Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is essential to one's life. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have been told, and told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.
But for many people, the thought of food as the first thing in the morning is never a pleasure. So in spite of all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures could be obtained, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33%—from 8.8 million to 11.7 million—according to the Chicago Based Market Research Corporation of America.
For those who dislike eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years have shown that, for grown-ups especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast. "Going without breakfast does not affect work," said Amold E.Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, "nor does giving people breakfast improve work."
Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better work is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not grown-ups. "The literature, "says one researcher, Dr Earnest Pollitt at the University of Texas, "is poor".
Words: 217
Total Reading Time:__________
Words per minute:__________
Notes: essential 必不可少的, obtained 可获得的, omit 省略, inadequate 不适当，involve 涉及
I. True or False:
1. The number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 2.9 million.
2. The word "Literature" in the last sentence refers to written works on a particular subject.
3. The scientific evidence linking breakfast is somewhat not proper.
II. Answer the Questions:
4. What do Americans believe according to the text?
________________________________________________________
5. Does it affect work whether people go without breakfast?
________________________________________________________
III. Multiple Choice:
6. The main idea of the passage is __________ .
A. breakfast has nothing to do with people's health
B. a good breakfast used to be important to us
C. breakfast is not as important to us as gasoline to a car
D. breakfast is not so important as we thought before
7. For those who do not take breakfast, the good news is that __________ .
A. several studies have been done in the past few years
B. the omission of breakfast does no harm to one's health
C. grown-ups have especially made studies in this field
D. eating little in the morning is good for health
8. The underlined part "nor does giving people breakfast improve work"means __________ .
A. people without breakfast can improve their work
B. not giving people breakfast improves work
C. having breakfast does not improve work, either
D. people having breakfast do improve their work, too
% Comprehension: __________
参考答案：
1．T。
2．T。“Literature"在指的是某个专题的文献、图书资料。
3．T。
4．They believe that a good breakfast is essential to one's life．
5．Yes，it does．
6．D。可用排除法把A、B、C三项排除，因其意与文章不符。
7．B。第三段“for grown-ups especially，there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast”可知B为主要原因。
8．C。此项为nor引导的倒装句，正常语序就是Giving people breakfast does not improve work．
