英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 8

[00:01.00]Lesson 8 Should We Diet in Order to Keep Fit?;

[00:00.69]II. Read;

[00:03.88]Read the following passages. Underline the important view- points while reading;

[00:11.81]1.We Should All Grow   Fat and Be Happy;

[00:18.20]Here's a familiar version of the boy- meets-girl situation;

[00:23.95]A young man has at last plucked up courage;

[00:28.74]to invite a dazzling young lady out to dinner.;

[00:32.25]She has accepted his invitation and he is overjoyed.;

[00:37.95]He is determined to take her to the best restaurant in town,;

[00:42.79]even if it means that he will have to live on memories and hopes;

[00:47.85]during the month to come.;

[00:50.51]When they get to the restaurant,;

[00:53.81]he discovers that this etherial creature is on a diet.;

[00:59.13]She mustn't eat this and she mustn't drink that.;

[01:03.82]Oh,but of course,she doesn't want to spoil his enjoyment.;

[01:09.30]Let him by all means eat as much fattening food as he wants:;

[01:15.21]it's the surest way to an early grave.;

[01:19.04]They spend a truly memorable evening together and never see each other again;

[01:25.69]What a miserable lot dieters are!;

[01:29.21]You can always recognize them from the sour expression on their faces.;

[01:35.12]They spend most of their time turning their noses up at food.;

[01:40.70]They are forever consulting calorie charts;;

[01:44.49]gazing at themselves in mirrors;;

[01:47.15]and leaping on to weighing-machines in the bathroom.;

[01:50.93]They spend a lifetime fighting a losing battle against spreading hips,;

[01:57.26]protruding tummies and double chins. Some wage all-out war on fat.;

[02:05.30]Mere dieting is not enough.;

[02:08.12]They exhaust themselves doing exercises,;

[02:12.11]sweating in sauna baths,being pummelled and massaged by weird machines.;

[02:19.99]The really wealthy diet-mongers pay vast sums for "health cures".;

[02:26.48]For two weeks they can enter a "nature clinic";

[02:30.95]and be starved to death for a hundred guineas a week.;

[02:35.05]Don't think it's only the middle-aged who go in for these fads either.;

[02:41.81]Many of these bright young things you see are suffering from chronic malnutrition;

[02:48.73]they are living on nothing but air, water and the goodwill of God.;

[02:55.55]Dieters undertake to starve themselves of their own free will;

[03:01.40]so why are they so miserable? Well,for one thing, they're always hungry.;

[03:09.01]You can't be hungry and happy at the same time.;

[03:13.91]All the horrible concoctions they eat instead of food;

[03:18.81]leave them permanently dissatisfied.;

[03:21.84]"Wonder food is a complete food," the advertisement says.";

[03:28.02]Just dissolve a teaspoonful in water...";

[03:32.01]A complete food it may be,but not quite as complete as a juicy steak.;

[03:38.72]And,of course, they're always miserable because they feel so guilty.;

[03:44.68]Hunger just proves too much for them and in the end they lash out;

[03:50.43]and devour five huge guilt-inducing cream cakes at a sitting.;

[03:56.34]And who can blame them?;

[03:59.21]At least three times a day they are exposed to temptation.;

[04:04.48]What utter torture it is;

[04:07.67]always watching others tucking into piles of mouth- watering food;

[04:12.89]while you munch a water biscuit and sip unsweetened lemon juice!;

[04:18.43]What's all this self-inflicted torture for?;

[04:22.95]Saintly people deprive themselves of food to attain a state of grace.;

[04:29.87]Unsaintly people do so to attain a state of misery.;

[04:35.62]It will be a great day;

[04:37.96]when all the dieters in the world abandon their slimming courses;;

[04:43.23]when they hold out their plates and demand second helpings!;

[04:48.82]2.I Feel Better with   Vegetarian Food;

[04:55.31]I grew up in Texas on double cheeseburgers with hickory sauce,chili,;

[05:02.50]fried chicken,T-bone steaks,and eggs.;

[05:07.66]Many people report that they lose the taste for animal foods;

[05:13.31]after eating a vegetarian diet for a while,;

[05:17.14]but it hasn't fully happened to me.;

[05:20.33]I still enjoy the way animal foods taste and smell,;

[05:25.39]but I usually don't eat them.;

[05:28.32]Why not? Because I like the way I feel when I don't eat these foods;

[05:34.61]so much more than the pleasure I used to get from eating them.;

[05:39.65]I have much more energy,I need less sleep,I feel calmer,;

