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VOA慢速英语2016--美国大学生饮酒过量

时间:2016-08-25 23:16:02

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US College Students Missing Meals to Drink More Alcohol 美国大学生饮酒过量

Popular culture often shows alcohol as a big part of the college experience in the United States.

Television programs and movies about American college life have images of wild parties with young people either drinking alcohol or holding a drink.

Now, a new study of alcohol use suggests that some college students may be missing meals so they can have more drinks or get drunk faster. Researchers are calling this kind of behavior, "drunkorexia."

The study involved 1,184 college students between the ages of 18 and 26 years. Most of the students attended the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, while the others went to school in other parts of the country.

Researchers asked the students about their alcohol use. They found that 80 percent of those studied had demonstrated some kind of drunkorexia in the past three months. They had performed heavy physical exercise, eaten low calorie meals or even missed meals for up to a full day before drinking alcohol.

Dipali Rinker organized the study and presented its findings to the Research Society on Alcoholism in June. Rinker teaches psychology1 at the University of Houston. She says students see drunkorexia as way to keep their body weight down while drinking alcohol. And it causes them to feel the effects of alcohol quickly and with more intensity2.

Rinker says unhealthy eating habits are only one of the reasons this type of behavior is dangerous. Heavy drinking is linked to drunk driving – operating a vehicle while drunk -- unprotected sex, sexual assault and alcohol poisoning.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is a U.S. governmental agency that studies alcohol related problems. It found that about 1,825 college students between 18 and 24 years old die from alcohol-related injuries every year.

Nicole Mattern attends the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She says drinking is common among the students she knows at the school.

It is a violation3 of U.S. law for anyone under the age of 21 to buy alcoholic4 drinks. But Mattern says many students under 21 use false documents to enter drinking establishments and buy alcohol.

Mattern says she and her friends only drink alcohol in their free time after their schoolwork is done. But she believes that drinking is an undeniable part of life on a U.S. college campus.

"Young people have normalized the drinking culture. Some people have been drinking since they were 16 and they’re not just going to stop because they’re in a different environment."

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism looked at how often college students used alcohol in 2014. It found that almost 60 percent of college students between 18 and 22 years old had at least one drink in the month before being asked about their drinking habits.

Rinker at the University of Houston says one reason alcohol use is so common is because students believe everyone around them is drinking. They believe they are expected to drink and get drunk.

"There’s this sense of invincibility5 and the sense this is time in life in which it’s sort of okay … to push those boundaries a little bit. So when you combine the … perception of 'This is okay. This is what you do in college. This is what other college students are doing' … with this developmental time period … all of that creates a context for engaging in heavy and risky6 drinking behaviors."

George Koob directs the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He says another reason young adults turn to alcohol is that they have a great deal of freedom. He says this mainly affects students in their first year of college.

"This may be different in other countries, but in the United States for sure, this is the first time they’ve left home, in many cases. It’s the first time they have an unstructured environment. It’s the first time they’re independent. And all these things lead to them needing to make choices."

First year students often drink with more intensity than others, Koob adds. However, both he and Rinker agree that students in sports programs, college fraternities and sororities drink more than other students.

Koob says that the percent of students using alcohol has not increased in recent years. But what worries him is that the number of students drinking to the point of "blacking out" has increased.

Blacking out is when a person drinks so much alcohol they have no memory of their actions while drunk.

Blacking out often results from "binge drinking." The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking differently for men and women because their bodies process alcohol differently. For a woman, binge drinking means having at least four alcoholic drinks in two hours. For a man it means having at least five drinks over the same period.

The institute reported that almost 38 percent of students between 18 and 22 years old "binge drank" in the month before being asked about their drinking habits in 2014.

Koob notes that college students in Canada and Europe also face issues with alcohol. But he feels a big part of the problem is that Americans do not fully7 understand alcohol’s effects. Most people do not know that the part of the brain where decisions are made is not fully developed until age 25.

