英语听力文摘 English Digest 19、千金难买老来瘦

　　Think back to your college days, the good old days when life was easy. Stay up all night partying or even studying? No problem. Eat pizza every night and plow¹ through entire bags of potato chips at one sitting. Hey, no sweat. You were a lean, mean, and oh-so-young machine.
But . . . then stuff² happens. You graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, and around the age of thirty-five you're no longer so young and so lean. In fact, you've added a few pounds around the middle. And with each passing year you seem to put on another pound or two. By the time you've hit your mid³ forties you may find yourself looking in the mirror and wondering, "What happened to the slim, young Adonis?"
What happened is this. Around the age of thirty-five or so your metabolism⁴ may start to slow down. Plus, you are likely to lose muscle mass, which slows your metabolism even more. The slower your metabolism, the slower the rate at which your body burns calories. So even if you're eating less than you used to, you'll start gaining weight.
But just because you're not a spring chicken anymore doesn't mean that you have to get fat. In fact, the antidote⁵ is pretty simple: exercise and eat less. Lifting weights or otherwise regularly working your muscles will add or at least maintain⁶ muscle mass, which will help maintain your metabolism. And the fewer calories you consume⁷ in the first place, the fewer you need to burn.
So maybe you can't stay young forever, but you can stay slim.

1 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

2 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

3 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

4 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。

5 antidote   

n.解毒药，解毒剂

参考例句：

• There is no known antidote for this poison.这种毒药没有解药。
• Chinese physicians used it as an antidote for snake poison.中医师用它来解蛇毒。

6 maintain   

vt.支撑；赡养，抚养；维持，保有

参考例句：

• He has to maintain a large family on a small salary.他不得不依靠很少的工资养活一家人。
• We must do our best to maintain sales at their usual rate.我们要尽力使销售额保持在平日的水平上。

7 consume   

vt.花费，消费；毁灭；vi.消费掉；枯萎

参考例句：

• They generally consume more power and take up more space,too.它们通常消耗更多的能量，并且占用更多的空间。
• The British consume a vast amount of tea each year.英国人每年消费大量的茶叶。