أمتحــــأإن ريدنج يدشـــؤا

Text: Dangers of Fast Food.
A. We live in a fast world. Worse than that, we live in a world where we now have so much to do, that there isn’t enough time in the day to do it. Most families have both parents working, which leaves little time for anyone to sit down to a home cooked meal. No problem. Fast food restaurants have come to our rescue. At least that’s what we’ve been told. Well, what we haven’t been told are what the dangers of fast foods are. Not only will they feed us quickly, but they’ll end up killing us just as fast. If you’re wondering what the big fuss is, keep reading and we’ll show you just what you’re putting in your body and what it’s doing to you.
B. Burger King started out in Miami in 1954 with just one restaurant. If it had just stayed there then maybe we’d only have to worry about people in Miami getting sick and grossly overweight. But by the 1960’s Burger King had become a household name all over the world. And with that name came a diet of fatty hamburgers and salty fries.
C. So what’s wrong with fatty hamburgers and salty fries? Fatty hamburgers raise your cholesterol and too much salt raises your blood pressure. The end result of each is quite simply a heart attack or stroke. This is like loading a gun with a hollow point bullet, putting it to your head and pulling the trigger while downing a shot of Scotch.
D. It can’t be any coincidence that ever since the popularity of fast food chains like Burger King, McDonalds and Wendy’s, just to name a few, that the average teenager is now 20 to 40 pounds heavier than they were 40 years ago. Take a good look at the size of some of the high school football players. Many of them are bigger than professional players from the 60’s. Forty years ago you didn’t read about kids collapsing at football practice because they were so out of shape.

E. The reason we allow this to happen is because of the economy and what it’s done to the typical household. Families could no longer live on one income. It became necessary for the man to either get a second job or for the woman to get a first job. In many cases, the latter is what ended up happening. As a result, there just wasn’t time to come home and make a meal for the family. So one of two things happened. Either the kids and parents too for that matter, grabbed whatever they could or they went out to Burger King. After all, this was great. A five minute ride to your local Burger King (they were all over the place) and you were literally served in minutes. And the price was unbelievable. You could get a burger, fries and a soda for under $1. Well, we have paid a high price for that dollar meal (which is now more like $5) with our health as 40 years of fast food eating has finally caught up with us.
F. Well, it doesn’t have to end like this for us. We can say no to fast foods and say yes to healthy eating again. Prepare your meals the night before after work and simply reheat them the next day. Maybe prepare a couple of meals on the weekend. There are ways around this problem, and we have to find those ways before the problem itself ends up killing us.
G. The dangers of fast foods are just too serious to ignore.
H. Steve Wagner hasn’t seen a fast food restaurant in years. If you visit his site at http://www.natures-healing-remedies.com/ you can pick up your free report on how the drug companies are killing us as well as get your 52 week series on natural treatments for a variety of ailments. None of these treatments involve eating fast food.

word count 660
Adapted from an article by S. Wagnerin
and from http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=S._Wagner

 You have 36 minutes. Question sheet: Dangers of Fast Food.
Name Section Date

Questions 1 – 3. Paragraph main idea: Find the paragraph that contains the main idea listed below. Write the letter of the paragraph.
Paragraph heading Paragraph letter
1. The solution to avoid fast food
2. No time to cook food at home
3. Fatty hamburgers and salty fries

Questions 4 – 7. Write what the reference word in bold in the text refers to.
Reference word Line Refers to
4. that 1
5. This 16
6. they 34
7. his
44

Questions 8 – 10 . Write short answers to these questions – no more than 4 words.
8. How many restaurants did start in Miami?
9. What do fatty hamburger and salty fries rise?
10. Who hasn’t seen a fast food restaurant in years?

Questions 11 – 14. Read the text and look at the statements below. Write T (true) F (false) or NI (no information).
11. When you don’t have time to cook food, fast food restaurant have come to help you.
12. Burger King started out in Miami in 1945.
13. Before fast food teenagers were more intelligent than now.

14. We can now stop to eat fast food and eat healthy food.

Questions 15 – 18. Vocabulary: Find the answer closest in meaning to the word as it is used in the text. Circle the correct letter.
15. rescue (line 5)
a. dangers.
b. services.
c. make free from danger.
d. home. 16. trigger (line 17)
a. a device when pressed starts an action.
b. plumber.
c. atomizer.
d. gun.
17. collapsing (line 22)
a. cheerful.
b. dead.
c. injured.
d. fall down. 18. grabbed (line 33)
a. mean.
b. greedy.
c. happy.
d. serious.
Answer Key, a Dangers of Fast Food

1. F
2. E
3. C
4. live in a fast world
5. heart attack or stroke
6. kids and parents
7. Steve Wanger
8. one
9. cholesterol and blood pressure
10. Steve Wanger
11. T
12. F
13. NI
14. T
15. c
16. a
17. d
18. b