1. Overview
A person is defined to be obese when there is excessive or abnormal fat in the body to the extent that it affects the person’s health. Body mass index (BMI), which equals the weight divided by the square of the height (kg/m2), is a common measurement used to decide if a person is obese or not. A person is known to be obese if the BMI is more than 30.
There are approximately 400 million obese adults in the world. Obesity is no longer limited to the developed parts of the world, but is increasingly affecting developing countries as well.
2. Causes of obesity
There are two major causes that lead to the spread of obesity. First, people’s diet today includes much more fatty and sugary food. Such food provides a large amount of calories that often cannot be used up by the body. Second, there is a much smaller demand for physical activity at work and in people’s life. With machines and improved transportation means, there are fewer chances for people to consume the calorie intake. These two changes in people’s life give rise to a fast growing number of overweight people.
3. Health consequences of obesity
Obesity significantly increases the risk of the following diseases:
• heart diseases
• diabetes
• disorders with muscles and bones
• some cancers
In addition to physical health consequences, obesity often affects a person’s psychological well-being too. Overweight people are more likely to be depressed and have low self-esteem.
(b) Below is a similar text with the first three paragraphs of a fact sheet on the topic of ageing population. However, there are some problems with this fact sheet. For example, the title and subheadings are missing, and some of the language used is inappropriate.
Decide with your group the appropriate title and subheadings and improve the underlined phrases by rewriting or deleting them. Try also to think about other changes that can be made to improve the fact sheet.
Ageing Population Fact Sheet
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1. _____________________
e.g. worries many governments
Population ageing is a problem that makes many governments knit their brows. I think the population is ageing when the percentage of children gets smaller and that of the elderly gets larger. Can’t you see that this shift in population is particularly clear among developed countries? The median age of the population of developed countries rocketed from 29.0 in 1950 to 37.3 in 2000, and is forecast to rise to 45.5 in 2050.
2. _______________________
The ageing population is the result of two trends: a longer life expectancy and lower birth rate. In other words, people live longer and give birth to fewer children. The reasons why people live longer are simple: better nutrition and medical care, which I believe are good things. In contrast, people give birth to fewer children as a result of the combination of various socio-economic factors: later marriage, higher female education level, easier access to contraception and abortion, increasing housing and education costs, higher work pressure, gloomier prospects, etc.
3. _______________________
As expected, Hong Kong is also hitting rough weather. In the past fifteen years, male life expectancy has risen from 72.3 to 78.8, while female life expectancy has gone up from 78.4 to 84.4. What is worse, these numbers are forecast to increase even
5. Reference to the article you are
responding to 6. Your point of view 1. Body
paragraphs
2. Greeting
3. Call for action
4. Your name
Learning Activity 3
A letter to the editor is a type of writing that appears in newspapers and magazines, often on the editorial page. In the letter, people express their opinions on social issues, usually heatedly debated by the community* at the time of writing. The content of letters to the editor varies a lot, but most of them are responses to news articles, editorials and other writers’ letters to the editor.
Your teacher will give you a letter to the editor cut up into different parts. In groups, put these parts in the right order and identify which part corresponds with the following:
Learning Activity 4
The letter used in Learning Activity 3 is reprinted for you below. In pairs, answer the questions that follow.
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article ‘Family Plight’ dated 18 April and would like to express my views on the recent tide of domestic violence.
I strongly believe that no single solution will eliminate the multi-dimensional issue of domestic violence. Instead, a combination of various preventive and remedial measures, taken by different government bodies and community organisations at different stages, is needed. Here in this letter, I would like to point out the importance of two measures in particular.
First, I would like to address the need to increase law enforcement*. Domestic violence is a crime, and naturally, there should be severe punishment as a deterrent. However, as far as I am concerned, the problem now lies more in the lack of identification and arrest than in the lack of legal consequences*. The police are often the first people victims of domestic violence seek help from. Police officers should not treat these cases as only disputes* within family, but they should understand that family violence can lead to a devastating* impact on the individual victims, the family and the community. Instead of dealing with family battering cases in isolation, frontline officers should also be more sensitive to the possibility of long term abuses. They should be given training on detecting and handling family issues and a specialised division or team can also be set up to follow up any such cases.
My second suggestion is to encourage the reporting of violence. Although the number of reported cases of domestic violence is on the increase, I believe there are still countless victims who remain silent for fear of losing their financial income, shelter and children. To encourage domestic violence victims to report their situation to the police, they should be made aware of the support and protection they will receive. Social workers and community organisations like family service centres will play an important role in this regard. Also, a strong message should be sent to the public that if they suspect their family or neighbours are victims of domestic violence, they should immediately report their concerns to the police with the guarantee that their identity will be protected.
Domestic violence is morally wrong and causes enduring emotional pain. I must say to eliminate this social ill is a responsibility we, as a society, should not turn a blind eye to.
Yours faithfully, Chris Wong
1. Do you need to put the name of the editor in the letter? Why? Or why not?
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2. When are personal pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘we’ used?
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3. What phrases are useful for expressing opinions? Underline them in the letter and put them down below.
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4. How is a letter to the editor similar to and different from an argumentative essay?
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