. Safe drinking water is a precondition (前提) for health and the fight against child death rate, inequality between men and women, and poverty.
Consider these facts:
The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometers.
Only 58 perc
ent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are drinking safe water, and only 37 percent of children in South Asia have access to even a basic toilet.
Each year in India alone, 73 million working days are lost to water-born diseases.
Here are three ways you can help:
(1) Write Congress
Current US foreign aid for drinking water and sanitation budgets only one dollar per year per American citizen. Few members o
f Congress have ever received a letter from voters about clean drinking water abroad.
(2) Donate to a project with a faith-based organizations
Many US religious groups already donate to water and sanitation projects, working with partner organizations abroad. Simply a single project by a US organization can make safe water a reality for thousands of people.
(3) Support nonprofit water organizations
Many US-based nonprofits work skillfully abroad in community-led projects on drinking water and sanitation. Some organizations are large, others small, some operate worldwide, others are devoted to certain areas in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Support them generously.The passage is probably written for .
| A．Americans | B．people in developing countries |
| C．religious leaders | D．nonprofit water organizations |
What is the problem that the facts exposed?
| A．Inequality between men and women. |
| B．Many people have no access to clean drinking water. |
| C．Less effort has been made to improve the basic sanitation. |
| D．Children suffer most from the lack of basic sanitation. |
The purpose of the passage is to arouse people to .
| A．help the developing countries |
| B．help solve the water shortage and sanitation problem |
| C．support nonprofit water organizations |
| D．help get rid of water-related diseases around the world |
Which is the best title of the passage?
| A．From Water Shortage and Sanitation to Poverty |
| B．Developing World, A Place Needs Help |
| C．Water Shortage and Sanitation, What Can We Do? |
| D．Water Shortage and Sanitation |
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will lose most of its coral cover by 2050 and, at worst, the world’s largest coral system could collapse by 2100 because of global warming, a study recently said.
The study by Queensland University’s Center for Marine Studies, commissioned (委托) by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said that the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef was unavoidable due to global warming, regar
dless of what actions were taken now. “Under the worst-case scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 and the reestablishment of coral reefs will be highly unlikely over the following 200-500 years,” said the report entitled “Implications (可能的影响) of Climate Change for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.”
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living reef formation stretching 2,000 km north to south along Australia’s northeast coast. “Only if global average temperature change is kept to below two degrees Celsius can the Reef have any change of recovering from the predicted damage,” the report said. Coral has a narrow comfort zone and is highly stressed by a temperature rise of less than one degree Celsius. Water temperature rises of less than one degree coincided (同时发生) with the world’s worst recorded coral bleaching (颜色变淡) period in 1988. The warmer water forces out the algae (海藻) that give coral its color and, if all are lost, the coral dies and the reef will die out. In 1988, 16 percent of the world’s coral died, with 46 percent of the Indian Ocean coral destroyed.
Scientists express water temperatures to rise this century by between two and six degrees Celsius. “There is little to no evidence that corals can adapt fast enough to match even the lower temperature rise,” said the report. Over-fishing and pollution from coastal farms were also contributing to the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef supports huge fishing and tourism industries. Even under favorable conditions tourists would only be able to experience real corals in reef “theme parks”.The underlined word “scenario” in Paragraph 2 probably means .
| A．imagination | B．intention | C．expectation | D．prediction |
From the passage, we can infer that .
| A．corals have no difficulty in adapting the temperature change |
| B．if we take quick actions we can avoid the destruction of corals |
| C．we can find corals in many areas of the seas or oceans |
| D．the algae help corals to live |
Which of the following is NOT the cause of the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef?
| A．Direct sunshine. | B．Over-fishing. |
| C．Global warming. | D．Pollution. |
By saying “Coral has a narrow comfort zone” (Para. 3), the author means .
| A．coral can only live in a small area |
| B．coral prefers a crowded place |
| C．coral can hardly adapt to the temperature change |
| D．coral grows best in a small area |
Singles Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one specially for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I googled “Singles Day” on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set up a special day for singles to celebrate their lives.
An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day and played Mahjong. One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the “four columns” card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov. 11. In order to remind them of the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.
Singles Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. These college students carried their university tradition into society after they graduated. Singles Day is now a special day for all.
The main way to celebrate Singles day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it’s important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. People also hold “blind date” parties in an attempt to say goodbye to their single lives.
For breakfast on Singles Day, singles often eat four youtiao
(deep-fried dough sitcks) representing the four “ones” in “11.11” and one baozi (steamed stuffed buns) representing the dot in between.
Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on the day. Many attend “blind date” parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In addition to meaning “single”, the four “ones” of the date can also mean “only one” as in “the only one for me”. Some p
eople will use this date an
d this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only “one” in their heart.Which of the statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Singles Day has a long history. |
| B．Only men celebrate Singles Day. |
C．Singles  Day is only celebrated in China. |
| D．Students in Nanjing University started Singles Day. |
People celebrate the festival mainly by .
| A．playing Mahjong | B．having dinner |
| C．getting married | D．hanging out with friends |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Singles Day |
| B．Four Single Men’s Singles Day |
| C．University Culture on Singles Day |
| D．Symbolic Food on Singles Day |
Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
(a-para.1 b-para.2 c-para.3 d-para.4 e-para.5 f-para.6)
| A． a | B． a | C． a | D． a |
b c d b c d f b d b c d e
e e c e f
f f
Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end — with commercials thrown in every three or four minutes. The commercials are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by (滑过) outside the bus window. Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of “You Need It! Buy It Now!”?
The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed — new houses, new buildings, someti
mes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is particularly careless or daring, the ride can be as thrilling as a horror story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left-hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus rides more interesting, but you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.
The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat, of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the arm rests — even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at the right time. There just no more ways to sit.The long bus rides and TV shows are alike, because .
| A．they both can offer people with thrilling stories |
| B．they both are boring |
| C．they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between |
| D．they both force people to sit for a long time |
During the whole bus ride, what come to the passengers’ eyes most frequently?
| A．Some salty food on the bus. | B．The programs on TV. |
| C．Advertisements on the road. | D．Trucks on the road. |
In order to pass the middle hours of the ride, you can .
| A．read the billboards | B．have something to eat |
| C．watch TV shows | D．sleep |
The purpose of the passage is to .
| A．show how much bus rides differ from TV shows |
| B．teach us how to deal with each period of a long bus ride |
| C．persuade readers to take a long bus ride |
| D．give the author’s opinion on long bus rides |
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