2024年3月19日发(作者：小米max2图片)

Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section B(原快速阅读理解调整为长篇阅读理解，篇章长度和难度不变。篇章后附有10

个句子，每句一题。每句所含的信息出自篇章的某一段落，要求考生找出与每句所含信息相

匹配的段落。有的段落可能对应两题，有的段落可能不对应任何一题。)

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements

attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.

Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph

more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking

the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Beauty and Body Image in the Media

[A] Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell

everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger,

taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food.

Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty

pounds, they’ll have it all—the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a

rewarding career.

[B] Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are

naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say,

are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and

diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it’s no accident that youth

is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all

women need to lose weight, for sure they’re all aging, says the Quebec Action Network

for Women’s Health in its 2001 report. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster

that needs to be dealt with.

[C] The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their

bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated

that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year

selling temporary weight loss (90% to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight). On the other

hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female

bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy

eating habits in women and girls.

[D ] The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc.

says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight

control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative (泻药)abuse, and

self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young girls: the Canadian

Women’s Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by

girls as young as 5 and 6. American statistics are similar. Several studies, such as one

conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled “Appearance Culture in

9- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction,” indicate

that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinner, and as a result have engaged

in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35

percent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 percent

of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90% of

women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way. Media activist Jean Kilbourne

concludes that, “Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the

television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our

weight.”

[ E] Perhaps the most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are

unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a

computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back

would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too

narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman

built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea (慢性腹泻)and eventually die from

malnutrition. Jill Barad, President of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie), estimated that

99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll. Still, the number of real

life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can

suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450,

000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder.

[F ] Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more

ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over

three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about

how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.

Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a

woman’s worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of

the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty

are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from

male characters about their bodies (“How about wearing a sack?，，)，and 80 percent of

these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter.

[G] There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck (才氐制，反抗)the trend.

For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included

full-sized women in their fashion pages and Chatelaine has pledged not to touch up

photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. In Madrid, one of the world’s

biggest fashion capitals, ultra-thin models were banned from the runway in 2006.

Furthermore Spain has recently undergone a project with the aim to standardize clothing

sizes through using a unique process in which a laser beam is used to measure real life

women’s bodies in order to find the most true to life measurement.