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Hunger and food insecurity have been called America’s “hidden crisis.” At the same time, and apparently paradoxically, obesity has been declared a serious epidemic. Both obesity and hunger (and, more broadly, food insecurity) are serious public health problems, sometimes co-existing in the same families and the same individuals. Their existence sounds contradictory, but those with insufficient resources to purchase adequate food can still be overweight, for reasons that researchers now are beginning to understand.
The apparent paradox of expanding wastelands and persistent hunger and food insecurity in America is driven in part by the economics of buying food. Households without money to buy enough food first change their purchasing in eating habits, relying on cheaper high-calorie foods over more expensive neutral rich foods before they cut back on the amount of food. In order to cope with limited money for food and to stave off hunger, families try to maximize calories-intake for each dollar spent, which can lead to over-consumptions of calories and a less healthful diet.
Research among low-income families shows that mothers first sacrifice their own nutrition by restricting their food intake during periods of food insufficiency in order to protect their children from hunger. The resulting chronic ups and downs in food intake can contribute, over the long run, to obesity among low-income women.
Dr. Larry Brown, executive director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty, reported, "A growing body of research shows that hunger and obesity pose a dual threat for some people. We need to better understand this relationship if our nation is to grapple with these parallel threats to the well-being of Americans. We particularly need to avoid damaging policy prescriptions that assume hunger and obesity cannot coexist."
Renowned food experts and scientists call for a reform agenda to address both hunger and obesity. According to James Wells, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an agenda that seriously tackles hunger and obesity among the poor must address their common roots. Those roots include food insecurity and the impact of poverty. One answer is increased access to income supports and nutrition programs so that more families have sufficient resources to obtain healthier diets.
評析：本文選自《The Paradox of Hunger and Obesity in America》和《Hunger, obesity: two sides of same coin.》，命題者對兩篇文章的內容進行了節選和組合，組成了一篇聽寫段落。本文屬于社會經濟類文章，介紹了hunger和obesity的“共存”和 “矛盾”方面的問題。文章的整體難度不是太大，涉及到obesity，agenda，food insecurity，coexist，paradox，calories，nutrition等相關詞匯也是高口常見的詞匯，但考生要注意文章中長句子 的拆分，抓住句子的主干及核心信息，尤其是一些關鍵詞更應該聽懂聽清。另外，grapple等一些難度相對比較大的詞要求考生在平時需要注意相關詞匯的積 累，多讀一些經濟報刊類的文章。