[05:46.79]I can maintain an ideal body weight without worrying about how much I eat;

[05:53.23]and I can think more clearly (although some might debate the last point).;

[05:59.88]I began making some dietary and lifestyle changes;

[06:04.83]during my second year of college and have been eating this way ever since.;

[06:11.54]I wasn't worried about coronary heart disease at age nineteen--;

[06:16.92]my cholesterol level then was only 125 (and it still is).;

[06:24.53]I began feeling better after I started eating this way,;

[06:29.37]so I continue to do so.;

[06:32.25]Eating this diet probably will help me to live longer,;

[06:37.52]but it's not my primary motivation. Feeling better is.;

[06:43.42]In my clinical experience,;

[06:46.51]I often find that fear may be enough motivation;

[06:50.67]for some people to begin a diet,but it's usually not enough to sustain it;

[06:57.05]As I've said earlier who wants to live longer if you're not enjoying life?;

[07:03.81]Since I began making these dietary changes in 1972,;

[07:09.88]eating this way has become increasingly accepted.;

[07:14.77]Beans and grains are becoming,believe it or not,high-status foods.;

[07:21.91]3.High-fat Diet,   Little Strength;

[07:28.99]You bring one of our football players in;

[07:32.71]and put them on a stationary exercise bicycle;

[07:36.12]and tell them to work as hard as they can for as long as they can,;

[07:41.07]and you'll time them.;

[07:43.36]Say the guy lasts for eight minutes, and then he's just exhausted.;

[07:50.17]Then for three days you put him on a high-fat diet.;

[07:55.34]He comes back in, goes on the bike and he'll last probably only six minutes.;

[08:02.95]He's lost that much strength.;

[08:05.98]Then put him on a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet for only three days,;

[08:13.11]and he'll probably go up to 12 minutes. It makes that much difference.;

[08:19.82]4.I Feel Great   Because I've Lost   All That Extra   Weight!;

[08:27.75]During my first year of college,;

[08:31.05]I gained forty pounds when I began throwing the javelin;

[08:35.79]For the next twenty years,;

[08:39.09]I carried all of this extra weight and kidded myself;

[08:43.77]that I was in good shape since that's what I weighed in college.;

[08:48.99]Now that I've lost all that extra weight,I feel great!;

[08:54.74]People say all the time,;

[08:57.61]"Well,how do you live without eating cheeseburgers or this or that?";

[09:03.20]and I say,"You just don't. It's not even an option.";

[09:09.06]It's not that hard once you get on it.;

[09:12.78]The most difficult parts for me are the social aspects of eating.;

[09:18.75]For example, hamburgers were hard to do without at first;

[09:23.86]because I identified eating them with fun times--;

[09:28.43]sitting on the floor with the kids watching television,;

[09:32.48]or in a fun place with people sitting around laughing,;

[09:36.63]drinking beer and eating burgers.;

[09:40.20]It's the same at a tailgate picnic at a football game.;

[09:44.88]It was hard--not because of the foods there,;

[09:49.35]but because of the social factors.;

[09:52.71]But once you understand that, then you can say,;

[09:57.76]"I can enjoy the social part without having to eat that food.";

[10:03.46]It's more what you're doing than the food itself.;

[10:08.52]5.Weight Watchers;

[10:13.52]Jean Nidetch was a professional dieter,;

[10:17.94]a housewife who tried every conceivable.;

[10:21.68]slimming fad,lost weight with each one,;

[10:25.66]then regained it thanks to her habit- ually "promiscuous" eating habits.;

[10:32.20]In 1961, when she sought help from the obesity clinic;

[10:38.11]run by New York City's Department of Health,;

[10:41.52]she was 38 years old and weighed 214 pounds.;

[10:47.32]The clinic put her on a diet by Dr. Norman Jolliffe,;

[10:52.38]best known for his "prudent diet".;

[10:55.78]Convinced that she couldn't stick to it alone,;

[10:59.93]Mrs.Nidetch invited some fat friends to form a group;

[11:05.79]and meet weekly to made horror stories;

[11:09.14](secret midnight binging in the bathroom);

[11:12.60]and helpful hints (put that doughnut in the freezer to cool temptation).;

[11:19.42]Established in 1963,;

[11:22.98]Weight Watchers expanded into an international network of clubs,;

[11:28.79]with a product line of diet drinks, sugar substitutes,;

[11:33.68]and publications-- the McDonald's of the reducing industry.;

