Don’t Blame the Eater David Zinczenko The New York Times Nov. 23, 2002, Section A, pg. 19

If ever there were a newspaper headline custom-made for Jay Leno's monologue, this was it. Kids taking on McDonald's this week, suing the company for making them fat. Isn't that like middle-aged men suing Porsche for making them get speeding tickets? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? I tend to sympathize with these portly fast-food patrons, though. Maybe that's because I used to be one of them. I grew up as a typical mid-1980's latchkey kid. My parents were split up, my dad off trying to rebuild his life, my mom working long hours to make the monthly bills. Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal. By age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow on my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame. Then I got lucky. I went to college, joined the Navy Reserves and got involved with a health magazine. I learned how to manage my diet. But most of the teenagers who live, as I once did, on a fast-food diet won't turn their lives around: They've crossed under the golden arches to a likely fate of lifetime obesity. And the problem isn't just theirs -- it's all of ours. Before 1994, diabetes in children was generally caused by a genetic disorder -- only about 5 percent of childhood cases were obesity-related, or Type 2, diabetes. Today, according to the National Institutes of Health, Type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases of diabetes in this country. Not surprisingly, money spent to treat diabetes has skyrocketed, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that diabetes accounted for $2.6 billion in health care costs in 1969. Today's number is an unbelievable $100 billion a year. Shouldn't we know better than to eat two meals a day in fast-food restaurants? That's one argument. But where, exactly, are consumers -- particularly teenagers -- supposed to find alternatives? Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you'll see one of our country's more than 13,000 McDonald's restaurants. Now, drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit. Complicating the lack of alternatives is the lack of information about what, exactly, we're consuming. There are no calorie information charts on fast-food packaging, the way there are on grocery items. Advertisements don't carry warning labels the way tobacco ads do. Prepared foods aren't covered under Food and Drug Administration labeling laws. Some fast-food purveyors will provide calorie information on request, but even that can be hard to understand. For example, one company's Web site lists its chicken salad as containing 150 calories; the almonds and noodles that come with it (an additional 190 calories) are listed separately. Add a serving of the 280-calorie dressing, and you've got a healthy lunch alternative that comes in at 620 calories. But that's not all. Read the small print on the back of the dressing packet and you'll realize it actually contains 2.5 servings. If you pour what you've been served, you're suddenly up around 1,040 calories, which is half of the government's recommended daily calorie intake. And that doesn't take into account that 450-calorie super-size Coke. Make fun if you will of these kids launching lawsuits against the fast-food industry, but don't be surprised if you're the next plaintiff. As with the tobacco industry, it may be only a matter of time before state governments begin to see a direct line between the $1 billion that McDonald's and Burger King spend each year on advertising and their own swelling health care costs. And I'd say the industry is vulnerable. Fast-food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels. They would do well to protect themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need to make informed choices about their products. Without such warnings, we'll see more sick, obese children and more angry, litigious parents. I say, let the deep-fried chips fall where they may. (source: www.nytimes.com/2002/11/23/opinion/don-t-blame-the-eater.html)

1.a. Based on what you have learned about the different types of texts, how will you categorise this article by David Zinczenko? Provide sound reasons to justify your response. 

1.b. Based on your understanding of different techniques used by authors to achieve intended goals in different types of texts like expository, narrative, argumentative, etc.,

what strategy or technique do you think David Zinczenko is using in

this article and to what effect? 

1.c. The article begins by contrasting youngsters suing McDonalds for lifestyle diseases with automobile enthusiasts suing Porsche for speeding tickets. What according to you is the author’s objective or purpose to begin in this manner? 

1.d. What are the choices available to American youngsters for an affordable meal? What is the future implication of such choices? 

1.e. Why are alternatives to fast-food difficult to find and how does lack of information contribute to the problem?

1.f. “And I’d say the industry is vulnerable.” Do you agree or disagree with the author’s observation? Provide logical arguments in support of your view.

1.g. Having read the article fully, how appropriate do you think the title is, with regard to an eater’s responsibility?

1 a.

Expository text - An expository text is intended to identify and characterise experiences, facts, situations, and actions in either abstract or real elements. Expository texts are meant to explain, inform or describe and they are the most frequently use to write structures. Expository structures can be classified into five categories:

• description, where the author describes a topics characteristics, features, attributes, etc. and gives examples.
• procedure or sequence: the author lists different activities in their chronological order or enumerates items in a numerical order.
• comparison: the author explains how two or more objects, events, experiences, are alike and/or different.
• cause-effect explanation: the author presents ideas, events in time, or facts as causes and the resulting effect(s) in time.
• problem-solution presentation: the author describes a problem and gives one or more solutions to the problem.

A narrative text - entertains, instructs or informs readers by telling a story.Narrative texts deal with imaginary or real world and can be fictional fairy tales, novels, science fiction, horror or adventure stories, fables, myths, legends, etc. and non-fictional articles, newspaper reports, historical writings.

