2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 56

Unit 56

According to the new research appearing in the July 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, obesity isn’t just spreading; rather, it may be contagious between people, like a common cold. Researchers from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, reviewed a database of 12,067 densely interconnected people—that is, a group that included many families and friends—who had all participated in a major American heart study between 1971 and 2003. The participants met with heart researchers every two to four years. It was that information the NEJM authors mined to explore obesity in the context of a social network.

According to their analysis, when a study participant’s friend became obese, that first participant had a 57% greater chance of becoming obese himself. In pairs of people in which each identified the other as a close friend, when one person became obese the other had a 171% greater chance of following suit. James Fowler, study co-author and a political scientist at UC San Diego says that it’s not just that people who share similar lifestyles become friends. He and co-author Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School considered the possibility—and were surprised. For one thing, geographic distance between friends in the study seemed to have no impact: friends who lived a 5-hour drive apart and saw each other infrequently were just as influenced by each other’s weight gains as those who lived close enough to share weekly take-out meals or pick-up basketball games. The best proof that friendship caused the weight gain, says Fowler, is that people were much more likely to pattern their own behavior on the actions of people they considered friends—but the relationship didn’t work in the other direction. If you had named another person as a friend, and your friend became obese, than you were more than 50% more likely to get fat too. But if your friend had not named you as a mutual friend, and you became obese, it would have no significant impact on your friend’s weight.

The obvious question is, Why? Spouses share meals and a backyard, but the researchers found a much smaller risk of gaining weight—a 37% increase—when one spouse became obese. Siblings share genes, but their influence, too, was much smaller, increasing each other’s risk 40%. Fowler believes the effect has much more to do with social norms: whom we look to when considering appropriate social behavior. Having fat friends makes being fat seem more acceptable. “Your spouse may not be the person you look to when you’re deciding what kind of body image is appropriate, how much to eat or how much to exercise,” Fowler says. Nor do we necessarily compare ourselves to our siblings. “We get to choose our friends,” Fowler says. “We don’t get to choose our families.”

Fowler and Christakis say that the contagion-effect should hold just as much for weight loss as it does for weight gain. “I would hope this influences individuals to get friends and families involved in decisions about health,” Fowler says. After all, he says, a weight-loss plan may be more effective if the people closest to you are on board. And, if you’re successful, your good health will help others achieve a healthy weight too. The impact extends not just to your friends, it turns out—but also to your friends’ friends, and even to their friends.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2002年真題Text 3。

1. The following are factors causing obesity according to the researchers, EXCEPT_______.

A) similar lifestyles among some people

B) geographical distance between friends

C) one’s closest friend being fat

D) being mutual friend with fat guys

2. It can be inferred from the text that _______.

A) all the participants are connected with each other in a considerably large social network

B) it is a long-term study on which researchers spent years to study the contagion of obesity

C) researchers meet participants suffering heart diseases regularly and other participants irregularly

D) the study is based on a large and reliable database of another medical research

3. The experiment involves both family members and friends because _______.

A) researchers fail to find a more diverse and representative sample

B) researchers have different hypotheses for family members and freinds

C) researchers can easily find these people so as to conduct regular meetings in the long run

D) researchers can compare the results between the friends group and the family group

4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that _______.

A) when people choose friends, obesity comes as the first standard

B) the friends of a fat person must all be very fat

C) family plays a more important role of affecting obesity

D) the contagion-effect of obesity also sheds light on weight loss

5. From the text we can see the writer seems _______.

A) objective

B) optimistic

C) sensitive

D) gloomy

篇章剖析

本文就肥胖在人與人之間的傳播這一問題展開了論述。第一段提出了話題，并說明了一項相關研究的背景和方法；第二段展示了研究結果，并結合實例進行說明；第三段討論了家庭關系和朋友關系對于肥胖的不同影響及其原因；第四段指出了該研究的實用性以及研究者對肥胖傳染效應的展望。

詞匯注釋

obesity /???b?s?ti/ n. 肥胖，肥大

contagious /k?n?te?d??s/ adj. 傳染性的，會感染的

densely /?densli/ adv. 密切地

take-out /?te?k?aut/ adj. 供應外賣食物的

spouse /spauz/ n. 配偶（指夫或妻）

norm /n??m/ n. 標準，規(guī)范

難句突破

Researchers from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, reviewed a database of 12,067 densely interconnected people—that is, a group that included many families and friends—who had all participated in a major American heart study between 1971 and 2003.

主體句式：Researchers reviewed a database of 12,067 people.

