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We're fat.We smoke.Drink too much.Don't exercise enough.And our stress levels are off the charts.

We're killing ourselves，and we know it.And yet we carry on—overeating，lighting up，slumping in front of the television and throwing back another beer—inspiring some of the greatest thinkers in the worlds of genomics，neuroscience，biochemistry and evolutionary psychology to ponder the Big Mac of medical questions:

Is it possible that we're missing a self-discipline gene?Unlikely，though recent research synthesized by the National Academy of Sciences suggests there may be combinations of genes and environmental factors that make it hard for some people to maintain control over their habits.

And every year，as if we had learned nothing from our past，we renew our vows to change.Then we crack open our wallets.In recent years:$63 billion on low-carb，low-fat，low-sugar，low-calorie foods；more than$1 billion on smoking cessation products and programs；$46 billion on diet and fitness programs，drugs and surgeries.At the same time，the nation's health-care industry spends hundreds of billions to treat preventable illnesses in a process that H.L.Mencken recognized decades ago:“The true aim of medicine，”he said，“is not to make men virtuous；it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices.”

In the end，what doctors and studies and experts have pointed out is that the thing that really helps to change behavior is something hard to measure but ultimately powerful.

Consider:Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis found that among a group of smokers who had had surgery to remove early-stage lung cancer，nearly half picked up a cigarette again within 12 months.Most started smoking within two months.In another study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University，nine out of 10 patients who'd recently had coronary bypass surgery failed to take steps to improve their nutrition，exercise more and reduce stress.

After former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner underwent an emergency angioplasty for a blocked artery，he at least tried to change，in part by taking up yoga and hiring an instructor to Come to his house every day.Eventually，however，“doing yoga mostly beCome a way to offset the stress of making it to appointments in the first place，”he writes in his autobiography，“Work in Progress.”“After several weeks I quit，rationalizing that my life would be far less stressful when I stopped trying so hard to relax.”

If，as the U.S.Surgeon General has suggested，some 70 percent of the nation's ailments can be prevented by more exercise，better diet，reduced smoking and improved environment，then the holy grail of the public health world has been the identification of those common denominators among the people who are able to successfully change.

Kelly Brownell，founder of the Yale Health，Emotion and Behavior Laboratory，points to a complex calculus of intellectual，emotional and often physical incentives at play in breaking bad habits.The most important factors，to his mind，address the individual's trouble spots along the way.

“If you tend to struggle when you're lonely，then creating some kind of social network［may help conquer bad habits］.If you struggle when you're depressed，then getting help for depression makes sense，”Brownell says.

Until people recognize the underlying triggers that led them to the unhealthy habits in the first place，all of the motivating messages in the world will fail，behavioral experts suggest.But getting in touch with the catalysts for their bad habits can unleash powerful forces for change.

One 45-year-old professional writer—who asked not to be named in order to speak more candidly—described how she lost nearly 100 pounds over three years after doing some heavy soul-searching.“I had to think，‘Why do I do things that aren't so healthy?’and think about what motivates me，not only to be healthy but also what motivates one to not be healthy.What was I getting out of that?”

It is when people fail to develop healthy coping mechanisms that they fall back on bad habits such as smoking，according to John Banzhaf，George Washington University law professor and executive director of the district-based anti-smoking group action on Smoking and Health.“And then a cigarette is no longer enough，so you go to alcohol.And on and on.”

It's much easier to reach for the short-term relief of a double cheeseburger，a cigarette or a couple of cocktails and ignore the possibility of health problems down the line.And even threats along the lines of“You're going to die unless...”can have a numbing effect，research shows.

“Sometimes a little whack on the head is a way to kind of wake somebody up，”says John Kotter，Harvard business professor and bestselling author on change.“But imagine whacking them on the head every five seconds for three months.”

Which brings individuals back to the complex process of recognizing the triggers that prompt unhealthy behaviors and then developing mechanisms to anticipate them and recover from slips when they occur，Brownell says.

Brownell，who has criticized the seductive marketing of the fast-food industry，was the first to promote the controversial idea of a“Twinkie tax”on unhealthy foods.