Argumentative _______ _______ ________ ____ _______ __________ _____ ________ _________.
_______ __________ __________ ___ _____ ____ _____ ________ ______ ______.
_______ _____ _____ ______ _______ ______ ______ ___ _______ __________ _______.
____ ________ ___ ____ ________ ________ ______.
_________ _________ ______ __________ _______ ____ __________ ___ __________ ____ __________ ________.
________ _______ ___ _________ ______ ________ ______ _______ _____ ____ _____ __________.
_______ ________ ____ ______ _________ __________ ____ ______ ________.
_____ ________ ______ _________ ________ ____ ________ ____ __________.
__________ _____ _______ ____ ___ _______ __________ _____ _________.
________ _______ ________ _______ ____ ________ _______ ________.
_________ ________ __________ ________ __________ ________ ______ _____ ______ ___.
___ ______ _____ _____ __________.
___ _______ ______ ___ __________ ________ __________ _______ _____ ________.
_______ ________ ____ __________ ______ __________ ________ _______ ________ _____ _______.
____ __________ _______ ___ ____ ________ ________ ___ ________ _____ _____.
_____ ____ _________ ________ _________ ____ _____.
________ ___ ___ ____ ________ _______ ________ ________.
___ ___ _________ _________ __________ ________ _____ ________ ______ _____ ___.
________ ________ __________ ______ _______ ________ __________ ________ _______ ____ _____.
_____ ___ ______ __________ ____ _______ __________.
____ ___ _____ ______ _______ ______ _______ _____ ______ _____ __________.
____ _________ ______ ________ _______ _________ ________ _______ ______.
__________ ____ ___ __________ _____ _________ _____.
___ ______ ____ _______ ________ ___ ________.
_______ _________ ______ _________ ____ __________ ____ _________ ________ ________ ____.
________ _______ __________ ________ ___ __________ ____ _____.
_________ ___ _________ _______ ___ _________ ___ _____ ________ ____.
__________ ___ ____ __________ _______ ____ _________.
____ ______ ______ __________ _______.
___ ____ ____ ____ ______.
_________ ____ _________ ___ _______ _______.
_________ __________ _________ ______ ___ ___ _________ ________ _______ ________.
_______ ___ ________ _______ _____ _______ __________ _____ ______ ______ ________.
_____ _________ _________ _______ ___ __________ ________ ______ ______.
_____ ______ _____ ____ _________ ___ _________ ___.
_____ ____ ________ __________ _________.
___ ___ ___ _______ __________ ______.
_________ __________ __________ ___ ______ ________.
____ _____ __________ _________ _________ _____ ____ _____ ________ ___ _______ ______.
_______ ___ ___ _______ _____ ______ _____ ________ _______ ______ ____ ____.
______ _______ _____ ___ ________ _______ _______ __________ ___ ___ _____ __________.
______ __________ ____ _______ ______.
____ ______ _______ __________ __________.
____ ______ _____ _________ _____ ___ ________ _________ _______.
_________ __________ _____ _________ _________ ________ __________ _______ _______ _______ __________.
________ ______ __________ _____ ____ __________.
______ ________ ______ _____ ____ ______ ______.
_____ _______ ________ _______ _________ _________ __________ _________ _________ ____.
________ _________ ____ __________ ______ _____ ___.
________ ______ _________ _________ ____ _________ __________ ____ _____ ____ ___ __________.
___ _____ ____ ____ ______.
________ ___ _________ ________ ____ ______ __________ _________ ___ ___ _____ __________.
_________ _________ __________ _________ _____ ____.
_____ ________ ____ _______ ________ ________ _______.
______ _____ ___ _________ __________ ______.
___ ___ ___ _______ _____ _________.
_____ ______ ______ ___ _______.
___ _______ __________ __________ ______ _____ ________ _______ _________ ________.
____ __________ _____ _____ ____ ____ _______.
__________ ____ ___ _______ ___ ______ ________ __________ ____ ____ __________ __________.
____ ______ __________ ____ ______ _______ _____ ________ ______ ____.
_________ ______ _______ ________ ___ _____ _____.
__________ ______ ___ _____ _____ ________ _______ _________ ___.
__________ _________ _____ ______ __________ __________ _____ _______ _________ ________.
____ ______ ______ __________ _________.
___ ___ _________ _________ ___ _______ ____ _________.
_____ ________ _______ ________ _________ _________ __________ _____.
_________ __________ ____ _____ _________ ________ _________ _____ ______.
__________ _______ ______ ___ __________ _______ ________ __________ ______ _________.
________ __________ __________ ________ _____ _______ ____ ________ _______ ___.
________ _________ _________ _________ __________ ______ ______ _______ _________ ___ ______.
_____ __________ ___ ____ _______ ________ _______ ______ _______ ____.
______ ____ ______ ________ ___.
______ ________ _______ ___ __________ ______ _____ ________.
________ ____ _________ ___ ____ _______ ______ _____ _____ _________.
_______ ____ ______ __________ __________ _____ ___ ___ __________.
________ ____ ___ ______ ____.
___ __________ _____ _______ ________ __________ ___.
_________ ______ __________ ____ ___ _______ ___ _______ _____ ____ _____ ______.
__________ _______ ________ __________ ___ _____ ________.
______ ______ ______ _________ __________ ________ _________ __________ ____.
________ ________ _____ ____ ______ _______ _______ __________ _______.
____ _____ _________ ___ ______ _________ ____ _________ ________ ______ ________.
_____ _____ ___ __________ ___ ______.
_____ ___ _________ ______ ____ _________ ______.
__________ __________ _________ __________ _____.
Get Full Answer on WhatsApp