HOUSTON (Reuters) — Houston tops a U.S. magazine’s annual fattest cities list for the fourth time in five years, with four other Texas cities in the top 25.
Fast food restaurants — Houston has twice the national average number — are partly to blame for the dishonor, Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton said.
“Americans work long hours, don’t take vacations, and when they’re faced with the worst food choices, they indulge (沉溺于) in those,” he said.
High humidity, poor air quality and some of the nation’s longest commute (每天去上班的路程) times also helped Texas’ most populous city unseat Detroit, the 2003 heavy weight champion, the magazine said.
Houston Mayor Bill White, who has worked with a major food company to develop healthy food products and the city’s public schools to improve lunch menus, called the report “mostly ungrounded and nonsense.”
“On the other hand, it calls attention to real issues the mayor is trying to deal with,” his spokesman, Frank Michel, said.
The magazine said it looked at factors such as the number and types of restaurants, park space, air quality, weather and the number of health clubs.
Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago followed Houston on the seventh edition of the fat list. Texas cities Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso were in the top 14, which Boulton said was no surprise.
“It’s pure big indulgence, just living big, and that’s part of the culture,” said Boulton.
Seattle ranked as the fittest city. Austin and Arlington, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, were the only Texas cities on the fit list. Austin was 19th and Arlington 22nd out of 25.
小题1:What decides the magazine’s annual fattest list?
A．The size of fat population.
B．The number of fast food restaurants.
C．The economic growth rate of the state.
D．Things related to unhealthy ways of life.小题2:Which city topped 2003 fattest cities list?
A．Houston.
B．Dallas.
C．Detroit.
D．Philadelphia.小题3:By saying “living big” (in Paragraph 9), Boulton means people _________.
A．are growing fatter
B．are living wastefully
C．eat too many fatty foods
D．are spending too much time working小题4:Which of the following is best supported by the text?
A．Texas has the most fat cities in the U.S.
B．Bill White is happy with the newspaper report.
C．People in Texas are the most hardworking in the U.S.
D．Most school children in Houston have weight problems.
