How to Solve the Problem of Childhood Obesity in the United States The proportion of children in America who are overweight

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问题             How to Solve the Problem of Childhood Obesity in the United States
    The proportion of children in America who are overweight has tripled over the past 20 years and now exceeds 17% , according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The health problems that this causes include hypertension and type-2 diabetes, formerly known only among the nation’s overweight adult population. A group sponsored by the National Institute on Ageing has warned that this may be the first generation ever to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.
    All the while, the proportion of children who take part in daily exercise at high school has dropped from 42% in 1991 to only 28% in 2004, according to the CDC. Snacking has greatly increased; the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in 2003 that 99% of America’s high schools now sell snacks and other food as well as providing lunches.
    In an attempt to get the problem tackled at local level, Congress in 2004 passed an act directing school districts that get money from the national school-lunch programme to create "wellness" policies by the start of the 2006~2007 school year. The districts were told to set standards for nutrition, physical activity and education about good food, then make sure that schools actually implement them. One year after the deadline, the results are haphazard. School districts’ plans range from a few paragraphs long to more than 25 pages. Some states, like Texas and Arkansas, have pre-emptively set standards for school districts under their authority, forcing schools to ban fizzy drinks and junk food while increasing the amount of exercise the pupils take. Others offer guidelines rather than mandates, with no punishments for schools that don’t comply. And in some areas, schools are being eased into change very slowly. Oregon’s legislature passed a bill in June that gives its schools ten years to meet its new physical-education requirements.
    Last October the School Nutrition Association (SNA), a pressure group, analysed health policies from the 100 largest school districts in the country, which account for almost a quarter of the nation’s primary-and secondary-school students. Many districts had indeed created guidelines for nutrition education, physical activity and school food, as required, but the rules tended to be fairly broad. Some policies merely defaulted to the state recommendations and some to the federal government’s minimal requirements. The physical-activity guidelines were also varied; only 62% of schools made physical education obligatory. Action for Healthy Kids, another schools oriented NGO, also looked at a smattering of policies last year. Of the 112 districts it analysed, only 30% specified a time requirement for physical-education classes and 42% offered only general guidelines for the sort of food and drink allowed to be sold in the schools. Cafeterias where nachos, French fries and cookies are tucked alongside and fresh fruit do not encourage children to eat well.
According to the passage, what is the purpose of the act passed by the Congress in 2004?

选项 A、To regulate the schools involved in the school-lunch programme.
B、To make some adaptation to the school-lunch programme.
C、To solve children’s overweight problem fundamentally.
D、To set health standards for school districts to follow.

答案C

解析 语义分析题。根据题干关键词purpose,act,Congress,2004定位到原文第三段第一句:In an attempt to get the problem tackled at local level,Congress in 2004 passed an actdirecting school districts that get money from the national school-lunch programme tO create“wellness”policies by the start of the 2006—2007 school year.可知,为了从根源上解决问题,国会在2004年通过一项法案,规定获得国家校园午餐资助项目的学区必须在2006至2007学年开学前制定相关的“健康”政策。由此可知,法案的目的在于从根本上解决儿童肥胖问题,故选[C]项。[C]项中fundamentally是原文at the local level的转述。[A]项“规范获得国家校园午餐资助项目的学校”和[B]项“修改国家校园午餐资助项目”均非原文内容;[D]项“为学区学校制定可遵循的健康标准”,原文是说,法案规定这些学区应自己制定并遵守健康标准。
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