Britons are the fattest people in Europe, with one of the world's fastest obesity (肥胖症) growth rates, according to a leading international think-tank. The UK comes top out of 20 European Union nations, with almost one in four people so fat that they could face an early grave. Levels of fatness in Scottish children are the second worst in the world, behind the US, while those in children in England are the eighth worst. Overall, in a study of citizens of the 33 richest countries, the UK is the fifth behind the US, Mexico, Chile and New Zealand.
Developed nations are getting fatter, warns the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which produced the report. The Paris-based watchdog (监督机构) claims the growing costs of healthcare and wasted resources are making obesity a top priority for many governments.
Report author Franco Sassi, a former London School of Economics lecturer, puts the blame on modern lifestyles. He said that food is much cheaper than in the past, food in particular that is not particularly healthy, and people are changing their lifestyles. They have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more often in restaurants. There is a frightening increase in the epidemic (流行病). We've not reached the destination yet.
According to a report, the lifespan of an obese person is up to 10 years shorter than that of a normal-weight person—the same loss of lifespan incurred by smoking. It shows 24 percent of men were rated obese and 25 percent of women in 2008 in the UK. In addition, 42 percent of men are overweight and 32 percent of women, meaning that up to two in three people have their health put at risk by their weight. In Scotland, latest figures show 35 percent of 12 to 15-year-olds are overweight or obese, compared with 29 percent of children aged 5 to 17 in England.
单选题 What can be learnt from the first paragraph?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】由题干中的the first paragraph定位到第一段。该段第一句提到，据一家国际领先的智囊团提供的报告显示，英国人是全欧洲最胖的人群，而且英国是世界上肥胖率增长速度最快的国家之一。C)的意思和文章一致。
单选题 Why do many governments pay top attention to the problem of obesity?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第二段第二句提到，一个总部设在巴黎的经济合作与发展组织宣称，因为造成医疗保健费用的不断增加和资源的浪费，肥胖问题已成为许多国家政府亟待解决的问题。由此可知，政府之所以高度重视肥胖问题是因为肥胖造成医疗保健费用的不断增加和资源的浪费，所以B)与原文意思相符，为正确答案。
单选题 According to Franco Sassi, the reason for being fat is that______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】由题干中的Franco Sassi定位到第三段第一句。该句指出，报告的作者弗兰科-萨西将肥胖问题归咎于现代生活方式。由此可知，弗兰科-萨西认为人们肥胖的原因在于不好的生活方式，故答案为C)。B)和D)都只是不良生活方式的具体表现形式，不是最佳答案。
单选题 Compared with smokers, what will happen to the fat people?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】第四段第一句提到，一份报告显示，肥胖者的寿命比体重正常者要短10年——这跟吸烟导致的寿命缩短年限相当。由此可知，肥胖者和吸烟者的寿命基本一样，比正常人都要少10年，故答案为A)。
单选题 How many people in the UK today have the weight problem?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第四段第三句提到，42％的男性和32％的女性体重超标，这意味着英国多达三分之二的人口因为体重而存在健康隐患，四个选项中接近三分之二的是D)。