《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词4500》02 Mirror Miracle

（单词翻译）

　　Unit 2
Mirror Miracle
We are all more obsessed¹ with our appearance than we like to admit. Concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable. Attractive people have distinct advantages in our society. Studies show:
* Attractive children are more popular, both with classmates and teachers. Teachers give higher evaluations² to the work of attractive children and have higher expectations of them.
* Attractive applicants³ have a better chance of getting jobs, and of receiving higher salaries. One US study found that taller men earned around $600 per inch more than shorter executives a month. In court, attractive people are found guilty less often. When found guilty, they receive less severe sentences.
We also believe in the "What is beautiful is good" stereotype⁴ -- a deep-rooted belief that physically⁵ attractive people possess other desirable characteristics such as intelligence, competence⁶, social skills and confidence -- even moral virtue⁷. The good fairy princess is always beautiful; the wicked stepmother is always ugly.
It is not surprising that physical attractiveness is of overwhelming importance to us.
Every period of history has its own standards of what is beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive⁸ concept of the ideal physical features. In the 19th century being beautiful meant wearing a corset -- causing breathing problems. Now we try to diet and exercise ourselves into the fashionable shape -- often wit even more serious consequences. But although we resemble our ancestors in our concern about appearance, there is a difference in the degree of concern. Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media have caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions⁹. How? There are 3 reasons:
* Thanks to media, we've become accustomed to extremely rigid¹⁰ and uniform standards of beauty.
* TV, billboards¹¹ and magazines mean that we see "beautiful people" all the time, more often than our own family members, making exceptional good looks seem real, normal and attainable¹³.
* Standards of beauty have become harder and harder to attain¹². The media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population.
Even attractive people may not be looking in the mirror out of vanity, but out of insecurity. We forget that there were disadvantages to being attractive: attractive people are under much greater pressure to maintain appearance.