According to the new research appearing in the July 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, obesity isn't just spreading; rather, it may be contagious between people, like a common cold. Researchers from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, reviewed a database of 12,067 densely interconnected people — that is, a group that included many families and friends — who had all participated in a major American heart study between 1971 and 2003. The participants met with heart researchers every two to four years. It was that information the NEJM authors mined to explore obesity in the context of a social network.

   According to their analysis, when a study participant's friend became obese, that first participant had a 57% greater chance of becoming obese himself. In pairs of people in which each identified the other as a close friend, when one person became obese the other had a 171% greater chance of following suit. James Fowler, study co-author and a political scientist at UC San Diego says that it's not just that people who share similar lifestyles become friends, He and co-author Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School considered the possibility — and were surprised. For one thing, geographic distance between friends in the study seemed to have no impact: friends who lived a 5-hour drive apart and saw each other infrequently were just as influenced by each other's weight gains as those who lived close enough to share weekly take-out meals or pick-up basketball games. The best proof that friendship caused the weight gain, says Fowler, is that people were much more likely to pattern their own behavior on the actions of people they considered friends — but the relationship didn't work in the other direction. If you had named another person as a friend, and your friend became obese, than you were more than 50% more likely to get fat too. But if your friend had not named you as a mutual friend, and you became obese, it would have no significant impact on your friend's weight.

   The obvious question is, Why? Spouses share meals and a backyard, but the researchers found a much smaller risk of gaining weight — a 37% increase — when one spouse became obese. Siblings share genes, but their influence, too, was much smaller, increasing each other's risk 40%. Fowler believes the effect has much more to do with social norms: whom we look to when considering appropriate social behavior. Having fat friends makes being fat seem more acceptable. "We get to choose our friends," says. "We don't get to choose our families."

   Fowler and Christakis say that the contagion-effect should hold just as much for weight loss as it does for weight gain. "I would hope this influences individuals to get friends and families involved in decisions about health," Fowler says. After all, he says, a weight-loss plan may be more effective if the people closest to you are on board. And, if you're successful, your good health will help others achieve a healthy weight too. The impact extends not just to your friends, it turns out — but also to your friends' friends, and even to their friends.

   注（1）：本文選自Economist, 07/25/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象為2002年真題Text 3。

   1． The following are factors causing obesity according to the researchers, EXCEPT that_______.

    [A] similar lifestyles among some people

    [B] geographical distance between friends

    [C] one’s closest friend being fat

    [D] being mutual friend with fat guys

   2． If can be inferred from the text that _______.

    [A] allt he participants have no connection with each other

    [B] all the participants have heart diseases

    [C] researchers meet the participants irregularly

    [D] it is a long-term study

   3． The experiment involving both family members and friends is because _______.

    [A] researchers fail to find a more diverse sample

    [B] researchers have different hypotheses for family members and freinds

    [C] researchers can meet these people regularly

    [D] researchers can compare the results

   4． We can draw a conclusion from the text that _______.

    [A] When people choose friends, obesity comes at the first standard

    [B] The friends of a fat person must all be very fat

    [C] Familiy plays a more important role of affecting obesity

    [D] The contagion-effect of obesity also sheds light on weight loss

   5． From the text we can see the writer seems _______.

    [A] objective

    [B] optimistic

    [C] sensitive

    [D] gloomy

   篇章剖析

    本文就肥胖在人與人之間的影響和傳播性這一問題展開了論述。第一段提出了話題，并說明了研究的背景和方法；第二段展示了研究結(jié)果，并結(jié)合實例進(jìn)行說明；第三段討論了家庭關(guān)系和朋友關(guān)系對于肥胖的不同影響極其原因；第四段指出了該研究的實用性和將對人們產(chǎn)生的影響。

   詞匯注釋

   obesity [Eu`bisiti] n. 肥胖, 肥大                    take-out n. 外賣

   contagious [kEn`teidVEs] adj. 傳染性的, 會感染的     spouse [spauz] n. 配偶(指夫或妻)

   dense [dens] adj. 密集的, 濃厚的                   norm [nC:m] n. 標(biāo)準(zhǔn), 規(guī)范

   難句突破

   Researchers from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, reviewed a database of 12,067 densely interconnected people — that is, a group that included many families and friends — who had all participated in a major American heart study between 1971 and 2003.