結構分析：這個長句看似結構復雜，主要是因為其中有較多的修飾成分。兩個破折號之間的句子是people的同位語，主要是對被調查者的身份進行補充說明，其中that is是同位語結構的標志；who引導的定語從句也是修飾people。

句子譯文：來自哈佛大學和加州大學圣地亞哥分校的研究者查閱了1971年到2003年期間參與美國一項重要心臟研究的12,067位受訪者的數據庫，這些受訪者之間大多都有親密的關系，包括許多家庭成員和朋友。

題目分析

1. B 細節(jié)題。文章第二段指出地理上的遠近對于肥胖問題沒有什么影響，而A、C、D選項都可以在該段落中找到對應信息。

2. D 推理題。文章第一段中指出關于肥胖傳染性的研究主要是基于另一個關于心臟病研究的數據，因而答案為D。A選項的錯誤原因在于并不是參與研究的所有成員都是互相聯系著的，但他們都是以家庭成員或者朋友的身份參加研究的。B選項的錯誤原因在于肥胖傳染性的研究并不是一個長期研究，而該研究的數據來源于另一個長期研究。C選項的錯誤原因在于研究者和所有的參與者都是定期見面。

3. D 細節(jié)題。文章第三段比較了家人和朋友對于肥胖現象的影響，可以看出研究人員研究這兩組人的目的在于比較兩組人對于肥胖的相互影響是否會有不同的效果。

4. D 推理題。文章最后一段指出，該研究發(fā)現的肥胖傳染現象也可能促使相反效果的產生，即一個人減肥會影響他的親人朋友，從而使得減肥現象也得以傳播，使胖人們的體重向更健康的趨勢發(fā)展。

5. A 情感態(tài)度題。雖然文章最后指出研究者對其研究結果持非常樂觀的態(tài)度，但綜觀全文，作者的描述一直很客觀，沒有加入個人見解，因此答案為A。

參考譯文

7月26日出版的《新英格蘭醫(yī)學雜志》刊登的一項新研究認為，肥胖的人不僅僅在越來越多，更可怕的是，肥胖會像感冒一樣，在人與人之間傳播。來自哈佛大學和加州大學圣地亞哥分校的研究者查閱了1971年到2003年期間參與美國一項重要心臟研究的12,067位受訪者的數據庫，這些受訪者之間大多都有親密的關系，包括許多家庭成員和朋友，他們每兩至四年間就與心臟研究者見一次面。正是由于這些信息，使得《新英格蘭醫(yī)學雜志》刊登的這項研究的作者們對社會關系對肥胖的影響進行了深入研究。

根據研究人員的分析，如果受訪者的朋友肥胖的話，那些受訪者自己變胖的可能性會比常人高出57%。如果兩人互為摯友，那么這一幾率將會高出常人171%。作者之一加州大學圣地亞哥分校的政治科學家詹姆斯·福勒認為并非只是有相似生活習慣的人才會成為朋友。此后詹姆斯·福勒與研究的合著者——哈佛醫(yī)學院的尼古拉斯·克里斯塔克斯共同對此種可能性進行了研究，結果令他們十分驚訝。一方面，研究表明朋友之間的地理位置差距似乎根本不是問題：相距車程為5小時但經常不見面的朋友在對肥胖的相互影響上和每周都一起吃外賣或打籃球的朋友一樣。福勒稱友誼引起增重的最好證據就是，人們更加傾向于和心目中的朋友們做一樣的事情——但反過來這種關系并不成立。如果你把一個人當作朋友，他變肥胖了的話，那你的肥胖概率會高出常人50%。要是他不把你當朋友，那么即使你胖了，對他的體重也沒太大影響。

現在的顯著問題是為什么會有此情況？夫妻共處一室，共同進餐和生活，研究者發(fā)現當一方變胖時，另一方變胖的幾率僅僅高了37%。兄弟姐妹的基因差不多，但他們之間的影響卻也小得多，每人變胖的幾率只有40%。福勒認為這與社會標準有很大關系，我們看人的時候總是在考慮什么是合適的社會行為。如果你的朋友是肥胖者，這就意味著你認為肥胖是可以接受的。福勒說：“我們選擇配偶不會只看他/她的體型、他/她的食量和運動量?！蔽覀円矝]有必要把自己同兄弟姐妹比較。他還說：“我們不能選擇家庭，但我們可以選擇朋友?！?

福勒和克里斯塔克斯認為這種“傳染效應”對于減肥的影響應和增肥一樣。福勒說：“我希望這個研究能使人們在考慮健康狀況時把家人和朋友的因素也考慮進去。”他說，畢竟，如果你最親密的人與你一起減肥的時候，這個計劃會更加成功。同時，如果你成功減肥，那么你的健康也會幫助其他人達到理想的體重。這種效果不僅對于你的朋友有效，并且對你朋友的朋友，甚至他們（朋友的朋友）的朋友都會有影響。