It may be all too easy to leave your child in front of the television at the end of a busy day - but scientists warn you may be creating the habit of a lifetime. A study lasting three decades reveals that children who spend their evenings watching television are likely to become lifelong couch potatoes. 

The research, based on data from 6,000 British people, suggests that childhood pastimes can influence someone’s health for decades to come. Scientists at University College London, who carried out the study, warned parents to pay attention to the findings and encourage their children to have a more active lifestyle.

Public health expert Dr Mark Hamer says: ‘This has important effect for policy and practice. It suggests that passive TV viewing time should be reduced. Such proposals could not only help today’s children but help to reduce passive TV viewing in future generations. That could be extremely beneficial as research has also shown that TV viewing is connected with other health-risk behaviors, such as the consumption of energy-dense foods and cigarette smoking.’

The research was based on information from the 1970 British Cohort Study, a huge dataset from thousands of people born in a single week in 1970. In 1980, when the participants were aged 10, scientists conducted a set of interviews about their health and leisure habits. The scientists went back in 2012, when the participants were aged 42, and again asked them about their lifestyle, with the answers given in number of hours of television watched per week. They found the childhood habits had ‘tracked’ into adulthood. Some 83 per cent of the participants who watched more than three hours of TV at 42 had watched TV ‘often’ at age 10, they found.

The study also showed that 42-year-olds who watched TV for at least three hours a day were more likely to be in only ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ health and to report that they were either overweight or obese. They were also more likely to have had fathers who were overweight.

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1.What is the discovery of the thirty-year-long study?

A Children watching TV often eat too much of energy-dense foods.

B People watching TV as children will become overweight at the age of 42.

C Children watching TV too much are likely to become lifelong couch potatoes.

D People watching TV as children may become smokers in later life.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据文章第1段…reveals that children…are likely to become lifelong couch potatoes可知，研究表明，如果孩子每天都看电视的话，将来他们将成为终生的电视迷。

2.What is the importance of reducing children’s passive TV viewing time?

A It could help build up the children’s active lifestyle.

B It could help prevent some of the health-risk behaviors.

C It helps to track into the children’s habits into adulthood.

D It helps lose weight for some of the overweight children.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据文章第3段Such proposals could …be extremely beneficial as research has also shown that TV viewing is connected with other health-risk behaviors…可知，这样的建议能够使孩子们避免形成一些有害健康的行为。

3.What can we infer from the passage?

A It’s better not to leave children watching TV alone.

B It’s better to let children pass their time in an active way.

C It’s better to pass the time with the children.

D It’s better to limit children’s TV viewing time.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据文章第4段They found the childhood habits had ‘tracked’ into adulthood可知，少年时候形成的习惯会伴随其一生，由此判断，很有必要限制儿童时期看电视的时间，以免儿童从小养成不好的习惯，有害健康。

4.What does the underlined word most probably mean in the last paragraph?

A Fat.

B Strong.

C Stressed.

D Unhealthy.

解析：选A。A 猜测词义题。根据语境中的overweight判断，obese在本文中意为“肥胖”。

5.What can be the best title of the passage?

A Children’s Habits Last for A Lifetime.

B Habit of Watching TV Comes from Childhood.

C Watching TV Affects Your Health.

D Watching TV to Pass Your Time.

解析：选B。B 主旨大意题。通读全文可知，本文主要介绍了儿童时期看电视养成习惯对成年后健康的影响的研究，故选B。