Sciences/GE
Part 1 Reading ( 15 pts)
A) Comprehension (08pts)
Read the text carefully and do the activities.
The health time bomb of obesity is exploding. Already one in three UK children is obese or overweight. Unless we act, by 2050 over half of adults and almost half of children will be clinically obese. Given that obesity takes, on average, 13 years from the life of sufferers, this could lead to the first fall in life expectancy for over 300 years.
A key cause of the obesity crisis is our poor diet. The vast majority of UK children consume too much salt, fat and sugar and almost all of them don't get enough fruits and vegetables. In addition to obesity, poor diet is causing a rise in diabetes, heart diseases and other health problems.
It is no coincidence that children eat the foods they see on advertisements. Marketers spend over £ 300 million on food promotion - almost always unhealthy - on TV before 9 pm, and this money is not wasted. Children and parents both say the constant marketing of funk food is one reason why they consume so much of it. In fact almost three- quarters of parents say that junk food advertising influences their children's food choice. Of course children's diets are the responsibility of their parents. But hard-pressed mums and dads need some help.
To ban junk food advertising before 9pm is the best way to protect children. Over 70 per cent of children's TV viewing is outside the hours of children's TV (when the government's advertising restrictions apply). The commercial TV programmes that children watch most are Ant & Dec, The X Factor and Coronation Street. Unless we protect children from TV adverts during these programmes we will not tackle the obesity crisis.
1. Are the following statements true or false?
a. One of the three children in UK is obese.
b. Diabetes, hearth diseases and other health problems are linked to obesity
c. Children eat food they see on TV.
2. Answer the following questions according to the text.
1) What is the key cause of obesity?
2) How much money do marketers spend on promoting food?
3) What should be done to protect children from consuming junk food?
3. What do the underlined words refer to in the text?
a. this (§ 1)
b. they (§3)
c. they (§ 4)
B.Text Exploration (07pts)
1. Find in the text words that are opposite in meaning to the following.
a. slim (§1) b. healthy (§3) c. inside (§4)
2. Add two more words to each list of words.
consumer trader ………… …………
tasting Eating ………… …………
never Generally ………… …………
soda pizza ………… …………
3. Complete sentence B so that it means the same as sentence A.
a. Unless we act now, half of the children will be clinically obese.
b. If we ..............................................................................................
a. He said, ‘we must avoid junk food.’
b. He said that ......................................
a. It is possible to buy and eat fresh food.
b. We ..........................................................
4. Classify the following words according to the pronunciation of their final S.
advertisers - cooks - diseases - promotes - newspapers - packages
5. Complete the following dialogue.
A: What have we got for lunch, mum?
B: .............................................................
A: But you know that I hate vegetables.
B:. .............................................................
A: Well, you adults always say that.
B: ........................................................
A: In fact, it is so tasty to eat junk food.
B: .............................................................
A: Don’t worry mum, I’m still young.
B: ............................................................
Part 2. Written expression(5 pts)
Choose one of the following topics.
Topic 1.
The next decades are likely to bring about radical changes in our life styles. Fast food and junk food are invading our houses.
In a short paragraph, say why this happens and what consequences of such changes are.
Topic 2.
Are you personally concerned about the food you eat?
Name, in a short paragraph, the foods you won’t eat and give the reasons why.