In communities such as urban Baltimore where obesity is a problem，Johns Hopkins researchers have found that more effective than threats on billboards，warnings on products or lectures from a doctor is the development of new habits within social groups.Peer opinion leaders and group support，they believe，are among the most critical aids to change，whether you're aiming to lose weight，quit smoking or exercise.

“If you want to change and maintain behavior over time，you need people who are going to be supportive of those changes，”says John Holtgrave，head of the recently established Health，Behavior and Society Department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

If support alone were the answer，then the United States'$10 billion self-help and support industry would have cornered the market as agents of behavioral change.However，if the smoking cessation efforts of New York are any example，it's going to take more than that.

Despite several years of public education campaigns and outreach efforts to discourage smoking in public places，there was little impact on the rate of smoking，according to the city health department.But starting in 2002，the city imposed an all-out ban on smoking in public places，and，according to the department，some 200，000 people quit within the first two years.Now，of course，the city is after trans-fat，in hopes of giving its residents a leg up on their diets.And the District ushered in its new smoking ban yesterday.

The stick approach，however，is generally more effective as a wide-scale change agent than an individual motivator，researchers say.Which is why some health insurance companies are now charging higher premiums to policyholders with unhealthy habits，and some companies have chosen not to hire smokers.

Employers such as L.L.Bean and Sodexho have imposed their own sort of“Twinkie tax”on junk foods，raising the price of sweet and salty snacks dispensed in their cafeterias and using the profits to subsidize healthier foods.Whether such pricing incentives will do what willpower can't remains to be seen.But there appears to be broad agreement that public health initiatives are barely in the fight for consumers'attention，in part because their eat-your-spinach messages are being drowned out by companies that are deeply committed to getting already overfed Americans to buy more food，by tantalizing them with Dora the Explorer cookies and oversize lattes.

“Marketers hardly limit themselves to rational appeals，”says Richard Daynard，a Northeastern University School of Law professor who was involved in early tobacco litigation and has now turned his sights to the obesity problem.“In the public fantasy，the rational appeals are supposed to balance people's decisions.”

What does work in terms of bridging the gap between public knowledge and personal health，he believes，is something the tobacco wars revealed.

Auter the American Legacy Foundation launched its“Truth”campaign to billboard what it said was the coverup of evidence about smoking's deleterious health effects，consumers complained of having been burned by the tobacco industry.

“You've got to go to issues that get people emotionally upset，get to their guts，get to where people live，”Daynard says.On the healthy eating/ exercising/stress-reduction front，“I don't think the battle's actually even begun.”

Which should not deter individuals from taking on their own resolutions，says Rick Botelho，professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester and author of books on motivation and behavioral change.

“The good thing about New Year's resolutions is that people who make them are twice as likely to succeed as people who don't，”he says.“The bad thing is very few people change spontaneously.There's no question the more you try，the more likelihood you are going to achieve success.”

1.According to the article，what make it hard from people to change unhealthy habits?

2.According to Mencken，what actual role does health care or medicine play in American people's lives?

3.Why does the writer counter-intuitively say“Change Comes from the heart，not the head”?

4.What does the subtitle“Carrots and Sticks”mean or refer to in the context of this article?

5.How do our“New Year's resolutions”help you change for the better?

Genomics:基因组学Genomics is the study of the genomes of organisms.The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts.The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis，epistasis，pleiotropy and other interactions between loci and alleles within the genome.In contrast，the investigation of the roles and functions of single genes is a primary focus of molecular biology and is a common topic of modern medical and biological research.Research of single genes does not fall into the definition of genomics unless the aim of this genetic，pathway，and functional information analysis is to elucidate its effect on，place in，and response to the entire genome's networks.

