Obesity in the UK

 Read the text carefully and do the activities.

   The health time bomb of obesity is exploding. Already one in three UK children is obese or overweight. Unless we act, by 2050 over half of adults and almost half of children will be clinically obese. Given that obesity takes, on average, 13 years from the life of sufferers, this could lead to the first fall in life expectancy for over 300 years.

               A key cause of the obesity crisis is our poor diet. The vast majority of  UK children consume too much salt, fat and sugar and almost all of them don't get enough fruits and vegetables. In addition to obesity, poor diet is causing a rise in diabetes, heart diseases and other health problems.

    It is no coincidence that children eat the foods they see on advertisements. Marketers spend over £ 300 million on food promotion - almost always unhealthy - on TV before 9 pm, and this money is not wasted. Children and parents both say the constant marketing of funk food is one reason why they consume so much of it. In fact almost three- quarters of parents say that junk food advertising influences their children's food choice. Of course children's diets are the responsibility of their parents. But hard-pressed mums and dads need some help.

1. Are the following statements true or false?

a. One of the three children in UK is obese.

b. Diabetes, heart diseases and other health problems are linked to obesity

c. Children eat food they see on TV.

 2. Answer the following questions according to the text.

1)             What is the key cause of obesity?

……………………………………….;

2)     How much money do marketers spend on promoting food?

                ……………………………………….

3.  What do the underlined words refer to in the text?

a. this ………….                                      b. they …………….

                    c. they ……………………..

 B.Text Exploration                                                                         

1. Find in the text words that are opposite in meaning to the following.

 a. slim =……………..    b. healthy=…………………..      

                   

2. Add two more words to each list of words.

consumer	trader	…………	…………
tasting	Eating	…………	…………
never	Generally	…………	…………

3. Complete sentence B so that it means the same as sentence A.

a.       Unless we act now, half of the children will be clinically obese.

b.      If we ..............................................................................................

a.       He said:’ we must avoid junk food.’

b.      He said that  ......................................

a.     they told me:” we are going to buy and eat fresh food.”

b.      ..........................................................

4. Classify the following words according to the pronunciation of their final S.

 Advertisers - cooks -  diseases - promotes -  newspapers -  packages

/s/	/z/	/iz/