英语四级阅读理解的精炼50篇029: 爱美没商量(含答案)_大学英语阅读

英语四级阅读理解的精炼50篇029: 爱美没商量(含答案)

　　29. Pots Of Promise

　　Medieval noblewomen swallowed arsenic and dabbed on bats blood to improve their complexions; 18 th century Americans prized the warm urine of young boys to erase their freckles; Victorian ladies removed their ribs to give themselves a wasp waist. The desire to be beautiful is as old as civilization, as is the pain that it can cause.

　　The pain has not stopped the passion from creating a 160 billion-a-year global industry,encompassing make -up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills. Americans spend more each year on beauty than they do on education.

　　Such spending is not mere vanity. Being pretty or just not ugly confers1 enormous genetic and social advantages. Attractive people are judged to be more intelligent and sexy; they earn more and they are more likely to marry.

　　Basic instinct keeps the beauty industry powerful. In medieval times, recipes for homemade cosmetics were kept in the kitchen right beside those used to feed the family.

　　But it was not until the start of the 20 th century, when mass production coincided with mass exposure to an idealized standard of beauty that the industry first took off.

　　In 1909, Eugene Schueller founded the French Harmless Hair Coloring Co., which later became L Oreal2 today s industry leader. Two years later, a Hamburg pharmacist, developed the first cream to bind oil and water. Today, it sells in 150 countries as Nivea, the biggest personal-care brand in the world.