单选题 Anyone who has a fat friend or who is, perhaps, himself more than ample, knows only too well how little provision our society makes for such people. Even the daily round provides numerous problems and snags. There are few pieces of clothing that can be bought off the peg, seats in cinemas or theatres are a subtle sort of torture only partially relieved by the rarity of good performance, and home furniture is hopelessly inadequate(imagine a fat person moving among a houseful of delicate antique chairs!). Then there is the problem of having a bath; the standard size of bathtub just does not allow a fat person to take up a horizontal position but demands of a grotesque squat reminiscent of his simian ancestry. In today's world, however, these are minor worries in a culture where slimness has become a fetish and all things desirable come to the person with a sylph-like figure. Especially in women, this attribute is a must if they are to compete on anything like equal terms with their contemporaries in the marriage market. The fact that slimness is not necessarily either an ideal condition from a physiological point of view or a natural characteristic is of little comfort to the fat man or woman living in our present society obsessed by thinness. This fashion has been just another facet of the desire for conformity; we have charts showing correct weights for each height, and there are whole counters in many shops given over to the display of non-fattening foods. The fat person is doubly unfortunate in that he cannot hide his non-conformity, unlike so many of us who have perhaps more subtle forms of eccentricity. In those cases where fatness is the result of over-eating, it is, of course, a reaction to some form of inner conflict and a much less harmful one than, say, alcoholism, drug addiction or suicide. Where the excess weight is due to some disorder of the body, the person so afflicted is an all-round loser, for not only has he a physical illness to cope with but is mocked for having it by many people who should know better. Perhaps fashion will eventually change to allow an ample frame to become acceptable, but at present it seems that the pencil-slim models of the fashion salons are in safe jobs.

单选题 The author says that the present society______.

单选题 What is the special problem of women in this matter?

单选题 It is of no comfort to the fat person that______.

单选题 A fat person is especially unfortunate because______.

单选题 According to the author, over-eating is______.