Section A Directions: In this section,
there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements.
Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the
statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on
Answer Sheet 2.
The economic downsizing of the United States presents a good opportunity to
address the downsizing of the average American, say doctors in an editorial
published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They argue
that the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, now being debated in the
Senate, should include investments in infrastructure to decrease obesity.
The idea is that improvements in public health would
decrease obesity-related health and economic costs (estimated at $100 billion
per year) and would position Americans to become more economically competitive,
say the authors of the paper, Dr. David Ludwig, of Children’s Hospital Boston,
and Harold Pollack, of the University of Chicago’s Center for Health
Administration Studies. In the absence of such action, they say, obesity and
public health are likely to worsen. "The economic
downturn can be expected to reduce nutrition quality and physical activity,
worsening obesity prevalence when society is least able to bear the escalating
financial burden," they wrote. In times of economic
stress, consumers tend to eat less costly, high-calorie products, they say.
Membership in gyms, fitness classes and sports leagues declines. Some schools
may even cut physical education time. The economic stimulus plan, however, could
create jobs and invest in the nation’s health through such projects as building
school kitchens to cook nutritious food; building sidewalks, bike paths, parks,
sports facilities and community health centers; and changing government policies
to revitalize farming. Today’s Los Angeles Times story
on the stimulus plan debate notes that Senate Republicans object to a
$75-million measure that would help people quit smoking in the package. That
doesn’t promise well for other public-health enhancements to the bill. But you
can’t blame health experts for trying. Here’s how Ludwig and Pollack put it:
"Does U.S. society wish to produce vast amounts of
low-quality food, neglect the social in-frastructure to support physical
activity, and sustain the inevitable economic and social harms of
obesity-related diseases Or will this opportunity to align economic and social
policies with the interests of public health be seized by implementing a
comprehensive, national obesity strategy Failure to act now could ultimately
cost society much more than even the sub-prime mortgage crisis." In the economic downturn, obesity and public health are likely to worsen because of lower level of______.