3. Less smoking
Bad news: smokers really do tend to be thinner than the rest of us, and quitting really does pack on the pounds, though no one isn’t sure why. It probably has something to do with the fact that nicotine is an appetite suppressant and appears to up your metabolic rate. Katherine Flegal and colleagues at the US National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, have calculated that people kicking the habit have been responsible for a small but significant portion of the US epidemic of fatness. From data collected around 1991 by the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, they worked out that people who had quit in the previous decade were much more likely to be overweight than smokers and people who had never smoked. Among men, for example, nearly half of quitters were overweight compared with 37% of non-smokers and only 28%of smokers.
Michael Symonds at the University of Nottingham, UK, found that first-born children have more fat than younger ones. As family size decreases, firstborns account for a greater share of the population. In 1964, British women gave birth to an average of 2.95 children; by 2005 that figure had fallen to 1.79. In the US in 1976, 9.6% of woman in their 40s had only one child; in 2004 it was 17.4%. This combination of older mothers and more single children could be contributing to the obesity epidemic.
7. Like marrying like
Just as people pair off according to looks, so they do for size. Lean people are more likely to marry lean an d fat more likely to marry fat. On its own, like marrying like cannot account for any increase in obesity. But combined with others —— particularly the fact that obesity is partly genetic, and that heavier people have more children-it amplifies the increase form other causes.
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A) Effects of obesity on people’s health
B) The link between lifestyle and obesity
C) New explanations for the obesity epidemic
D) Possible ways to combat the obesity epidemic
2. In the US Nurses’ Health Study, women who slept an average of 7 hours a night _______.
A) gained the least weight
B) were inclined to eat less
C) found their vigor enhanced
D) were less susceptible to illness
3. The popular belief about obesity is that _______.
A) it makes us sleepy
B) it causes sleep loss
C) it increases our appetite
D) it results from lack of sleep
4. How does indoor heating affect our life?
A) It makes us stay indoors more
B) It accelerates our metabolic rate
C) It makes us feel more energetic
D) It contributes to our weight gain
Bad news: smokers really do tend to be thinner than the rest of us, and quitting really does pack on the pounds, though no one isn’t sure why. It probably has something to do with the fact that nicotine is an appetite suppressant and appears to up your metabolic rate. Katherine Flegal and colleagues at the US National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, have calculated that people kicking the habit have been responsible for a small but significant portion of the US epidemic of fatness. From data collected around 1991 by the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, they worked out that people who had quit in the previous decade were much more likely to be overweight than smokers and people who had never smoked. Among men, for example, nearly half of quitters were overweight compared with 37% of non-smokers and only 28%of smokers.
Michael Symonds at the University of Nottingham, UK, found that first-born children have more fat than younger ones. As family size decreases, firstborns account for a greater share of the population. In 1964, British women gave birth to an average of 2.95 children; by 2005 that figure had fallen to 1.79. In the US in 1976, 9.6% of woman in their 40s had only one child; in 2004 it was 17.4%. This combination of older mothers and more single children could be contributing to the obesity epidemic.
7. Like marrying like
Just as people pair off according to looks, so they do for size. Lean people are more likely to marry lean an d fat more likely to marry fat. On its own, like marrying like cannot account for any increase in obesity. But combined with others —— particularly the fact that obesity is partly genetic, and that heavier people have more children-it amplifies the increase form other causes.
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A) Effects of obesity on people’s health
B) The link between lifestyle and obesity
C) New explanations for the obesity epidemic
D) Possible ways to combat the obesity epidemic
2. In the US Nurses’ Health Study, women who slept an average of 7 hours a night _______.
A) gained the least weight
B) were inclined to eat less
C) found their vigor enhanced
D) were less susceptible to illness
3. The popular belief about obesity is that _______.
A) it makes us sleepy
B) it causes sleep loss
C) it increases our appetite
D) it results from lack of sleep
4. How does indoor heating affect our life?
A) It makes us stay indoors more
B) It accelerates our metabolic rate
C) It makes us feel more energetic
D) It contributes to our weight gain