PALO ALTO, California----Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter---- even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise, US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity, said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.
American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years, Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies‘ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet or took part in any extra exercise.
One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories, Robinson said.
Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more, Robinson said.
【小题1】The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that .A．children will get fatter if they eat too muchB．children will get thinner if they eat lessC．children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TVD．children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV【小题2】According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV .A．is more than four hours a dayB．is less than four hours a dayC．doubled in the last twenty yearsD．is more than on any other activities【小题3】The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be aboutA．six hoursB．eight hoursC．three hoursD．one hour【小题4】Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage?
A. They usually eat more while watching TV.
B. They burn off fewer calories.
C. They change their diet while watching TV.
D. Both A and B.D
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(答案→)D
解析：文章是关于看电视和肥胖的关系，美国儿童看电视时间太长，文章建议减少孩子看电视的时间，并分析原因。
【小题1】推断题。根据第二段第二行children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9kg) less。可知少看电视可以减肥。推断出多看电视的孩子可能会变胖。
【小题2】细节题。根据第四段第一行American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games。
【小题3】推断题。根据倒数第四段最后一句reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
【小题4】推断题。根据文章最后一段可知A，倒数第二段可知B；所以选D。