Text 1. Do we need extra vitamins?
Many people believe that taking vitamin supplements is the best safeguard against the dangers of an incomplete diet, but this should be ①a last resort (最后手段)rather than a way out of a problem. Even if there is a genuine need for extra vitamins, then sooner or later the question arises \There is really no simple answer to this question. The Food Standards Committee (guardians②保护者 of our laws on food purity, labelling and advertising clams and descriptions) suggest in their recent report to the government that we do not need any extra vitamins. They say that they are \normal diet\it is, perhaps, pertinent to ask the question \normal diet? \though few people are familiar with the wording of the Food Standards Report they do wonder instinctively if they are eating the right things. The blame for faulty eating habits is often placed at the door of the ubiquitous③（a. being everywhere, esp. at the same time 普遍存在的） junk and convenience foods. As we have seen, some of these are not the criminals they are made out to be White bread is only slightly less nutritious than brown bread and frozen vegetables can be almost as \foods which can really be described as pure rubbish. Many pre-packed goods contain too much sugar and we would all benefit by avoiding these, but most tinned, processed and dried foods contain useful amounts of fat, protein, carbohydrate④（n. 碳水化合物）, vitamins and minerals. The addition of a small amount of fruit or a side salad to
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convenience foods such as pizzas or hamburgers can turn a snack into a well-balanced meal.
许多人认为，服用维生互补剂是防止出现饮食营养不均衡情况的最好防范办法，但这是解决这一问题的方法中最不可行的作法。即使真的需要补充维生素，迟早会出现“我需要哪些维生素？需要多少？多久服一次？”这样的问题。对于这一问题，确实没有简单的答案。食品标准委员会（我们在食品纯度、标识和食品广告申请、宣传方面的法律卫士）在最近呈送给政府的报告中建议说，人们不需要补充维生素。他们说，“饮食正常的健康人不需要它们”。尽管我们没有几个人对他们在营养方面的权威有什么异议，但或许会问“我们中多少人是健康的？正常的饮食是什么样的饮食？”这样的问题。许多人心里对这两个问题还有点拿不不准尽管没有多少人熟悉食品标准委员会所呈报告中的措辞，但人们确实不由得要问，他们的饮食是否合理。不良的饮食习惯常常归咎到随处出售的没营养的食品和方面食品上。如我们所知，这些食品中的某些食品并不象人们认为的那要间（形成不良饮食习惯的）罪魁祸首。白面包比黑面包只是稍微少了点儿营养，而冷冻的蔬菜几乎和新鲜的食物一样的“新鲜”。真正可以说成是纯粹没有营养的食物是非常少的。许多包装好的食品含糖太多，避开它们对我们都有好处，多数罐装食品、加工食品和烘干食品含有大量的脂肪、蛋白质、碳水化合物、维生素和矿物质。往方便食品（如比萨饼或汉堡包）上加少许的水果或另外添加一道色拉会把快餐变成搭配均匀的营养餐。
'Junk' food is difficult to define. White sugar is probably the nearest contender⑤（n. rival, competitor）竞争者，对手 for the title. It contains plenty of calories for energy but not much else, and is often described as an \calories, but beer and wine contain some of the B vitamins and wine is a good source of
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iron, so even a teetotaler ⑥（a person who never drinks alcohol）滴酒不沾的人could not describe all alcohol as useless, nutritionally speaking. Calories measure the energy we derive from the food we eat, and sugar and alcohol are sometimes described as having a high energy density. There is a limit to the amount of energy we need each day (2,000-2,200 calories is the average for women and 2,500-3,000 for men) and if we eat too much sugar and alcohol there is no appetite left for the vitamin-rich foods we need -- fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. Buying vitamins can be predicted by psychological as well as nutritional motives and it is prudent to investigate why we think we need them and what benefits we expect from them before we rush off to the health shop to make our purchases.
