《英语四级快速阅读练习集》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《英语四级快速阅读练习集（49页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、Passage 1Beauty and Body Image in the MediaImages of female bodies are everywhere. Womenand their body partssell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Womens magaz
2、ines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, theyll have it allthe perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career.Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of t
3、he models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits.And its no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beaut
4、y. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure theyre all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Womens Health in its 2001 report. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with. The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are
5、more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90 to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight).On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to im
6、ages of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealth
7、y methods of weight controlincluding fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative (泻药) abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young girls: the Canadian Womens Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by girls as young as 5 an
8、d 6. American statistics are similar.Several studies, such as one conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled “Appearance Culture in Nine- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction,” indicate that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinn
9、er, and as a result have engaged in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 per cent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates tha
10、t 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way.Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, “Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight.”Unattainable BeautyPerhaps mo
11、st disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her
12、 body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea ( 慢性腹泻) and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad, President of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie), estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to
13、10 years old own at least one Barbie doll.Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450, 000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder.The
14、 Culture of ThinnessResearchers report that womens magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than mens magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of womens magazines include at least one message about how to change a womans bodily appearanceby diet, e
15、xercise or cosmetic surgery.Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a womans worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in
16、size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies (“How about wearing a sack?”), and 80 per cent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter.There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck ( 抵制，反抗) the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Chtelaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include m
