送上健康礼物却忽视了体育锻炼

    In recent weeks and months, Shanghai residents have been receiving an unusual present in their mailboxes. The elongated¹ blue packages contain a small self-help manual and a dinky little measuring tape - surely just the thing discerning citizens of China's biggest city have been waiting for。
    But these "Healthy expo, healthy Shanghai" gifts from the local government are part of a citywide push to promote fitness and battle obesity². The tape measure has a dial to calculate the user's body mass index, and the tape turns from green to red at 80 centimeters, apparently³ the point at which a woman's body fat can start to become a health issue。
    It's hardly the most tactful way to suggest residents may need to pay more attention to their diet and weight, but it demonstrates the degree of concern among officials over an issue shaping up to be a major social and political headache. Girths are growing fast, particularly among the affluent⁴ - and even just the mildly well-off. Everywhere you look in Shanghai, rotund bellies⁵ and thunder thighs⁶ are on show。
    The most recent estimates suggest that as many as 120 million mainlanders are obese⁷. The first culprit that springs to mind is the explosion of Western fast food chains, plus their domestic imitators, which now stand on virtually every downtown intersection⁸. The reality is that people are simply eating more - prosperity means bigger portions of everything。
    That is where this recent campaign comes into focus, quirky measuring tape and all. But there is one glaring omission⁹ from the government's arsenal¹⁰ to trim the city: sport。
    The Shanghai government does little to highlight the importance of exercise for all-round physical fitness. At a recent long-winded Shanghai government press conference on the current health drive, exercise warranted only two passing mentions。
    The truth is, Shanghai is not, by a long shot, a particularly active city. Apart from the occasional groups of men and women gathering¹¹ in the park to waltz or practice their fan-dance routines, it is pretty rare to see someone exercising for the sake of it. Urbane¹² young Shanghaiers seem to baulk at the thought of breaking a sweat - not just due to a strange revulsion for discomfort¹³, but because they tend to view it as a wholly alien concept。
    The city government deserves credit for tackling obesity head-on. But in the eyes of this observer at least, it will have only limited progress until it makes a concerted effort to shake off this aversion to keeping fit. Watching what you eat is only half the battle - a sedentary youth culture will only store up more problems for the future。

1 elongated   

v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Modigliani's women have strangely elongated faces. 莫迪里阿尼画中的妇女都长着奇长无比的脸。
• A piece of rubber can be elongated by streching. 一块橡皮可以拉长。 来自《用法词典》

2 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

5 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

6 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

8 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

9 omission   

n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长

参考例句：

• The omission of the girls was unfair.把女孩排除在外是不公平的。
• The omission of this chapter from the third edition was a gross oversight.第三版漏印这一章是个大疏忽。

10 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

11 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

12 urbane   

adj.温文尔雅的，懂礼的

参考例句：

• He tried hard to be urbane.他极力作出彬彬有礼的神态。
• Despite the crisis,the chairman's voice was urbane as usual.尽管处于危机之中，董事长的声音还象通常一样温文尔雅。

13 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。