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  3. The average American drinks a gallon of soda a week, which delivers roughly 1, 000 calories and no nutrition. The average Americ

The average American drinks a gallon of soda a week, which delivers roughly 1, 000 calories and no nutrition. The average Americ

admin2014-09-05  61
问题     The average American drinks a gallon of soda a week, which delivers roughly 1, 000 calories and no nutrition. The average American is also overweight or obese. Could changing one of those things help change the other?
    A growing number of officials think so, which accounts for a spate of proposed new taxes on soda as a way to discourage consumption while at the same time raising money to fund other obesity-fighting initiatives. Some 20 states and cities, from New Mexico to Baltimore, contemplated soda taxes this spring.
    The reaction against them has been swift and fierce. In March, scores of soda-company employees sporting Pepsi, Coke and 7-Up gear swarmed the Kansas state senate to fight a proposal that would have added a penny in tax for each teaspoon of sugar in a nonjuice drink. That would have increased the price of a 12-oz. soda by about 10 ￠ and generated some $ 90 million in revenue a year. " I thought this is a wise choice," says state senator John Vratil, who, like counterparts across the country, has been struggling to address both a recession-induced budget gap and rising public-health costs stemming from obesity. Instead, he got an earful about how a soda tax would kill jobs, burden the poor and constitute an unwelcome government intrusion into the American diet.
    Government involvement in what Americans eat is nothing new. But why tax soda and not, say, ice cream, pizza or Oreos — or, for that matter, the video games that discourage kids from going outside to run around? Washington city-council member Mary Cheh says it’s because soda is where scientists have observed the clearest link to excess pounds. When Cheh set out to fund her Healthy Schools Act, which would raise food and physical-education standards at schools in D. C. — where about 40% of kids are overweight or obese — she didn’t know she’d wind up going after soda. But the data overwhelmed her: The amount of soda the typical American drinks has grown by roughly 500% over the past 60 years, and of the 250 to 300 calories a day Americans have, on average, added to their diets since the late 1970s,nearly half have come from sugared drinks. "I don’t want to prescribe taxes for all sorts of dietary choices, " says Cheh," but if we were going to only target one thing to make a material difference, soda would be it. "
    The tougher question is whether increasing the price of soda would, in fact, reduce the number of calories people consume. Some research indicates the answer is yes. Other research leaves room for doubt. Though studies do show that a 10% increase in the price of soda leads people to purchase about 10% less of it,that doesn’t necessarily mean folks aren’t making up for those calories elsewhere.
    How do people feel about soda taxes? In April,the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked residents of New York State if they supported or opposed a " fat tax" on nondiet sugared soda. Thirty-one percent were in favor, and 66% were opposed. Yet when asked if they would support such a tax if the money raised were used to fund health care, people changed their opinions dramatically, with 48% in favor and just 49% opposed.
Soda tax will lead to decrease in______.
选项 A、soda drinking
B、calorie in-take
C、children obesity rate
D、employment rate
答案A
解析 本题考查对第五段内容的理解。究竟征收汽水税对于美国人的体重下降能起到怎样的作用呢?关于这一点存在着争议。但是这一段中有一句话很明确，studies do show that a10％increase in the price of soda leads people to purchase about 10％less of it。研究发现汽水价格上涨10％确实会导致购买量下降，但是无法确定的是消费者是否会从其他食物中摄取更多卡路里。因此[A]正确。[B]、[C]选项错误。[D]利用文中第二段最后一句话出现的一个细节设置干扰选项，这句话中提到了有人担心汽水税会使一些人失业，但这也只是一种担忧，并不是事实，因此[D]错误。
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