Most people do not know that alcohol harms the development of that part of the brain, he adds.

Koob and Rinker agree that there are many different ways schools can try to deal with the issue of student drinking. There is no single best method.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism released a report listing many different possibilities for school administrators8 last year.

The report, called CollegeAIM, said colleges can attempt to ban alcohol use completely. But this has yet to be shown as the most effective solution.

Koob and Rinker say schools must at least educate students about safe drinking. Also, schools should try to show students that their ideas about drinking are not completely true.

Rinker says young people need to know that many of their student peers do not drink large amounts of alcohol. Schools must also continue discussing the issue of alcohol with students throughout their period of study. Most schools only offer training to students during their first year, she says.

Ken9 Ballom is the dean of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The college rating service Princeton Review listed the school as the number one party school out of 380 schools in 2015.

Ballom say he is not sure why his university is considered a party school. He feels it is better known for its academic programs. But he understands that all universities must do all they can to address the problems of alcohol use on their campuses.

The University of Illinois works with the local police to prevent alcohol-related incidents. The school also offers medical amnesty. This means the university does not punish students for violating rules governing alcohol if the students seek medical assistance.

But Ballom says the best solutions begin with communication. He feels that students, parents and administrators all must discuss how alcohol affects the college environment.

"Parents of current or incoming students play a role in being involved in addressing alcohol related matters with their sons and daughters."

Ballom says that students should understand that alcohol is not an important part of the college experience. And, he adds, there are many activities for college students that do not involve alcohol.

Words in This Story

calorie – n. a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body

habit(s) – n. something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way

drunk – n. having drank so much alcohol that normal actions such as talking, thinking, and moving become difficult to do

sexual assault – n. the crime of touching10 someone sexually without that person's permission

campus – n. the area and buildings around a university, college or school

normalize(d) – v. to make someone or something that is usually considered unusual or abnormal become considered as normal

invincibility – n. the state of being impossible to defeat or overcome

boundaries – n. unofficial rules about what should not be done

perception – n. the way you think about or understand someone or something

engaging in – p.v. doing something

fraternities – n. social organizations of male students at a U.S. college

sororities – n. social organizations of female students at a U.S. college

peer(s) – n. a person who belongs to the same age group or social group as someone else

dean – n. a person whose job is to give advice to the students in a college or high school and to make sure that they obey the school's rules

academic – adj. of or relating to schools and education

amnesty – n. a decision that a group of people will not be punished or that a group of prisoners will be allowed to go free


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1 psychology U0Wze     
n.心理,心理学,心理状态
参考例句:
  • She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
  • He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。
2 intensity 45Ixd     
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
3 violation lLBzJ     
n.违反(行为),违背(行为),侵犯
参考例句:
  • He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说,那是违反规则的。
  • He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。
4 alcoholic rx7zC     
adj.(含)酒精的,由酒精引起的;n.酗酒者
参考例句:
  • The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
  • Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。
5 invincibility invincibility     
n.无敌,绝对不败
参考例句:
  • The myth of his and Nazi invincibility had been completely destroyed. 过去他本人之神奇传说,以及纳粹之不败言论,至此乃完全破灭。 来自辞典例句
  • Our image of invincibility evaporated. 我们战无不胜的形象化为泡影了。 来自辞典例句
6 risky IXVxe     
adj.有风险的,冒险的
参考例句:
  • It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
  • He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。
7 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
8 administrators d04952b3df94d47c04fc2dc28396a62d     
n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 );有管理(或行政)才能的人;(由遗嘱检验法庭指定的)遗产管理人;奉派暂管主教教区的牧师
参考例句:
  • He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员,但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
  • Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
9 ken k3WxV     
n.视野,知识领域
参考例句:
  • Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
  • Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.
10 touching sg6zQ9     
adj.动人的,使人感伤的
参考例句:
  • It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
  • His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

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