[11:39.80]"My little private club has become an industry, ";

[11:44.27]wrote Mrs. Nidetch, amateur nutritionist in The Story of Weight Watchers (1975).;

[11:54.07]In 1978 the organization, with about $ 50 million in annual revenues;

[12:02.21]and a cumulative membership of close to 2 million,was bought by Heinz Foods.;

[12:09.56]Lesson 9 Is It a Good Idea to Control Population Growth in the World?;

[12:18.34]Text What Overpopulation Feels Like;

[12:25.42]We moved slowly through the city in a taxi;

[12:29.95]and entered a crowded slum district.;

[12:33.41]The temperature was well over 100 degrees;

[12:37.88]and the air was thick with dust and smoke.;

[12:41.92]The streets seemed alive with people.;

[12:45.70]People eating,people washing,people sleeping.;

[12:51.02]People visiting each other,arguing and screaming.;

[12:56.35]People pushing their hands through the taxi windows,begging;

[13:01.62]People relieving themselves.;

[13:04.65]People holding on to the sides of buses. People leading animals.;

[13:11.63]People,people,people people.;

[13:16.10]As we drove slowly through the crowd, sounding the taxi's horn,;

[13:22.22]the dust,heat,noise and cooking fires made it like a scene from Hell.;

[13:30.42]Would we ever get to our hotel? All three of us were, I admit, frightened.;

[13:39.25]Since that night, I've known what overpopulation feels like.;

[13:46.12]Statistics show that rapid population growth;

[13:51.02]creates problems for developing countries.;

[13:54.74]So why don't people have fewer children?;

[13:59.11]Statistics from the developed countries;

[14:02.89]suggest that it is only when people's living standards begin to rise;

[14:08.37]that birth rates begin to fall. There are good reasons for this.;

[14:14.81]Poor countries cannot afford social services and  old age pensions,;

[14:21.30]and people's incomes are so low they have nothing to spare for savings.;

[14:27.96]As a result,people look to their children;

[14:32.50]to provide them with security in their old age.;

[14:36.37]Having a large family can be a form of insurance.;

[14:41.79]And even while they are still quite young,;

[14:45.58]children can do a lot of useful jobs on a small farm.;

[14:50.47]So poor people in a developing country;

[14:54.20]will need to see clear signs of much better conditions ahead;

[14:58.88]before they will think of having smaller families.;

[15:02.66]But their conditions cannot be improved;

[15:06.33]unless there is a reduction in the rate at which population is increasing.;

[15:12.30]This will depend on a very much wider acceptance of family planning;

[15:18.26]and this in turn, will mean basic changes in attitudes.;

[15:24.86]II.Read;

[15:29.07]Read the following passages.;

[15:32.28]Underline the important viewpoints while reading.;

[15:36.73]1.Childless -- and   Happy That Way;

[15:43.76]In a country where most people believe;

[15:47.81]that a family is not a family without children,some young couples,;

[15:53.66]especially those with a higher education,;

[15:56.85]have chosen to keep their families to two members:husband and wife.;

[16:03.88]"I can't afford to have a child," said Wang,;

[16:07.98]a promising research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.;

[16:13.78]Wang has been busy travelling abroad and has received scholarship offers;

[16:20.17]from a number of American universities;

[16:23.04]that would enable him to complete his PHD.;

[16:27.04]"He is a free bird who may leave the nest any day;

[16:31.61]and I've never cared much about a child," said Xiao Wei, Wang's wife,;

[16:37.20]business representative of a French company in Beijing.;

[16:41.83]Unlike the Wangs, Zhang and his wife;

[16:46.09]have argued over whether they should have a baby.;

[16:49.50]"When we were married six years ago,;

[16:52.69]we decided to adopt a wait-and-see attitude on the issue.;

[16:57.86]And after a couple of years,;

[17:00.41]my wife said she wanted to have a baby;

[17:03.55]while I insisted we were just fine without one.;

[17:08.02]We have been arguing about the matter ever since,;

[17:12.33]and now that we are over 30,;

[17:14.94]I think we're likely to end up in accordance with my wishes" said Zhang.;

[17:21.92]"There are many marriages that should have long been broken.;

[17:26.97]People just hold on because a divorce would hurt the children most;

[17:32.56]and the parents hate to face that prospect.;

[17:36.87]So the couple sticks together and winds up torturing each other.;

[17:43.10]"A real happy family is a family that, without children,;

[17:48.86]is still a happy family," said Zhang.;

