单选题
{{B}}Passage Five {{/B}} Excessive sugar has a
strong mal-effect on the functioning of active organs such as the heart, kidneys
and the brain. Shipwrecked sailors who ate and drank nothing but sugar for nine
days surely went through some of this trauma. This incident
occurred when a vessel carrying a cargo of sugar was shipwrecked in 1793. The
five surviving sailors were finally rescued nine days after the accident. They
were in a wasted condition due to starvation, having consumed nothing but sugar.
French physiologist F. Magendie was inspired by that
incident to conduct a series of experiments with animals. In the experiments, he
fed dogs a diet of sugar and water. All the dogs wasted and died.
The shipwrecked sailors and the French physiologist's experimental
dogs proved the same point. As a steady diet, sugar is worse than nothing. Plain
water can keep you alive for quite some time. Sugar and water can kill you.
Humans and animals are "unable to subsist on a diet of sugar". The dead dogs in
Professor Magendie's laboratory alerted the sugar industry to the hazards of
free scientific inquiry. From that day to this, the sugar industry has invested
millions of dollars in behind-the-scenes, subsidized science. The best
scientific names that money could buy have been hired, in the hope that they
could one day come up with something at least pseudoscientific in the way of
glad tidings about sugar. It has been proved, however,
that (1) sugar is a major factor in dental decay; (2) sugar in a person's diet
does cause overweight; (3) removal of sugar from diets has cured symptoms of
crippling, worldwide diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart illnesses.
Sir Frederick Banting noticed in 1929 that, among sugar
plantation owners who ate large amounts of their refined stuff, diabetes was
common. Among native cane-cutters, who only got to chew the raw cane, he saw no
diabetes. However, the story of the public relations
attempts on the part of the sugar manufacturers began in Britain in 1808 when
the Committee of West India reported to the House of Commons that a prize of
twenty-five guineas had been offered to anyone who could come up with the most
"satisfactory" experiments to prove that unrefined sugar was good for feeding
and fattening oxen, cows, hogs and sheep. Food for animals is often seasonal,
always expensive. Sugar, by then, was dirt-cheap. People weren't eating it fast
enough. Naturally, the attempt to feed livestock with sugar in
England in 1808 was a disaster.
单选题
All of the following are true about sugar EXCEPT______.
A. refined sugar alone can be a diet for people to live on for a few
days
B. sugar can cause diabetes, cancer and heart diseases
C. unrefined sugar was once good and very cheap if used to feed and fatten
livestock