Big Mac:巨无霸、麦香堡The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by the international fast-food chain McDonald's.It is one of the company's signature products，along with the Quarter Pounder.当然Big Mac在此有转义。

Mencken:门肯(Born Sept.12，1880，Baltimore，Md.，U.S.and died Jan.29，1956，Baltimore)U.S.controversialist，humorous journalist，and critiComencken worked on the staff of the Baltimore Sun for much of his life.With George Jean Nathan(1882-1958)，he coedited The Smart Set(1914-1923)and cofounded and edited(1924-1933)the American Mercury，both important literary magazines.Probably the most influential U.S.literary critic in the 1920s，he often used criticism to jeer at the nation's social and Cultural weaknesses.Prejudices(1919-1927)collects many of his reviews and essays.In The American Language(1919；supplements 1945，1948)he brought together American expressions and idioms；by the time of his death he was perhaps the leading authority on the language of the U.S.

Coronary bypass surgery:冠状动脉搭桥手术Coronary artery bypass surgery，also coronary artery bypass graft surgery，and colloquially heart bypass or bypass surgery is a surgical procedure to restore normal blood supply to the heart by creating new routes for the blood to travel into the heart when one or both of the coronary arteries have beCome clogged or obstructed(possibly due to atherosclerosis).These new routes are created by removing blood vessels from another part of the body(most often the veins of the leg)and grafting them onto the heart to bypass the clogged arteries.Often，people will call this kind of surgery a double，triple，or quadruple bypass，referring to the number of diseased coronary arteries that had to be bypassed during the operation.

Angioplasty:血管修复术Therapeutic opening of a blocked blood vessel.Usually a balloon is inflated near the end of a catheter to flatten plaques against an artery's wall.Performed on a coronary artery，angioplasty is a less invasive alternative to coronary bypass surgery in the treatment of coronary heart disease.Complications，including embolisms and tearing，are rare and results are excellent，but plaques tend to build up again after the procedure.Angioplasty is also used to expand a severely obstructed heart valve.

Surgeon General:United States Surgeon General，former head of the U.S.Public Health Service，which is responsible for protecting the people's health.Since a 1986 reorganization，the surgeon general has largely served as a national spokesperson and watchdog on health issues.The separate U.S.Army，Navy and Air Force surgeons general oversee military health care.The Surgeon General serves as America's chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury.The Surgeon General is appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate for a 4-year term of office.In carrying out all responsibilities，the Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health，who is the principal advisor to the Secretary on public health and scientific issues.

Holy Grail:Also Grail，in Arthurian legend，a sacred cup that was the object of a mystical quest by knights of the Round Table.The grail legend may have been inspired by classical and Celtic stories of magic cauldrons and horns of plenty.It was first given Christian significance as a mysterious，holy object by Chrétien de Troyes in the 12th-century romance Perceval，or the Count of the Holy Grail.The grail was sometimes said to be the same cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and later by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood flowing from the wounds of Jesus on the cross.The most notable figure connected with the grail was Sir Galahad，who，according to Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur，found the grail and achieved mystical union with God.转义→The object of a prolonged endeavor.

Twinkie tax:Also fat tax.Tax or surcharge upon fattening food or fat people.Such penalties have been proposed to encourage more healthy eating and to finance the extra burden imposed by fat people in areas such as air travel and health care.In December 2003，The World Health Organization proposed that nations consider taxing junk foods to encourage people to make healthier food choices.The Twinkie tax is designed to decrease consumption of unhealthy foods，or at least function as a disincentive to unhealthy eating；to generate revenue earmarked for relevant causes:improving diet，increasing physical activity，obesity prevention，nutrition education，etc.；to be applied in ways that stores can manage and people can understand，and to focus on maximizing health benefits，not monitoring dietary choices per se.There are arguments against the so-called Twinkie tax:Government should not interfere with people's lives and tell them what to eat and what not to eat；Could affect poor people disproportionately；Interfere with personal liberties and freedom of choice；Additional bureaucracy is undesirable.

Trans fat:反式脂肪An unsaturated fatty acid produced by the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils and present in hardened vegetable oils，most margarines，commercial baked foods，and many fried foods.An excess of these fats in the diet is thought to raise the cholesterol level in the bloodstream.

