Americans Try High-Tech Weight Loss Option
非理性减肥
燕山大学 刘立军
TRANSCRIPT
We Americans have gone nearly certifiably insane over our weight.
It wasn't enough that the government completely re-designed its "food pyramid" nutrition guide into colored bands—wide ones for recommended good stuff like (Q1) grains and green veggies, skinny bands for naughty (Q2) sugars and fats. Or that it tries, with little success, to teach us the difference between "good fats" and "bad fats."
We did the grapefruit diet. Then the low-fat, low-carbohydrate, high-carbohydrate, South Beach, Detox, Protein Power, Atkins and Zone diets. We count calories or point totals assigned to each and every morsel of food. We grunt through treadmill ordeals, jazzy exercises, and contorted (Q3) workouts on machines straight out of the inquisition.
But in the mirror, we're still (Q4) a long way from Adonis and Aphrodite.
A new dieting service allows people to take pictures of their meal to email to a nutritionist for (Q5) feedback.
So someone has combined three American obsessions—with weight, with technology, and with (Q6) convenience and comfort—into something called a "dieting service."
Here's how it works: before you put even a speck of food in your mouth—a potato chip, a stick of gum, a beefsteak dinner—you flip open your camera phone, snap a picture of the item, and e-mail it to a (Q7) dietician. No need to count calories: the picture tells the tale.
Some time after you've dined, back comes the dietician's analysis—and perhaps a (Q8) scolding—on an Internet Web site designed especially for you.
According to common perceptions, Italians gorge from pasta bowls the size of Sicily; Frenchmen drink jeroboams of red wine; and Greeks can seemingly drip vats of olive oil directly into their veins. They all look like (Q9) supermodels and live to 125. Weight-obsessed Americans have been reduced to photographing our every crust of bread, (Q10) in the hope that a picture can save 1,000 calories.
VOCABULARY
1. certifiable adj. 极不理智的；愚蠢透顶的 If you describe someone as certifiable, you think that their behaviour is extremely unreasonable or foolish.
2. insane adj. 精神错乱的；精神失常的；疯狂的 Someone who is insane has a mind that does not work in a normal way, with the result that their behaviour is very strange. 例如：
· Some people simply can't take it and they just go insane. 一些人完全承受不了，结果就精神失常了。
· Agnes was a battered woman who had killed, in self-defense, while temporarily insane. 阿格尼丝是个备受虐待的女人, 她在一时精神错乱下出于自我防卫杀了人。
3. veggies n. 蔬菜 Veggies are plants such as cabbages, potatoes, and onions which you can cook and eat. 例如：
· ...well-balanced meals of fresh fruit and veggies, chicken, fish, pasta, and no red meat. 包含新鲜水果和蔬菜、鸡肉、鱼肉、意大利面，不含红色肉类的搭配均衡的饮食。
4. grapefruit n. 葡萄柚；西柚 A grapefruit is a large, round, yellow fruit, similar to an orange, that has a sharp, slightly bitter taste.
5. morsel n. a small amount or a piece of sth., especially food 少量，一块（食物）。例如：
· a tasty morsel of food 一点可口的食物
· He ate it all, down to the last morsel. 他全吃光了，一点不剩。
6. treadmill n. work or a way of life that is boring or tiring because it involves always doing the same things 枯燥无味的工作（或生活方式）。例如：
· I'd like to escape the office treadmill. 我想摆脱办公室的枯燥工作。
7. ordeal n. 煎熬；磨难；折磨 If you describe an experience or situation as an ordeal, you think it is difficult and unpleasant. 例如：
· ...the painful ordeal of the last eight months... 过去8个月的痛苦煎熬
· She described her agonising ordeal. 她描述了自己备受折磨的苦难经历。
8. inquisition n. 调查；查究；（尤指）盘问 An inquisition is an official investigation, especially one which is very thorough and uses harsh methods of questioning.
9. Adonis: an extremely attractive young man 英俊青年；<希神> <罗神> 阿多尼斯（爱与美的女神阿芙罗狄娜所爱恋的美少年），美少年
10. Aphrodite: <希神> 阿芙罗狄蒂（爱与美的女神）
11. flip v. 迅速打开（或关掉）（装置）；按（开关） If you flip a device on or off, or if you flip a switch, you turn it on or off by pressing the switch quickly. 例如：
· He didn't flip on the headlights until he was two blocks away. 他开出两个街区后才打开车头灯。
· Then he walked out, flipping the lights off. 然后他走了出来，把灯关掉了。
12. gorge v. 贪婪地吃；狼吞虎咽 If you gorge on something or gorge yourself on it, you eat lots of it in a very greedy way. 例如：
· I could spend each day gorging on chocolate. 我可以每天只吃巧克力就够了。
· ...teenagers gorging themselves on ice-cream sundaes. 大口吃着圣代冰激凌的青少年
13. jeroboams n. a wine bottle which holds four or six times as much wine as an ordinary bottle （容量相当于普通酒瓶四倍或六倍的）大酒瓶
QUESTIONS
Fill in the blanks with the words or phrases you hear in the news.
We Americans have gone nearly certifiably insane over our weight.
It wasn't enough that the government completely re-designed its "food pyramid" nutrition guide into colored bands—wide ones for recommended good stuff like (Q1) ____________ and green veggies, skinny bands for naughty (Q2) ___________________and fats. Or that it tries, with little success, to teach us the difference between "good fats" and "bad fats."
We did the grapefruit diet. Then the low-fat, low-carbohydrate, high-carbohydrate, South Beach, Detox, Protein Power, Atkins and Zone diets. We count calories or point totals assigned to each and every morsel of food. We grunt through treadmill ordeals, jazzy exercises, and contorted (Q3)________________________ on machines straight out of the inquisition. But in the mirror, we're still (Q4) ________________________ from Adonis and Aphrodite.
A new dieting service allows people to take pictures of their meal to email to a nutritionist for (Q5) ___________________________.
So someone has combined three American obsessions—with weight, with technology, and with (Q6) _______________________________—into something called a "dieting service."
Here's how it works: before you put even a speck of food in your mouth—a potato chip, a stick of gum, a beefsteak dinner—you flip open your camera phone, snap a picture of the item, and e-mail it to a (Q7) ____________________________. No need to count calories: the picture tells the tale.
Some time after you've dined, back comes the dietician's analysis—and perhaps a (Q8) _______________________—on an Internet Web site designed especially for you.
According to common perceptions, Italians gorge from pasta bowls the size of Sicily; Frenchmen drink jeroboams of red wine; and Greeks can seemingly drip vats of olive oil directly into their veins. They all look like (Q9)____________________________ and live to 125. Weight-obsessed Americans have been reduced to photographing our every crust of bread, (Q10) __________________________ that a picture can save 1,000 calories.
KEY
| QUESTION | KEY | NOTES |
| Q1 | grains | 注意名词单复数 |
| Q2 | sugars | 注意名词单复数 |
| Q3 | workouts | 注意名词单复数 |
| Q4 | a long way | 短语搭配 |
| Q5 | feedback | |
| Q6 | convenience and comfort | |
| Q7 | dietician | 注意名词最后拼写 |
| Q8 | scolding | 动名词 |
| Q9 | supermodels | 注意名词单复数 |
| Q10 | in the hope | 短语搭配 |