Banish soft drinks from school vending machines. Cut down on Happy Meals. Load school lunches with fruits and vegetables. Pull the plug on the television and shove kids outdoors. Those are some of the weapons that schools, doctors and parents wield to prevent overweight kids from packing on more pounds. But there’s another possibility: Surgically implant an inflatable silicone band around the top of the stomach to restrict food intake. That way, people eat smaller meals. Banding works for many adults. Now Allergan Inc. , a maker of the band, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve its device for morbidly obese adolescents as young as 14. You may or may not find this hard to stomach. We suspect your response will depend on your view of the causes of obesity, teen and otherwise. If you think losing weight is only a matter of will power, then you probably will figure this is another stab at a quick-fix that can’t work for long. But here’s why we can’t dismiss it. Chicago is a national epicenter for childhood obesity. From toddlers to teens, Chicago’s children far exceed national averages for obesity. An obese teen faces a lifetime of increased health risks. The band surgery wouldn’t be for the girl who wants to shed 25 pounds to fit into a dancing party dress. This would be for the morbidly obese—adolescents 100 pounds or more overweight. The surgery is safe and effective for adults. In limited trials, it has helped obese teens. A 2010 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found banding surgery to be far more effective than diet and exercise programs in helping teens shed significant poundage. Of 25 patients who got the surgery, 21 lost more than half their excess weight. By contrast, only three of 25 teens on a supervised dieting and exercise program lost that much weight. The prospect of such surgery on a teen should give pause to parents and doctors. But let’s remember that this is envisioned as a last resort for teens who are 100 pounds or more overweight. Before they’re cleared for surgery, kids would have to show they diligently tried other weight loss methods. That they could stabilize their weight in preparation for surgery. And that they’re ready to follow through with psychological counseling and other after-surgery programs. Parents and kids need to know: There is no quick, pain-free way around diet and exercise as a weight control. Pills, gastric surgery and other shortcuts may help some for a while. But even surgery likely won’t be effective for long if you don’t change the way you think about food and about controlling portions. Yes, we share concerns that once doctors start ratcheting up the numbers of these surgeries, they won’t stop at the small numbers of extremely overweight teens. But that’s for doctors and parents to monitor. The FDA should allow the band to be marketed for adolescents, to give them a chance at a normal, healthy life. The purpose of surgical treatment is to
A. urge overweight children to go on a diet.
B. engage obese adolescents in more outdoors activities.
C. reduce the amount of food intake of obese children.
D. cut down the number of meals of obese children.
About thirty years ago, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned employment decisions that discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. To avoid legal penalties, companies created affirmative action programs. These programs became highly controversial, for they were seen by some as a form of reverse discrimination. Both praised and condemned, affirmative action programs remain in effect. Since the passage of Title VII, the United States has undergone a major demographic shift. California will soon have a population of 50 percent Hispanic American and nonwhite. More than half of the nation’s work force now consists of minorities, immigrants, and women; white, native-born males, though still dominant, has become a statistical minority. In addition, about 80 percent of new workers are not white males. Affirmative action relied heavily on assimilation, the process by which minorities are absorbed into the dominant culture. Generally, assimilation involves abandoning distinctive cultural patterns of behavior in favor of those of the dominant culture. Two, three, four generations ago, people who immigrated to this country routinely changed their names to help them enter the mainstream as soon and as completely as possible. In contrast, the huge successes of the women’s movement and civil rights activism have helped Americans to appreciate their differences, even to celebrate them. This change is transforming the workplace, for people who are comfortable and proud of being different are much less amenable to assimilation. "You don’t have to aspire to be a white male or a member of the dominant group," says Thomas, "People are willing to be part of each, but they won’t jump into the melting pot anymore. " Diversity in the workplace is much more than skin color. Diversity also refers to gender, age, religion, social class, sexual orientation, and even to military experience. Realizing that assimilation is probably not the way of the future, companies as diverse as IBM, Ford, and 3M have begun programs called "Managing Diversity" or "Valuing Diversity. " The goals of these programs are threefold. (1) to uncover and root out biases and prejudices about people’s differences, (2) to increase awareness and appreciation of people’s differences, and (3) to teach people "skills," especially communication and negotiation skills, for working with diverse groups. From a functionalist perspective, we would say that programs in managing diversity are an adjustment in the economic system. They will help meet needs caused by changing demographics within the nation and new international relations that require American corporations to be more competitive. From a symbolic interaction perspective, we would say that these programs reflect a change in symbols—that they illustrate how being different from the dominant group now has a different meaning than it used to. These programs not only reflect that change, they also foster further change in the meaning of diversity. From a conflict perspective, we would say that the key term in managing diversity programs is not diversity, but managing. No matter what they are called, these programs are merely another way to exploit labor. It can be inferred from the passage that a reverse discrimination is one
A. in which the minorities and women are discriminated against.
B. by which companies tackle their problems of gender and racial discrimination.
C. in which the white people suffer discrimination in employment.
D. that goes against the affirmative action programs.
If the technological revolution continues to have its effects, there will be fewer and fewer jobs available, particularly to school-leavers and those over the age of fifty. (1) there are only half the number of jobs in the future, men and women will have to share them. Two people will (2) work only twenty hours each (3) the forty they are currently (4) to. It is a well-known fact that those who suffer from stress at work are often not high-powered executives but (5) workers doing boring, (6) jobs, especially those on production lines. Unemployment often has a (7) effect on its victims. If we wish to prevent this type of stress and the depression that frequently follows long periods of it, we will have to find ways of educating people to (8) this sudden increase in leisure time.Many have already (9) pills and tablets to (10) sleeplessness and anxiety, two of the symptoms of long-term stress and depression. In America, we (11) $ 650 million a year on different kinds of medicines. We (12) an astonishing three million sleeping tablets every night. (14) these "drugs of the mind" can be extremely useful in cases of crisis, the majority of patients would be (14) without them.The boredom and frustration of unemployment are not the only (15) of stress: poor housing, family problems, overcrowding and financial worry are all significant factors. (16) , doctors believe that if people learnt to breathe properly, took more exercise, used their leisure time more (17) and expressed their anger instead of (18) it up, they would not depend so much on drugs, (19) treat only the (20) and not the cause of the stress. 6()
A. repetitive
B. challenging
C. demanding
D. exhausted