About 70,000,000 Americans are trying to lose weight(减肥). That is almost 1 out of every 3 people in the United States. Some people eat 1 food and they hardly have any fats or sweets. Others do running, exercise with machines, take medicines, or even have operations. 2 you can see losing weight is 3 work, and it will also cost a lot of money. But __4 do so many people in the United States want to lose weight?

　　Many people in the United States worry about their look of the body. For many people, looking nice also means to be 5 . Other people worry about their health as many doctors 6 overweight is not good.

　　Most people want to find an 7 way to take off fat, and books of this kind are very popular. These books tell people how to lose weight. Each year a lot of new books like these are 8 . Each one says it can easily help people take fat away.

　　Losing weight can be 9 . Some overweight people go to health centres, like La Costa in California. Men and women 10 several hundred dollars a day at these health centres. People live there for one week or two, 11 exercise, eating different foods. Meals there may be just a little. All these work for losing weight. __12__ 4 days on the programme, one woman called Mrs. Warren lost 5 pounds (2.27kg). At $ 400 a day, she spent $ 320 to lose each pound. But she said she was still __13__ to do so.

　　Health centres, books, medicines, operations, running and exercise machines all __14__ a lot of money. So in the United States, losing weight may mean losing __15__ too.

　　1. A. less B. more C. nice D. fast

　　2. A. For B. So C. Or D. And

　　3. A. good B. useful C. hard D. easy

　　4. A. why B. what C. how D. when

　　5. A. high B. short C. thin D. fat

　　6. A. talk B. say C. speak D. tell

　　7. A. dearer B. harder C. shorter D. easier

　　8. A. taken B. given C. written D. copied

　　9. A. cheap B. expensive C. easy D. safe

　　10. A. pay B. cost C. take D. have

　　11. A. making B. taking C. playing D. using

　　12. A. Before B. In C. After D. At

　　13. A. sorry B. angry C. sad D. glad

　　14. A. need B. have C. use D. get

　　15. A. health B. time C. food D. money

　　教师点评

　　这篇文章讲的是美国有三分之一的人正在努力减肥，他们想尽了一切办法去减轻体重，同时也令他们耗费了不少的金钱。

　　1. A。为了减肥，有些人只吃很少的食物。

　　2. B。根据上文，得知下面这个结论。所以选so表示因果关系。

　　3. C。减肥令人们不得不做很多令人痛苦的事，故是一项艰苦的工作。

　　4. A。下文讲的是人们减肥的原因，所以选why。

　　5. C。现在很多人都认为想要让自己看上去漂亮就得瘦，正是这种观点促使很多人要减肥。

　　6. B。这四个词当中只有say 可以直接加说话内容。

　　7. D。人们都希望减肥能够既快又简单。

　　8. C。因为很多人都想减肥，所以就有人写这方面的书籍来吸引减肥者。

　　9. B。根据下文得知减肥有时是一件很昂贵的事。

　　10. A。 在表示花钱的几个动词中，只有pay 和 spend 的主语为人，这里没有 spend, 故选pay。

　　11. B。 take exercise意思是“锻炼”。

　　12. C。

　　13. D。 虽然昂贵，但她还是很乐意去做。

　　14. A。 所有这些减肥的项目都是需要花费很多钱的。

　　15. D。 综上所述，减肥也就意味着失去了很多金钱。

（责任编辑：李继伟）