外酥里嫩的雞翅薯條、咬下去肉汁四溢的漢堡肉排、抱著膨化食品坐在家里當“沙發(fā)土豆”仿佛就擁有了整個世界!這些令人垂涎欲滴的垃圾食品廣告魅力到底有多大,讓肥胖的人“欲罷不能”、也讓政府和健康組織愁容滿面。
測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識:
curb 抑制;路邊;勒馬繩[k??b]
long-awaited 被期待已久的['l???,wet?d]
exposure 曝光;揭露[?k'sp????; ek-]
draft document 草案
demographic 人口統(tǒng)計學的[,dem?'gr?f?k]
mandatory 強制的['m?nd?t(?)r?]
successor 繼承者[s?k'ses?]
parliamentary 國會的;議會制度的
hydrogenated vegetable oils 氫化植物油
cardiovascular 心血管的[,kɑ?d???'v?skj?l?]
閱讀馬上開始,建議您計算一下閱讀整篇文章所用的時間,對照下方的參考值就可以評估出您的英文閱讀水平。
4分49秒 母語為英語者的朗讀速度 140
2分49秒 母語為英語的中學生的閱讀速度 250
1分43秒 母語為英語的大學生的閱讀速度 350
0分57秒 母語為英語的速讀高手 1000
UK wants to ban junk food adverts during prime-time shows(573 words)
By Scheherazade Daneshkhu and Sarah Neville
-----------------------------------------------------
Strict curbs on junk food advertisements during popular British TV shows, such as The X Factor, and measures to limit promotions of unhealthy snacks are likely to be included in a long-awaited government white paper on child obesity.
A draft of the document, seen by the FT, suggests that the government has taken aim at television advertising around Saturday night shows.
These escape the usual restrictions on advertising during children’s programmes because, as family programmes, children are not their sole audience.
The government will “put in place additional targeted and proportionate measures to further reduce families’ exposure to adverts for unhealthy food”, according to the draft document.
It said: “This will mean that fewer of the shows watched by many of our children — including some popular Saturday night entertainment — will contain adverts for unhealthy foods.”
One option under consideration is an adjustment to the audience index, the method used to determine whether a programme appeals disproportionately to a particular demographic group, in this case children.
Other measures include asking retailers to stop promotions that involve unhealthy food and asking food producers to cut the amount of sugar in their products by at least 20 per cent by 2020 — but these measures would not be mandatory.
Tackling the growing problem of childhood obesity was a priority area for David Cameron, former prime minister. The government decided in the March Budget to levy a sugar tax on carbonated drinks in 2018.
His successor, Theresa May has made few, if any, public pronouncements on health and the status of the new white paper, while signed off by Mr Cameron, is unclear. The wait for the document to reach the top of her in-tray could push back publication from next week to beyond the end of the parliamentary session.
The government also proposes to follow the US in legislating against the use of harmful trans fats — such as hydrogenated vegetable oils — in England from the end of 2017. Manufacturers have already been cutting their use of trans fats, which are now estimated to account for less than 1 per cent of daily food energy. Action on Sugar, the lobby group headed by Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University, criticised the proposed initiatives as “pathetic” for failing to set mandatory sugar reduction targets. Voluntary measures tended to be eroded by the food industry, it said.
Prof McGregor called on Theresa May in her new capacity as prime minister to review the strategy and make it more “robust”. He said: “It is a huge opportunity following Brexit for the British food industry, which has led the world in reducing salt, to lead also the world in preventing obesity and type 2 diabetes.”
Tim Rycroft, corporate affairs director at the Food and Drink Federation, the industry group, said: “I would be heartened if there were a commitment to work in partnership with the industry. The idea of an industry-wide sugar reduction target doesn’t make sense because different food categories have to proceed at a different pace.”
The Food and Drink Federation called on the government last week to put on hold the sugar tax on carbonated drinks, scheduled for 2018, because of the Brexit vote. “At a time when business and consumer confidence is fragile, the government has to be careful not to impose additional burdens on business,” said Mr Rycroft.
There are currently 1.6m obese children, equivalent to one in five of those aged 12.
請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內容,完成以下自測題目:
1. Which day’s night shows have been the target according to a draft of the document?
A. Friday
B. Sunday
C. Saturday
D. Monday
2. What kind of condiment was asked to cut the amount by 2020?
A. oil
B. salt
C. sugar
D. axunge
3. What should be avoided in legislating by US government?
A. trans fats
B. animal fat
C. sugar
D. protein
4. How many children might be obese among ten 12-year-old boys?
A. 2
B. 4
C. 6
D. 8
[1] 答案 C. Saturday
解釋:根據(jù)FT看到的文件顯示,周六晚間的電視節(jié)目成為這次禁令的目標。
[2] 答案 C. sugar
解釋:食品制造商被要求在2020年以前減少百分之20以上的用糖量,不過這個措施并不是強制的。
[3] 答案 A. trans fats
解釋:現(xiàn)代認為人造的反式脂肪酸是比飽和脂肪酸更不健康的脂肪酸,美國加工食品內的反式脂肪已經幾乎消失(因為法令規(guī)定一定要誠實標示、而公眾也知道反式脂肪比飽和脂肪危險許多),并即將正式全面禁用部分氫化植物油,而也有多起因反式脂肪而引起的法律訴訟正在進行。
[4] 答案 A. 2
解釋:文章最后一段,估測在12歲的孩子中五分之一有過胖的問題。