大学英语四级阅读的200篇: Unit 39 passage 1_大学英语阅读

大学英语四级阅读的200篇: Unit 39 passage 1

　　In the 14-to-29-year-old group, many males drink heavily because they consider it macho or socially in. Where I grew up, says a 23-year-old Virginian, it was the neighborhood custom for everybody to drink three six-packs of beer a night to prove you werent a weak and timid person. Heavy drinking in high school and college is attributed to peer pressure and to the sudden release from parental restraint. No matter what we start out to do, we always end up at a bar and get drunk, says a Maryland female student. You lose a lot of friends if you dont go along.

　　In too many instances these youthful drinking habits persist through life. But our survey reveals that the proportion of moderate-to-heavy drinkers drops by two-thirds around age 30. Respondents attribute the decline to growing up, a stable job, and the break-up of the old drinking crowd. Once you acquire a family and responsibilities, getting drunk becomes kid stuff, says a 32-year-old from Michigan who drank so much in his youth that he was known as Billie the Bottle.

　　Concern for health is another reason people are drinking less. Medical findings show that, taken to excess, alcohol destroys brain cells, leading to mental deterioration. Heavy drinkers are more prone to cirrhosis of the liver, cancers of the digestive tract and heart disease. Particularly alarming to men is recent research confirming evidence that alcohol can reduce sex drive, fertility and potency. Women are generally aware that drinking can cause birth defects, and with this in mind 24 percent abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.