Exam Task

Read the online article below about diets. Match the headings (A-I) with the paragraphs (1-5). There
are 3 headings you don’t need. There is an example (0) for you.

A) Be more health conscious

B) Binge drinking is just great
C) Drop the glass, lose some weight
D) Fight for calorie information
E) Food tastes better with alcohol
F) It’s all about genetics
G) Research on drinking
H) What would you choose?
I) Women in their 20s drink more

Will alcohol ruin my diet?

(0) H) What would you choose?
Would you rather have a cheeseburger or a frozen margarita? The calories are roughly the same, as
are the calories for a pint of lager and a slice of pizza. If you think alcohol is just too liquid to be calorific,
you’re in good company.

(1)
Only 20% of us realise how many calories are in a large glass of wine. The Local Government
Association, which promotes public health issues, is campaigning for calorie information to be
displayed on alcoholic cans and bottles – as it is on soft drinks. It says alcohol provides only “empty
calories” and interferes with how efficiently the body burns fat.

(2)
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, of 19,220 women whose drinking habits were monitored
for nearly 20 years, found that the risk of becoming overweight was almost 30% lower for women who
drink moderately. An extensive review of the evidence in Current Obesity Reports found that moderate
drinking was not associated with weight gain.

(3)
However, it is not moderate drinking that maintains weight, but the healthy behaviour associated with
it, says Professor Jean-Philippe Chaput of the faculty of medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern
Ontario. People who drink sensibly usually exercise and eat healthily too. “If your goal is to lose weight,
give up alcohol,” he advises. “If you want to maintain weight, then moderate drinking may be fine, but
you need to eat less and exercise more – if you add alcohol on top, you add calories.” He warns that
binge drinking will put weight on, especially around the belly for men and the bottom for women.

(4)
Alcohol stimulates appetite – it makes salty peanuts strangely irresistible. But, Chaput warns, the
metabolism of alcohol and its effects on weight depends on many factors, including genetics. Studies
of Finnish, Chinese and British men show increases in weight after more than five years of moderate
drinking.

7
(5)
Women may metabolise alcohol in a way that uses up more energy – leaving less fat to be deposited.
But Chaput’s key message is that we shouldn’t look at just one thing – in this case, alcohol – but at our
overall health. And we shouldn’t be fixated with dieting anyway. “Instead of measuring weight, we
need to measure health,” he says. A sentiment to which you can’t help but raise a glass.

Exam Pack
You have revised the ’LIFESTYLE’ topic and have learnt some new things. Now use your
memory and write 7 sentences using new words or expressions here that you will remember
and use in the exam if you get a Writing or Speaking task in connection with this topic.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.