给真正“没营养”食品下定义并不容易。白糖可能是这一头衔的最有力竞争者。它含有很多提供能量的大卡，但含别的营养不多，因而常常被称为“只含大卡”的食物。酒含大片也很高，但啤酒和果酒含有一些B族维生素，而果酒富含铁质。因而从营养角度说，甚至滴酒不沾的人也不能把酒都说成是毫无益处的东西。大卡测量我们吃食物所得到的能量，而糖和酒有时被说成是单位能量高的物质。我们每天需要的热量有一个限度（妇女平均为２０００－２２００大卡，而男人为２５００－３０００大卡）。如果我们糖或酒用得太多，就留不下胃口去享用我们需要的含 维生阁下高的食物－－鱼、肉、水果和蔬菜。具有讽刺意味的是，真正吃“没营养”食物可能需要补充维生素的人几乎从没想到要补充维生素，而我们这些偶尔吃些食物的人却觉得我们必须把所有能想到的维生素都用来去补充所缺的营养。购买维生素有的是出于营养方面的动机，有的是受心理因素的驱使。要认真地考虑一下，我们为什么觉得我们需要维生素，我们希望它们给我们带来什么益处，然后再跑到营养品商店去购买。
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Most of us buy vitamins for one of three reasons. Either we believe that they are prophylactic⑦(a. 预防性的), that is they will ward off advancing ills, or they are therapeutic⑧(a. 治疗的) and will deal with the ills we have already, or finally we may believe they are wonder drugs and will lift us into a state of super health, with all its attendant⑨（a. connected with）伴随的，有联系的 delights. We are protected from some of these wild imaginings by the laws which control advertising but even without false promise we still believe that vitamins will “do us good”. Belief is a very potent state of mind and the power of the placebo（10n. 安慰剂） pill is never underestimated in clinical trials used to test new drugs. A placebo is a harmless substance given to one group of patients in the trial and it is similar in taste and appearance to a new drug which is given to a second group of patients. Theoretically the drug should cure or relieve any symptoms and the placebo should have no effect. Often these trials produce surprising results and the placebo group recover as well as the group taking the new drug. This has been explained in the light of modern psychology because many of us react favourably to any kind of interest taken in our problems and derive as much benefit from that as we would from a medical drug. It is a “mind over matter” philosophy and for some of us it works. Vitamin pills can sometimes fall into this category.
我们多数人是基于三个原因之一购买维生素的。我们要么认为维生互具有预防疾病功能，也就是它们会防止疾病的到来，要么以为它们具有治疗功能，会医治我们身上的病，或者最后一点，我们可能会认为它们是特效药，会使我们进入最佳身体状态，并随之带给我们各种快乐。广告法保护我们，使我们免受某些这类不切实际想象的危害。但即使没有虚假的广告承诺，我们仍然认为对新药进行临床试验中安慰药的作用从未被低估过。安慰药是一种在试验中给一组病人服用的无害物质，它在味道和外观上与
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给第二组病人服用的新型药物相似。从理论上讲，新型药物有治疗或减轻各种病症作用，而安慰药应该没有效果。这类试验常常产生令人惊讶的结果：服用安慰药的一组与服用新型药物的一组恢复的一样好。当代心理学对这种情况的解释是，我们多数人一旦对我们患的疾病有了信心，就会产生良好的结果，从而会得到药物相同的好处。这是一种“精神高于物质”的哲学，而且它对我们中的一些人起作用。维生素丸有时可以归入这一类。维生互不是药，但它们有和安慰药相似的功效。适当采用这种自我疗法没有害处，甚至还有助于取得我们想达到的结果 。
Vitamins B and C cannot be retained (11. v. avoid losing 保留) in the body so if we take more than we need of these they are soon excreted （12. v. get rid of waste from the body 排泄）in the urine. The possible exception here is the theory about the increased body “pool” of vitamin C, but even this is limited and is still largely unproven. Taking too much of the fat soluble vitamins can be dangerous and vitamins A and D should never be taken indiscriminately. Vitamin E has not been found to have any toxic（13. a. poisonous 有毒的） effect in large doses but neither do there seem to be any noticeable benefits. This is an unexplored area in vitamin research and the only known advantages of vitamin E are confined to specialised medical cases.
维生素B和C不能在体内储存，因此如果服用量超过身体所需，它们很快在尿液中排出。在此可能出现的例外就是关于维生素C在体内“储量”增加的说法。不过即使这一储量也是有限的，而且在很大程度上还没有得到证实。服用过多的脂溶性维生素可能会有危险，因而维生素A和维生素D绝不能随便服用。大剂量服用维生素E没发现有什么副作用，但似乎也没有任何明显的好处。维生素E是维生素研究中的一个未探查的领域，它仅知的好处局限在特定的医学例上。
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自考英语阅读二课文及翻译
