UNIT 2? Food

Hoodia

詞匯講解：

Hoodia：南非食用仙人掌；

A

　　The San live in that part of Africa called the Kalahari Desert. Life there is hard, and nature can be harsh. There are somewhere between 45,000 and 100,000 of them living in countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe. They're not rich and they don't live in expensive houses. There are no roads or schools or hospitals near them. They don't have many material possessions like cars or computers, things that people in the developed world can't do without. In fact, they have many problems such as unemployment and poverty. On top of this, they also suffer from alcoholism, drinking to forget their problems. They're the San, a tribe of traditional hunter-gatherers, who used to travel in search of food for their families instead of growing it or keeping animals. They have a culture that is 20,000years old, but their old way of life is disappearing fast and has nearly gone forever. So yes, they're poor, and yes, their lifestyle is not attractive to outsiders, but they do have one thing that certain people in the developed world are very, very interested in and want to have, and that may make them some money. It's called hoodia.

詞匯講解：

Kalahari Desert：喀拉哈里沙漠（位于非洲南部）；

harsh：嚴(yán)酷的；

harsh words：刻薄的言語(yǔ)。

tribe：部落。

B

　　Many countries have basic, common crops that people plant for food, such as rice or potatoes. Potatoes are grown in many European countries as well as South America (They originated there!), and rice is a staple food in Asia. But not all plants are grown just for food; some of them can also be used as medicine. A few examples are garlic, which is said to help with colds or high blood pressure, ginger to help with headaches or toothache, or the magnolia tree which is used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat some forms of cancer and heart disease. Hoodia, a cactus-like plant, only grows in the area where the San live, and they know where to find it and the best time to use it. They have known about it for centuries and they understand how to use it, but they don't use it for food, and they don't use it to cure disease either. They use it to fight hunger.

詞匯講解：

colds：感冒；

high blood pressure：高血壓。

C

　　In the old days when the San had to travel in search of food, they and their children sometimes had to go without food for several days. This was even longer in times of famine or when the rains failed. They ate the hoodia plant when they were starving, to help them survive until they found food, to stop their children from crying, and to give them the strength to continue their search. However, it didn't give them energy like normal food would. Instead, the chemicals in the hoodia plant killed the feeling of hunger and stopped them wanting food. They didn't know exactly how it worked; the only thing they knew for certain was that it did work.

D

Scientists have now discovered that the plant contains a substance which they have called P57. This chemical makes the brain believe that the stomach is full and that the body doesn't need food. That is why people in the developed world, especially those in pharmaceutical companies, are extremely interested in this very promising plant.

詞匯講解：

substance：物質(zhì)；

同義詞：chemical

E

　　Obesity in the developed world is a huge and growing problem, not only among adults, but increasingly among children. It has been estimated that up to 50% of people in the developed world are overweight and 20% of these are obese; at the time of writing, for example, 30% of Chinese children were considered to be too heavy for their age. One cause of obesity is eating too much, too often, and another is eating the wrong kind of food. Our grandparents had the time to prepare simple yet nourishing meals, and they didn't have money to afford expensive food. They didn't eat as much meat or fatty foods as we do nowadays, and that's one reason why they were slimmer and healthier than their descendants. Today we have less time to cook, and we have more money, so the easiest thing to do is to buy ready-made meals. They may be convenient and taste good, but they're often high in fat, salt and sugar. Too much of these make people unhealthy and fat. They need to lose weight, and that's where hoodia comes in.

詞匯講解：

obesity? n. 肥胖癥;

obese? adj. 肥胖的。

cancer：癌癥；

-ache疼：

heart disease：心臟??；

headaches：頭疼；

toothache：牙疼；

F

It seems to be the perfect solution. People in the West want to lose weight and hoodia is ideal. Western companies pay for the right to use the secrets of the hoodia plant; by selling these rights to the West, the San make money and can then help themselves. Obese people lose weight and the San people make a profit, so everyone is happy.

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Locating Information

練習(xí)1：The passage has six paragraphs, A-E Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-F, beside the statements below.

　　NOTE: You may use any letter more than once. You may not need to use all the letters.

　　6) ______ Some foods are used to cure health problems.

　　7) ______ Many modern people do not eat well and have weight problems.

　　8) ______ The San have something that people in the West want.

　　9) ______ The sale of hoodia from Africa to the West might help everyone.

10) ______ Hoodia was used by the San to control hunger when food was scarce.

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