   主體句式  Researchers reviewed a database of 12,067 people。

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  這個長句看似結(jié)構(gòu)復(fù)雜，主要是因為其中有較多的修飾成分。兩個破折號之間的句子是前面people的同位語，對這些人們的身份進(jìn)行補(bǔ)充說明，其中that is是同位語結(jié)構(gòu)的標(biāo)志；who引導(dǎo)的定語從句也是修飾people。

   句子譯文  來自哈佛大學(xué)和加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的研究者查閱了1971-2003年期間參與美國一項重要心臟研究的12,067位受訪者數(shù)據(jù)庫。受訪者之間大多都有親密的關(guān)系，包括許多家庭成員和朋友。

   題目分析

   1．B. 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段指出地理上的遠(yuǎn)近對于肥胖問題沒有什么影響，同時A，C，D選項都可以在該段落中找到對應(yīng)信息。

   2．D. 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第一段就指出此項研究是一個1971-2003年間進(jìn)行的長期研究。

   3．D. 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第三段比較了家人和朋友對于肥胖現(xiàn)象的影響，可以看出研究人員研究這兩組人的目的在于進(jìn)行比較。

   4．A. 推理題。文章比較后一段指出，該研究發(fā)現(xiàn)的肥胖傳染現(xiàn)象也可能促使相反效果的產(chǎn)生，即一個人減肥會影響他的親人朋友，從而使得減肥現(xiàn)象也得以傳播，從而使胖人們的體重向更健康的趨勢發(fā)展。

   5．A. 態(tài)度題。雖然文章比較后研究者對其研究結(jié)果持非常樂觀的態(tài)度，但綜觀全文，作者一直保持客觀描述的態(tài)度，沒有加入個人見解。

   參考譯文

    7月26日出版的《新英格蘭醫(yī)學(xué)雜志》認(rèn)為，肥胖不僅僅在越來越多，更可怕的是，它會像感冒一樣。在人與人之間傳播。來自哈佛大學(xué)和加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的研究者查閱了1971-2003年期間參與美國一項重要心臟研究的12,067位受訪者數(shù)據(jù)庫。受訪者之間大多都有親密的關(guān)系，包括許多家庭成員和朋友，他們每2-4年與心臟研究者見一次面。正是由于這個信息，使得研究者對社會關(guān)系對肥胖的影響產(chǎn)生了興趣。

   根據(jù)這項研究，如果受訪者的朋友肥胖的話，那些受訪者自己變胖的可能性會高出常人57%。如果兩人互相為摯友的話，那么這一機(jī)率將會高出常人171%。加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的政治科學(xué)家此后詹姆斯·福勒認(rèn)為并非只是有共同生活習(xí)慣的人才會成為朋友。此后詹姆斯·福勒與他的合著者哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的尼古拉斯·克里斯塔克斯得出了更為驚人的結(jié)論。一方面，研究表明朋友之間的地理位置差距根本不是問題，相距車程僅5小時但經(jīng)常不見面的朋友關(guān)系對肥胖的影響和每周都一起吃外賣或打籃球的朋友關(guān)系一樣。詹姆斯·福勒稱友誼引起肥胖的比較好證據(jù)就是，人們傾向于和朋友們做一樣的事情。如果你把一個人當(dāng)作朋友，如果他變肥胖了的話，那你的肥胖概率會高出常人50%。要是他不把你當(dāng)朋友，那么即使你胖了，對他也沒影響。

   現(xiàn)在的問題是夫妻共處一室，共同進(jìn)餐，為什么當(dāng)雙方之一變胖的時候，另一方肥胖概率僅僅高了37%呢？兄弟姐妹基因差不多，但他們之間的影響卻小得多，只有40%的風(fēng)險。福勒相信這是由于社會標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的原因，我們看人的時候總是在考慮什么是合適的社會行為。如果你的朋友時肥胖者，這就意味著你認(rèn)為肥胖是可以接受的。“而配偶并非隨你所愿（體態(tài)，飲食或是活動量）” 福勒認(rèn)為沒必要和自己的兄弟姐妹比，“我們可以選擇朋友，但是我們沒法選擇家庭。”

    福勒和克里斯塔克斯認(rèn)為這種“傳染效應(yīng)”對于減肥的影響和增肥一樣�！拔蚁Ｍ�這個研究能使人們在考慮健康狀況是把家人和朋友的因素也考慮進(jìn)去�！� 畢竟，如果你比較親密的朋友與你一起減肥的時候這個計劃會更加成功。同時，如果你成功減肥，那么你的健康也會幫助其他人達(dá)到理想的體重。這種效果不不僅對于你的朋友有效，并且對你朋友的朋友，以及他們的朋友都會有影響。