Đề thi thử ĐGNL ĐHQG TP.HCM năm 2025 - Mã đề 02 - Tiếng Anh

1. Obesity-linked “adult-onset” diabetes mellitus is for the first time being reported in children and adolescents in the UK and many other countries. A 1986 landmark study of obesity and television viewing found a clear association between the number of hours of television a child watched and the risk of that child becoming obese or over-weight.

2. In 12 to 17-year-olds, the prevalence of obesity increases by two per cent for every hour of weekly television time. A more recent study found that, while eight per cent of children watching one hour or less of television a day were obese, 18 per cent of children watching four or more hours were obese.

3. The more children watch television, the more they eat. (By comparison, even reading is a workout, at least in studies that have been done with obese children, perhaps because it engages their minds a bit more emphatically.) Television viewing prompts children to consume more food while they consume less energy, an ideal recipe for adiposity.

4. When children dictate family food choices, as is increasingly the case in the US, entire households are immersed in a miasma of one-dimensional sweet taste that reinforces juvenile preferences. Marketing of soft, sweet and salty foods is good business, and children are the most vulnerable targets.

5. Childhood obesity rates are highest in countries where advertising on children’s television programmes is least regulated— in Australia, the US and England. Sweden and Norway maintain a virtual ban on advertising to children and have consistently low levels of childhood obesity. Ireland, Belgium, Italy and Denmark have posed restrictions on children’s advertising and are pressing the other states of the European Union to do the same.

6. The US and other countries can afford to do no less. Public nutrition campaigns should go beyond vague recommendations to exercise and eat a balanced diet: the link between inactivity, junk food consumption and obesity should be made explicit. The food industry will lobby against these efforts, of course, claiming that they constitute “legislation of food choices”.

For many American university students, the weeklong spring break holiday means an endless party on a sunny beach in Florida or Mexico. In Panama City Beach, Florida, a city with a permanent population of around 36,000, more than half a million university students arrive during the month of March to play and party, making it the number one spring break destination in the United States.

A weeklong drinking binge is not for anyone, however, and a growing number of American university students have found a way to make spring break matter. For them, joining or leading a group of volunteers to travel locally or internationally and work to alleviate problems such as poverty, homelessness, or environmental damage makes spring break a unique learning experience that university students can feel good about.

During one spring break week, students at James Madison University in Virginia participated in 15 “alternative spring break” trips to nearby states, three others to more distant parts of the United States, and five international trips. One group of JMU students traveled to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Another group traveled to Mississippi to organize creative activities for children living in a homeless shelter. One group of students did go to Florida, but not to lie on the sand. They performed exhausting physical labor such as maintaining hiking trails and destroying invasive plant species that threaten the native Florida ecosystem.

Students who participate in alternative spring break projects find them very rewarding. While most university students have to get their degrees before they can start helping people, student volunteers are able to help people now. On the other hand, the accommodations are far from glamorous. Students often sleep on the floor of a school or spend the week camping in tents. But students only pay around $250 for meals and transportation, which is much less than some of their peers spend to travel to more traditional spring break hotspots.

Alternative spring break trips appear to be growing in popularity at universities across the United States. Students cite a number of reasons for participating. Some appreciate the opportunity to socialize and meet new friends. Others want to exercise their beliefs about people’s obligation to serve humanity and make the world a better place, whatever their reason. These students have discovered something that gives them rich rewards along with a break from schoolwork.

(“Active Skills for Reading: Book 2” by Neil J.Anderson – Thompson, 2007)