Step 2 - Reading

Fast food
You are going to read a text about fast food in America.

Assignment 1

Read the text and write down the five most important words of this text.

Fast food
Fast food is cheap, quick and easy. Fast food companies spend millions of dollars each year trying to make young people believe that fast food is cool. The average American eats three burgers and four orders of French fries a week. Is it surprising that 14% of American teenagers are obese?

Eating fast food is a way of getting obese.
It’s fine to eat fast food occasionally as a part of a healthy diet. But fast food is high in fat and calories. So if your favourite meal is burger and fries, you could easily become obese. Obesity could lead to other diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis.

Schools as a place for advertisement.
There’s no escape from fast food for American teens. Fast food companies give money to US schools to help them buy sports and computer equipment. In return, schools place advertisements for the fast food companies in their hallways and on the sides of their school buses. They also sell cheap fast food in school cafeterias and sponsor school books.

Fast food is taking control over schools.
Schools hold special education days for the food companies when fast food managers talk to the students. In March 1998, it was “Coke in Education Day” at Greenbrier High School in Georgia and some Coca-cola managers visited the school. About a thousand students went to the school parking lot dressed in red and white to spell out the word COKE. The photographer was ready to take photos when Mike Cameron suddenly showed his T-shirt which said Pepsi. The school principal immediately suspended Mike from school.

The fight against fast food.
Now, America is starting to fight back against the fast food companies. The two biggest states in the US, California and Texas, might stop serving fast food and soda in school cafeterias. The American government may bring in special laws for preventing and treating obesity.