Question

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that too many kids are eating too much pizza and too many calories are doing harm to children’s health.

“There are a lot of takeaways from the study. But the biggest thing is that parents are serving their kids too much pizza,” said Dr.William Dietz, one of the study’s authors and the director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at the Milken Institute of Public Health at the George Washington University.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which tracked the diets of more than 11,000 children and teenagers. Researchers figured how many children eat pizza in the United States, how often they eat it, and how much they eat when they do.

Pizza, pretty alarmingly, is the second leading source of calories in the diets of America’s children, next only to grain desserts, such as cookies and other sweets. On any given day, roughly 20 percent of all children aged 2 to 11 and adolescents aged 12 to 19 eat pizza. And when they do, they eat a lot of it. When children eat pizza, they eat roughly 400 calories, according to the study. For teenagers, it’s upwards of 600 calories.

All that is pretty problematic, according to Dietz largely because kids don’t tend to balance the pizza slices with salads, vegetables and other more nutritional(有营养的) foodstuffs. Days on which children and teenagers eat pizza are not only associated with considerably higher intakes of fat, but also, quite simply, with more food: on average, children consume 84 extra calories on the days they eat pizza, while adolescents consume an extra 230 calories.

“When you eat extra calories and don’t compensate(抵偿) for them at another point of the day or week, it can lead to weight gain and even obesity.”Dietz said.

There is a Silver lining. Pizza consumption is still too high by nutrition standards, but it’s lower than it used to be. Consumption(消费) fell by roughly 25 percent between 2007 and 2016, according to the study. Much of that has come at dinner where it's fallen by 40 percent for children and about 33 percent for teenagers. It’s unclear whether the decline has been in connection with a growing concern over obesity, especially among the country’s youth.

But the drop in pizza consumption, while significant hasn’t been big enough “It’s a positive trend,” Dietz said. “But we’re not quite them yet.”

It’s easy to see the appeal of pizza. It’s cheap. Parents can buy a lot of pizza for not a lot of money. Besides, they can buy pizza from a chain shop, a mom-and-pop store or a grocery freezer. And it’s universally loved. The estimated 3 billion pizza eaten each year in the United States is a proof of the food’s unmatched popularity. Given how much the country loves pizza, what’s to be done? Dietz suggests pizza with smaller serving sizes and healthier toppings(配料). “We’re not suggesting that kids avoid pizza altogether.” said Dietz. “But when parents serve it, it’s important that they understand it’s extremely caloric. They should serve smaller pizza, or at least smaller slices.”

1.According to the study, the problem with kids is that      .

A. they are overweight    B. they have too many takeaways

C. they are fed too much pizza    D. they have very bad health

2.How did the researchers get the result?

A. Through interviewing.    B. By analyzing data.

C. By tracking kids’ diets.    D. Through experimenting.

3.We know from the passage that when kids eat pizza,       .

A. they usually don’t eat other food    B. they eat less of other food

C. they are not likely to balance their diet    D. they usually eat with vegetables

4.What does the underlined part a silver lining in Paragraph 7 probably mean?

A. Something hopeful    B. Something valuable.

C. Something miserable.    D. Something successful.

5.What’s the key message of the last paragraph?

A. Pizza consumption fell significantly in America.

B. Pizza has many advantages over other food.

C. Eating too much pizza can lead to failing health and obesity.

D. The pizza problem may be improved through its size and topping.

Answer

1. C

2. B

3. C

4. A

5. D

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了研究人员通过分析《国民健康与营养检查》的数据发现儿童吃过多的披萨，而且不愿在披萨和沙拉、蔬菜及其他更有营养的食物之间取得平衡，导致体重增加和肥胖问题，专家建议通过把披萨的尺寸变小和用更健康的配料来解决披萨问题。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段中的“On any given day, roughly 20 percent of all children aged 2 to 11 and adolescents aged 12 to 19 eat pizza. And when they do, they eat a lot of it. When children eat pizza, they eat roughly 400 calories, according to the study.”可知，调查发现20%的儿童和青少年会吃过多的披萨，导致卡路里的摄入量过多，故C项正确。

2.细节理解题。根据第一段中的“The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,”可知，研究人员是通过分析《国民健康与营养检查》的数据得出结果的，故B项正确。

3.细节理解题。根据第二段中的“kids don’t tend to balance the pizza slices with salads, vegetables and other more nutritional foodstuffs.”可知，孩子们不愿在披萨和沙拉、蔬菜及其他更有营养的食物之间取得平衡，故C项正确。

4.词义猜测题。根据画线词后的“Pizza consumption is still too high by nutrition standards, but it’s lower than it used to be.”可知，从营养标准来看，披萨的消费量依然过高，但是已经比过去低了，这让我们在解决披萨问题上看到了一线希望，由此可知画线词词义为“有希望的东西”，故A项正确。

5.细节理解题。根据最后一段中的“Given how much the country loves pizza, what’s to be done? Dietz suggests pizza with smaller serving sizes and healthier toppings”可知，Dietz建议通过把披萨的尺寸变小和用更健康的配料来解决披萨问题，故D项正确。