Corner the market:囤积居奇、垄断市场In finance，to corner the market is to purchase enough of a particular stock，commodity，or other asset to allow the price to be manipulated，by analogy to the general business jargon where a company described as having“cornered the market”has a very high market share.The cornerer hopes to gain control of enough of the supply of the commodity to be able to set the price for it.This can be done through several mechanisms.The most direct strategy is to simply buy up a large percentage of the available commodity offered for sale in some spot market and hoard it.With the advent of futures trading，a cornerer may buy a large number of futures contracts on a commodity and then sell them at a profit after inflating the price.

Opinion leader:Individual whose ideas and behavior serve as a model to others.Opinion leaders communicate messages to a primary group，influencing the attitudes and behavior change of their followers.Therefore，in certain marketing instances，it may be advantageous to direct the communications to the opinion leader alone to speed the acceptance of an advertising message.For example，advertisers may direct a dental floss promotion to influential dentists or a fashion campaign to female celebrities.In both instances，the advertiser is using the opinion leader to carry and“trickle down”its message to influence its target group.Because of the important role opinion leaders play in influencing markets，advertisers have traditionally used them to give testimonials.

New Year's resolutions:A New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit，often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous.The name Comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year's Day and remain until fulfilled or abandoned.More sociocentric examples include resolutions to donate to the poor more often，to beComemoreassertive，ortobeComemoreeconomicallyor environmentally responsible.People may act similarly during the Christian fasting period of Lent，though the motive behind this holiday is more of sacrifice than of responsibility.The new year resolution is one example of the rolling forecast-method of planning.According to this method，plans are established at regular short or medium-term time intervals，when only a rough long-term plan exists.

Carrot and stick(also“carrot or stick”):It is an idiom that refers to a policy of offering a combination of rewards and punishment to induce behavior.Some claim that this usage of phrase is erroneous，and that in fact Comes from the figure of a carrot on a stick.In this case，the driver would tie a carrot on a string to a long stick and dangle it in front of the donkey，just out of its reach.As the donkey moved forward to get the carrot，it pulled the cart and the driver so that the carrot would always remain out of reach.

We suffer more heart disease than almost every country in Europe-but we still like to think we're healthier than our continental cousins.Emma Brockes reports on Britain's curiously ambivalent approach to healthy living.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/3453031/the-smokingban-was-always-going-to-be-the-thin-end-of-the-wedge.thtml

熟语、熟词的转用。本篇文章连续出现以下短语:the Big Mac of medical questions，the holy grail of the public health，complex calculus of intellectual...这些短语中的Big Mac，holy grail以及calculus是大家熟悉的词，分别是麦当劳的巨无霸、(传说耶稣在最后晚餐中用的)圣杯圣盘以及数学微积分，但这里显然都转用作它义，分别表示大问题、梦寐以求的目标以及相互作用。同样，chemistry和dynamics除了指化学、物理力学外，也可转指人际情感的产生与活力。

Ⅰ.According to the article，determine which statements are true and which are false.

1.American stress levels usually are not drawn on any chart.

2.Both genetic and environmental factors may make human selfdiscipline over habits difficult.

3.Studies show most people will not revert to their bad old habits when they have had some surgery.

4.Former Disney CEO gave up yoga because he felt it made his life more stressful.

5.The US Surgeon General suggests that about 30％of the country's illnesses may not have anything to do with exercise or food to eat.

1.The holy grail in this article means________.

A.the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper

B.a goal or object of an extended or difficult quest

C.the inspiration from the holy

D.none of the above

2.“Common denominators”in this article________.

A.is used for calculation purposes

B.is used in the context of illnesses and conscious efforts to prevent them

C.refer to characteristics that are shared by all members of a group of people

D.both B and C

3.Which of the following is true about the stick approach?

A.It is more effective as an agent of change on a broad scale.

B.It is more effective as an individual motivator.

C.Both A and B.

D.Neither A nor B.

4.Twinkie tax here is probably related to________.

A.a kind of tax originally on Twinkie

B.a kind of price increase on unhealthy foods

C.both A and B

D.none of the above

5.“Eat-your-spinach messages”probably________.

A.are messages frequently seen on TV

B.are issued by vegetarians

C.call for eating healthy foods

D.both A and B