What Did You Have for Breakfast?

Words in Use (Lesson 28)

• outlaw
• promote
• undernourished
• illustrate
• disclose
• excessive
• disaster
• censor
• culprit
• juvenile
• bait
• insist

Read the following passage to see how the new words are used in it.
   
What Did You Have for Breakfast?
A parents' organization to protect children’s health appealed* to a Senate committee to outlaw television commercials that promote the purchase of sugary products. Too much advertising urges the young child to eat caramels, chocolate, cookies, and pastries. This results in poor eating habits and leaves youngsters undernourished and subject to rapid* tooth decay and other diseases. To illustrate the extent of the problem, a recent survey of one typical* day of CBS's Channel 7 in Boston between 7 A.M. and 2 P.M. disclosed 67 commercials for sweet-tasting products. Several witnesses said that many children's cereals contained more than 50 percent sugar, that children often forced their parents to buy the cereals, and that excessive use of sugar from cereals, soft drinks and snack foods is a national disaster. Dr. Jean Mayer, professor of nutrition at Harvard University, recommended censoring the culprits in advertising for juvenile viewers. Recognizing the powerful opponents* in the food industry who will resist* control, Dr. Mayer said that no feeble* efforts will do. "Sugar-coated nothings," he added, "must cease* to be the standard diet of the American child." Other witnesses pointed out that many cereal boxes, as bait for the children, used offers of dolls, balloons, airplane or car models, magic kits, monster cutouts and similar trifles,* but the cereal inside the box, they insisted, had no more food value than the container it came in.