英语四级听力美文第11篇:Medicine for a Broken Heart
Within my group of friends, when one of us is struggling with a recent breakup after a long-term relationship, the castaway will be sad and depressed. The response to sadness takes oneof two courses —either appetite fails totally, or we eat excessively to quell our yearnings overlost loves. If one of the girls in my dorm wants to indulge her appetite for food after abreakup, we all join in.
We all eat terrible food in terrible quantities. For instance, ice cream, cakes, cookies and potatochips all become comfort foods that we consume in excess. I think this happens for a varietyof reasons.
To begin with, at my age — nineteen —we are all very concerned with our physicalappearance.
We want to be attractive,to have the kind of body image our society values. To that end, wemoderate what kinds of foods we eat, how much, and how often; and we often overexert ourselves at the gym trying to burn off extracalories. We maintain good habits to keep up good appearance and thereby maintain a goodrelationship.
However, when anyone experiences something as stressful and emotionally draining as abroken heart, he or she tends to disregard healthy habits and takes some pleasure inconsuming those formerly forbidden foods.
Of course, it is all a vicious circle. We lose our boyfriends, we become depressed, we eat, wegain weight (which, in turn, depresses us), we struggle to regain our self-respect, we enter intoanother relationship, and the cycle goes on.
Food is not the only recourse for a sad lover.
One friend of mine soothes her broken heart by going shopping — buying new clothes and newshoes, maybe a piece of jewelry — to make herself feel better. Whether it’s food or shopping, self-indulgence is often goodmedicine for the blues, if it is not carried to excess. The worst response is turning to alcoholor drugs.