[17:52.90]Ma Jiang,who has opened a trading company;

[17:57.15]and was instantly - nicknamed Money Bags by his friends,;

[18:01.52]said he would hate to be bothered with a child.;

[18:05.08]"To me,being without a child,;

[18:08.60]I am less bound by household chores and can concentrate on my business.;

[18:15.36]My lovely wife is all I need,no third person," he said.;

[18:21.80]Ma's wife,Xiao Lu, working for a government unit,;

[18:27.71]could have quit her job and become dependent on her "rich" husband.;

[18:33.40]But she decided against it.;

[18:36.28]"I can't imagine what I would be like if I stayed at home,;

[18:41.60]doing household chores and breast- feeding a child.;

[18:45.91]I'd rather keep my independence at all costs," she said.;

[18:52.09]"Whatever people say,;

[18:54.43]I believe that to have a child means a lot of sacrifice.;

[18:59.43]We're just not ready for that,fun or misery,"Ma's wife said.;

[19:06.30]Hou Mingkun and his wife Luo Qian said they weren't against having a child,;

[19:13.75]boy or girl,if only the baby was physically well developed.;

[19:19.07]"One takes a risk when having a baby.;

[19:22.69]I've heard too many stories about children born with physical defects.;

[19:28.81]Since there's no guarantee that the same won't happen to my baby,;

[19:33.98]I think I'd better not get myself involved.;

[19:37.92]People say no pain, no gain,but for me it's no gain, no pain," Luo said.;

[19:47.39]The couple were classmates in high school;

[19:50.90]and went to the same university in Shanghai.;

[19:55.06]Now,they are working for a computer company in Beijing.;

[20:00.97]Those who choose not to have children;

[20:04.80]have to overcome some unexpected difficulties in def- ending their stance.;

[20:11.45]Influenced by the traditional view;

[20:14.86]that one's worst sin is having no descendants,;

[20:18.69]most people still accept that a wife is not a good wife;

[20:23.96]if she doesn't have a child.;

[20:26.67]Though few Chinese believe in an after-life,;

[20:30.77]they do care a lot about growing old.;

[20:34.29]For centuries,one of the purposes of having children, sons especially,;

[20:40.73]was to have someone take care of the parents when they were old.;

[20:45.94]"Now,since both husband and wife are working,;

[20:50.68]they will have a pension when they retire.;

[20:54.09]What happens now is that the retired parents;

[20:58.54]are supporting their adult children," Wang said.;

[21:03.03]"We're normal people,just like everyone else,;

[21:07.71]We've just chosen to live our own way which harms no one.;

[21:13.20]I hope people understand us," Wang said.;

[21:17.83]2.Three Babies Are   Born Every Second;

[21:24.85]There are over 3,800 million people in the world today,;

[21:31.45]and the total is increasing at the rate of more than 76 million a year.;

[21:38.16]United Nations experts have calculated;

[21:43.02]that it could be more than 7,000 million by the end of this century.;

[21:48.65]The population is growing more quickly in some parts of the world than others.;

[21:55.35]The continents with the fastest growth rates;

[21:58.81]are Latin America (2.9 percent) and Africa (2.6 percent);

[22:06.69]Asia comes third (2.1 percent);

[22:11.43]but because its present population is so large;

[22:15.64]it is there that by far the greatest number of people will be added;

[22:21.17]before the end of the century.;

[22:24.26]3.Population   Increase Has Wiped   out the Material   Benefits;

[22:31.80]People Have Achieved;

[22:34.58]Matthew:Sarah,is  there a need to  control population;

[22:39.75]only in countries like India,Africa, Brazil...;

[22:44.59]those countries that we call the underdeveloped countries,;

[22:49.17]or is there a case for limiting population in Europe for instance?;

[22:55.02]Sarah:The reason one  would have to limit  population;

[22:59.12]is because you're running out of food and you're running out of resources.;

[23:04.71]The people in Europe and America;

[23:07.96]consume a far greater proportion of the world's resources;

[23:12.38]and the world's food than they do in India.;

[23:16.21]So...um...population is directly related to... um..,;

[23:22.06]consumption and your general impact on the environment.;

[23:27.07]If as an individual your impact is far greater than anybody else's, um..,;

[23:33.72]then that is the factor that's important,;

[23:37.56]rather than how many people there are, or how many people can the world support.;

[23:43.73]Now it's...obviously in that sense,;

[23:48.15]it's possible to increase population;

[23:51.09]if everybody's willing to um...use less material or eat less food,;

