閱讀判斷分析 實(shí)戰(zhàn)演練 四

（四）A new start

After Christmas comes the anti-Christmas. If the festive season is all about filling up on the things you like that are bad for you, then the new year is the "detox season" — when people across the western world adopt special diets to lose weight and get rid of the vague feeling that they have spent the last few weeks poisoning themselves.

But are detox diets really necessary? After all, the body itself gets rid of unwanted substances. That's what the liver and kidney are for.

The detox fad—or fads, as there are many methods—is an example of the capacity of people to believe in and pay for magic despite the lack of any sound evidence, says Martin Wiseman, professor of human nutrition at the University of Southampaton in the UK.

Most of the pills, juices, teas and oils that are sold for their detoxifying effects on the body have no scientific foundation for their claims, according to the research. People would be better off having a glass of water and going to bed early.

Detox diets may be magic rather than science, but they are the kind of magic which many people want to perform. That may have something to do with the western diet in general.

Scientists and dieticians argue that the benefits people feel are not due to their body getting rid of excessive toxins but are due to changing from what is likely to have been a "poor" diet.

Having fewer headaches, for example, is probably the result of being fully hydrated due to drinking so much water and better skin may be due to eating more fruit and vegetables.

Detox diets may also be dangerous, as they may deprive vulnerable groups—pregnant women, for instance, or growing teenagers—of the kind of nutrients they need.

Yet their popularity continues to rise. This may be something to do with the way that food works within many western cultures. Generally, a country's food develops along with its economy and society. Food becomes part of a person's cultural identity.

In some countries, this link has been broken. In the UK, for example, rapid industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries saw millions of people move from the countryside to the towns interrupting the development of a national cuisine. The United States, a country of immigrants from many different places, have found it hard to develop a national cuisine. In both places, comparatively few people cook for themselves and food supply is dominated by big processing and agribusiness companies.

Detox diets are more popular in these countries than in places like France and Italy, where strong links between food and national culture remain, and where far more people regularly cook for themselves instead of buying processed foods.

Perhaps detox diets are successful because many westerners have lost trust in what they eat. On the other hand, they may help re-introduce people to the kind of food that is necessary for a healthy diet. And after learning that, they won't poison themselves in the first place.

This would mean radical changes in the way that people eat across the west. And that would be an unwelcome development for the food industry. From the business point of view, it is much better to sell people the problem and then sell them the solution.

1. Detox begins after Christmas when people think they have been overeating during the Christmas season and have taken in many substances that are bad for their health.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

2. Many pregnant women and growing teenagers are suffering from mal-nutrition because of the detox-diets they take.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

3. Both the UK and the USA lack a national cuisine as a result of similar historical development.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

4. The French and the Italians cook for themselves more often than the British and the Americans, which helps them to keep the link between food and their culture.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

5. On the whole the eastern people like the Chinese and the Japanese have a stronger link between their food and their culture than the western people.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

6. A positive effect of detox diets is that it helps people to see what food are good for the health.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

7. Food industry would make even greater profits if people should all start to eat healthy foods and stop poisoning themselves.

A. Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned

［答案解析］

1．B。［解析］題干大意：圣誕節(jié)過后，人們開始認(rèn)為，他們在圣誕節(jié)期間吃了過多對健康有害的物質(zhì)。文章第二句主要提到新年是排毒減肥的季節(jié)，故判斷文章主題為：從新年開始排毒減肥。故答案為B。

2．B。［解析］題干大意：孕婦和正在發(fā)育的青少年正在遭受由于排毒飲食所造成的營養(yǎng)不良。第八段提到排毒飲食可能也有危險(xiǎn)，因?yàn)樗赡軙鼓切┹^脆弱的人群，例如孕婦和正在發(fā)育的青少年喪失他們需要的營養(yǎng)，故答案為B。

3．B。［解析］題干大意：英國和美國由于相同的歷史發(fā)展背景都缺少國家美食。文章第九段和第十段提到造成英美兩國缺乏民族美食的主要原因不是因?yàn)檫@兩個國家的歷史發(fā)展過程類似，而是分別由于不同的原因：英國是因?yàn)楣I(yè)化，同時這兩個國家食品供應(yīng)被大型食品加工公司和農(nóng)業(yè)綜合企業(yè)控制。

4．A。［解析］題干大意：法國人和意大利人經(jīng)常自己烹飪，這有助于他們保持食物和文化之間的關(guān)系。文章第十段和十一段提到在法國和意大利食物和民族文化之間存在著強(qiáng)烈的聯(lián)系，在這兩個國家人們會經(jīng)常自己做飯而不是去購買加工食品，故答案選A。

5．C。［解析］題干大意：大體上，在東方，像中國和日本，食物和文化的聯(lián)系比西方更強(qiáng)烈。文章并未體現(xiàn)這方面的說法，故答案為C。

6．A。［解析］題干大意：排毒飲食的積極影響是它能幫助人們認(rèn)清什么食物對健康是有益的。文章倒數(shù)第二段提到：或許排毒飲食是有成效的，因?yàn)樵S多西方人已經(jīng)不再相信他們吃的東西。而另一方面，它可能幫助人們重新認(rèn)識健康的飲食所必需的食物。故選A。

7．B。［解析］題干大意：如果人們都開始吃有益于健康的食物，停止毒害他們自己，食品業(yè)將獲得更大的利潤。文章最后一段提到：這可能意味著西方人的飲食方式發(fā)生根本的變化，而這對食品工業(yè)來說不是一個受歡迎的變化，故答案為B。