雅思閱讀材料大集合：西紅柿應該買什麼樣的?

雅思閱讀考試不算很難，但還是要大家認真備考，爲了方便大家，下面小編給大家帶來雅思閱讀材料大集合：西紅柿應該買什麼樣的?

An international standard for tomatoes has been adopted, ending about seven years of intense debates between countries on what qualifies as a proper tomato.

According to the new standard, tomatoes may come in one of four varieties: round, ribbed, oblong or elongated, or cherry tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes.

They must be whole, clean, free from foreign smell, free of pests and fresh in appearance.

"In the case of trusses of tomatoes, the stalks must be fresh, healthy, clean and free of all leaves and other visible foreign matter," according to the so-called Codex standard.

A commission called Codex Alimentarius was (R)created in 1963 by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation to come up with food standards and guidelines on food products.

There are international standards for all kinds of food produce ranging from edam cheese to bananas to fish fillets.

They facilitate trade, as they provide a comMon interpretation of what constitutes a sound product to importing and exporting countries.

Tom Heilandt, who is a senior food standards adviser at the FAO explained that one such international standard was needed for tomatoes, in order to protect importing countries.

"Many developing countries in particular said that they needed this standard so that they ensure that they would get the right quality of products that they ordered," he said.

　雅思閱讀材料大集合：真正的男人是會流淚的

Young, single men are fed up with being typecast as immature, insensitive and sex-obsessed, with a survey finding that the majority believe in having a soul mate, aren't scared of commitment, and say real men can cry.A poll of 70,000 men with an average age of 28 debunked many of the standard stereotypes to show that the modern man is driven by a sense of values, loyalty and family.

The survey, by men's lifestyle website , found that 77 percent of respondents look for girlfriends with "wife potential" while 75 percent believe they have a soul mate and 69 percent would never cheat on their partner.

"These survey results will be surprising to many women, most of whom have a completely different perspective of what the average man thinks and feels," James Bassil, editor-in-chief of , said.

"The idea that young guys only want to be single and jump from girlfriend to girlfriend is not true at all."

The online survey, conducted over a five-week period, found that six out of 10 men were fed up with inaccurate commercial descriptions of them.

Bassil said the images of men on television and in advertisements had not changed for decades whereas the image of women in the media was always changing as their roles in the home and the workplace altered.

"In TV sitcoms and in adverts, young men are portrayed as immature, frat boys who are always trying to get around their wives or girlfriends finding out about their bad behavior. This is just not the case," he said.

The survey by , a unit of Fox Interactive Media, found that 56 percent of men believed that being a good father or husband made them "manly."

It also found that 75 percent admitted to crying over a woman while 57 percent of men cook at home and enjoy doing it.

"There really seems to be a revival of traditional values among men which goes against everything you see in the media," said Bassil.

　　雅思閱讀材料大集合：窮人更容易發胖?

The South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region, according to a new government survey.

More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are considered obese. In part, experts blame Southern eating habits, poverty and demographic groups that have higher obesity rates.

Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey done last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The 2007 findings are similar to results from the same survey the three previous years. Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list.

The South has had high death rates from heart disease and stroke, health risks that have been linked to obesity, some experts noted.

The CDC study only surveyed adults, but results for kids are similar, said Dr. Miriam Vos, assistant professor of pediatrics at Atlanta's Emory School of Medicine.

"Most of the studies of obesity and children show the South has the highest rates as well," Vos said.

Why is the South so heavy? The traditional Southern diet — high in fat and fried food — may be part of the answer, said Dr. William Dietz, who heads CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division.

The South also has a large concentration of rural residents and black women — two groups that tend to have higher obesity rates, he said.

The study found that about 36 percent of black survey participants were obese, while 28.5 percent of Hispanics and 24.5 percent of whites were.

High poverty rates in the South probably are another factor, said Naa Oyo Kwate, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

In today's America, poor people tend to be obese: The cheapest foods tend to be calorie-heavy, and stores offering healthier, and more expensive, food choices are not often found in poor neighborhoods, she said.

And why is Colorado so thin? It's a state with a reputation for exercise.

　　雅思閱讀材料大集合：當你路遇沒穿外套的小男孩

A boy shivers in the harsh Oslo winter, pathetically wrapping his arms around himself on a bus stop bench. He isn't wearing a coat and temperatures in the Norwegian capital regularly plunge to -10C during winter.

一個小男孩在挪威首都奧斯陸的寒風中瑟瑟發抖，他坐在一個公交車站臺，可憐兮兮地環抱着自己的胳膊。他沒有穿外套，而此時在冬日的奧斯陸，氣溫一般都會降到零下10攝氏度。

A heartbreaking scene, but the actions of the ordinary people who witnessed the plight of 11 year old Johannes L?nnestad Flaaten is both joyous and inspiring.

發生在11歲小男孩約翰內斯的這一幕困境讓人心碎，但目睹這一幕的普通路人的反應卻讓人非常感動和充滿正能量。

A young blonde woman who sat next to the boy and notices him rubbing his arms. She immediately asks him: 'Don't you have a jacket?'

坐在小男孩旁邊的一個年輕的金髮女孩注意到他一直在搓摸自己的胳膊，就立即問道：“你沒有外套嗎?”

'No, someone stole it,' he replies. She questions him and discovers he was on a school trip and was told to meet his teacher at the bus stop. She asks him the name of his school and where he's from as she selflessly drapes her own coat around his shoulders.

“沒有，有人把我的外套偷走了，” 他回答道。女孩問過他了解到他是在上學的路上，在公交車站是在等自己的老師。她問了學校的名字，知道他的來歷，很無私地把自己的外套脫下來披在他的肩膀上。

Later, another older woman at first gives him her scarf, then wraps him in her large padded jacket.

後來，又一位年長女性先把自己的圍巾給了他，然後把他包裹在自己的棉外套裏。

Throughout the day, more and more people offered Johannes their gloves and even the coats off their backs as they waited for their bus.

在這中，越來越多等公交車的人把自己的手套給了小約翰內斯，甚至有不少人把自己的外套脫下來了。

Johanne's predicament was a hidden camera experiment by Norwegian charity SOS Children’s Village as part of their winter campaign to gather donations to send much-needed coats and blankets to help Syrian children get through the winter. Many of the refugees have left their homes without winter clothing.

約翰內斯的窘境是一個隱藏攝像機實驗，由挪威慈善團體SOS兒童村發起，這是該組織冬日行動的一部分，這個活動是爲了籌集更多捐贈爲敘利亞兒童送冬日的生活必需品外套和毛毯。許多敘利亞難民在離家時都沒帶冬天的衣物。

"People should care as much about children in Syria as they care about this boy," Synne R?nning, the information head of SOS Children's Villages Norway, told The Local. She also noted that the child was a volunteer who was never in any danger during the filming.

挪威SOS兒童村的信息負責人羅寧對當地電視臺表示：“人們應該像關心這個小男孩一樣，關注敘利亞的兒童們。” 她也表示在拍攝過程中，志願者小男孩並沒有任何危險。