[23:57.89]but it isn't if everybody's continu- ally wanting more and more and more,;

[24:04.06]and this is ...seems to be the trend at the moment..,;

[24:08.80]higher and higher consumption...;

[24:11.57]with at the same time a greatly expanding population.;

[24:16.52]And the problem in ... um... areas which are poor;

[24:21.79]and which have expanding populations is that they try and develop;

[24:26.77]and try and..,er... get.., er... more material benefits,;

[24:33.08]but as soon as they do this,the population increase;

[24:37.68]has wiped out any benefits that they may have um... achieved.;

[24:42.76]Matthew:But do you  feel;

[24:44.55]that this battle with a...a rapidly expanding population can be won?;

[24:51.02]Sarah:The most  sensible thing;

[24:53.46]is to realize that you can't go on expanding human populations for ever;

[24:58.79]and countries and individuals must decide to have a policy;

[25:03.43]which would limit population.;

[25:05.87]4.An African Woman  Says: "...the Men  Never Talk about It;

[25:13.37]"To us,children are the most important thing in life.;

[25:19.28]When we marry,it is not above all to get a husband or wife,;

[25:25.19]but to have children I had my thirteenth birth only a few months ago,;

[25:32.27]and most of my adult life I have had to care for a baby;

[25:37.32]as well as do all my other work in the house and in the fields.;

[25:42.43]For a long time I have wanted no more children,;

[25:47.06]hut I keep having them as long as I am with my husband.;

[25:51.91]A nurse comes to visit our village regularly.;

[25:55.79]She holds meetings for all the men and women together,;

[26:00.05]to explain about family planning.;

[26:03.30]Now these are well-known facts to us,;

[26:06.55]but still nobody in our village practises birth control.;

[26:11.44]When we sit together with the nurse,;

[26:14.90]everybody seems to agree that this is the right thing to do;

[26:19.75]when a family had grown big enough;

[26:22.04]to give the parents security in their old age,;

[26:25.71]and there are enough hands to attend to all the daily work.;

[26:30.61]But when we go home, the men never talk about it.;

[26:36.04]My husband and I attend every meeting;

[26:40.03]but in our home we have never talked about birth control.;

[26:45.03]I desperately want to stop having more children,;

[26:49.18]but this can only be done if my husband suggests it.";

[26:54.88]5.Free Birth Control   Techniques Should   Be Available   Everywhere;

[27:04.62]Matthew:Peter,what  sections of the  population;

[27:09.20]do you think free birth control techniques should be available to?;

[27:14.31]Peter:They should  be...available to  all sections of the  community er...;

[27:21.07]things are getting to such a pitch that I personally think that..,;

[27:26.39]er... not only should birth control methods be available;

[27:30.54]to all sections of the community,but indeed should be compulsory.;

[27:35.71]There should be some kind of law;

[27:38.32]which says that a family should not have more than three children,;

[27:42.58]a complete maximum of three children,;

[27:45.72]if they have three children then they must be obliged by law,almost,;

[27:51.62]to use birth control if not have er... various kinds of operation;

[27:57.85]which... um... make conception impossible.;

[28:02.96]Matthew:But surely  this is very er...  explosive in Social  terms?;

[28:08.92]Peter:It's very...  it's a very  totalitarian notion;

[28:13.29]but the alternative ...if we look around us in the world outside;

[28:18.40]is millions of people starving to death in places like India,;

[28:23.72]and people suffering from malnutrition in...;

[28:27.50]in other parts of the underdeveloped world..,;

[28:30.91]world and indeed even in parts of the dev...so called developed world.;

[28:38.25]6.It's a World   Problem;

[28:43.52]The rapid rise in world population;

[28:47.41]is not creating problems only for the developing countries.;

[28:52.57]The whole world faces the problem that raw materials are being used up;

[28:58.48]at an increasing rate;

[29:00.61]and food production can not keep up with the population increase.;

[29:05.88]People in the rich countries;

[29:08.75]make the heaviest demands on the world's resources,;

[29:12.41]its food,fuel and land,and cause the most pollution.;

[29:18.39]A baby born in the United States will use in his lifetime;

[29:24.30]30 times more of the world's resources than a baby born in India.;

[29:30.53]Unless all the countries of the world take united action;

[29:35.37]to deal with the population explosion;

[29:38.19]there will be more and more people fig- hting for a share of less and less land,;

[29:43.78]food and fuel,and the future will bring poverty,;

[29:47.96]misery and war to us all.;