Paloalto, California— “Turning off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet,” US researchers said last week.

f 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television increased nearly two pounds (0.91kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.

“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician (儿科专家) at Stanford University. “American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games. And rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years,” Robinsin said.

In the study presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third. Children watching fewer hours of television showed a much smaller increase in waist (腰) size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise.

“One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories,” Robinson said. “Another reason might be eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson said.

72. The report tells us that children will get fatter if they ________.

A. eat in front of the TV                                    B. change their diet

C. do special exercises                                      D. spend much time watching TV

73. According to the report, the time American children usually spend on watching TV and videos or playing video games ________.

A. is four hours a day or more                           B. is less than four hours a day

C. has doubled in the last 20 years                      D. has been reduced to one-quarter

74. The time some children were persuaded to spend on TV viewing every day was less than ____.

A. one hour                  B. two hours                 C. three hours        D. four hours

75. Watching TV will increase kid’s weight because ________.

A.      they usually eat more and move less

B.      they no longer take part in outdoor activities

C.      they will not burn off calories

D.     they will enjoy having meals in front of the television

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