The rewards can be substantial. Egged on by Third Point, an activist hedge fund, Yahoo appointed Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive in July 2012. By the time she celebrated a year in the job last month, the troubled web giant’s share price had risen by over 70%. In July the hedge fund sold a big chunk of shares back to Yahoo. Mr Icahn thinks Apple’s share price, which closed at $499 on August 14th, could soar too if the firm follows his advice on buy-backs. He tweeted this week that he had had a “nice conversation” with Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, about his idea, though he did not say what Mr Cook thought of it. If Apple drags its feet, expect things to turn nasty.

　　A recent study found that men consume an (3)__________ 433 calories (equivalent to a McDonald's double cheeseburger) on days they drink a moderate amount of alcohol. About 61% of the caloric increase comes from the alcohol itself. Men also report eating higher amounts of saturated fats and meat, and less fruit and milk, on those days than on days when they aren't drinking, the study showed.

　　Women fared a bit better, taking in an extra 300 calories on moderate-drinking days, from the alcohol and eating fattier foods. But women's increase in calories from additional eating wasn't statistically significant, the study said.

　　'Men and women ate less healthily on days they drank alcohol,' said Rosalind Breslow, an epidemiologist with the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and lead author of the study. 'Poorer food choices on drinking days have public-health (4)__________,' she said.

　　The findings dovetail with controlled lab studies in which (5)__________ generally eat more food after consuming alcohol. Researchers suggest that alcohol may enhance 'the short-term rewarding effects' of consuming food, according to a 2010 report in the journal Physiology & Behavior that reviewed previous studies on alcohol, appetite and obesity.

　　But other studies have pointed to a different trend. Moderate drinkers gain less weight over time than either heavy drinkers or people who abstain from alcohol, particularly women, this research has shown. Moderate drinking is (6) __________having about two drinks a day for men and one for women.

　　'People who gain the least weight are moderate drinkers, regardless of [alcoholic] beverage choice,' said Eric Rimm, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the 2010 review of alcohol in the federal dietary (7)__________. The weight-gain difference is modest, and 'starting to drink is not a weight-loss diet,' he said.

　　The various research efforts form part of a long-standing (8)__________ about how alcohol affects people's appetites, weight and overall health. Researchers say there aren't simple answers, and suggest that individuals' metabolism, drinking patterns and gender may play a role.

　　Alcohol is 'a real wild card when it comes to weight management,' said Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientific officer of Weight Watchers International. At seven calories per gram, alcohol is closer to fat than to carbohydrate or protein in caloric content, she said. Alcohol tends to lower restraint, she notes, causing a person to become more (9)__________ with what they're eating.

　　Research bolstering the role of moderate drinking in helping to control weight gain was published in 2004 in the journal Obesity Research. That study followed nearly 50,000 women over eight years. An earlier study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1994, followed more than 7,000 people for 10 years and found that moderate drinkers gained less weight than nondrinkers. Studies comparing changes in waist circumference among different groups have yielded similar results.

　　Dr. Rimm said it isn't clear why moderate drinking may be (10)__________ against typical weight gain, but it could have to do with metabolic adjustments. After people drink alcohol, their heart rate increases so they burn more calories in the following hour.

　　'It's a modest amount,' he said. 'But if you take an individual that eats 100 calories instead of a glass of wine, the person drinking the glass of wine will have a slight increase in the amount of calories burned.'

　　A:indulgent

　　B:participants

　　C:debate

　　D:considered

　　E:contributes

　　F:contest

　　G:guidelines

　　H:protective

　　I:moderate

　　J:index

　　K:implications

　　L:considerate

　　M:additional

　　N:experienced

　　O:owes

　　1.E:contributes

　　2.I:moderate

　　3.M:additional

　　4.K:implications

　　5.B:participants

　　6.D:considered

　　7.G:guidelines

　　8.C:debate

　　9.A:indulgent

　　10.H:protective

　　全文翻译

　　啤酒肚的形成并不只是因为啤酒本身。饮酒会使人摄入额外的卡路里和脂肪、选择不健康的饮食，这些也都是形成啤酒肚的帮凶。

　　近期一项研究发现，男性在饮酒量适中的情况下，会额外摄入433卡路里热量(相当于一个麦当劳双层吉士汉堡)。约61%的多余热量来自酒类本身。研究还表明，男性在饮酒时会比平日摄入更多饱和脂肪和肉类，而减少水果和牛奶的食用量。

　　女性的情况略好，适量饮酒时会多摄入300卡路里，来源于酒和油腻食物。研究也指出，从数据上来看，女性因食物摄入量增加而造成的热量摄入增加并不显著。

　　流行病学家罗莎琳德・布雷斯洛(Rosalind Breslow)说：“男性和女性喝酒的时候吃得都不太健康。”她是这项研究的带头人，效力于美国国家酒精滥用及酗酒问题研究所(National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)。她说：“是饮酒时的食物选择不当给公众健康造成了隐患。”

　　研究发现与实验室对照实验相吻合，在实验中，参与者往往在喝酒之后食量更大。《生理学与行为学》(Physiology & Behavior)期刊在2010年发表了一项关于酒精、食欲与肥胖的报告，研究者认为酒精会增进摄入食物时的“短期奖赏效应”。

　　但是其他研究的结果却截然相反。一项研究表明，长期以来，适量饮酒的人体重增长比酒量大或者滴酒不沾的人更慢，特别是在女性群体中。适量饮酒指的是，男性每天大约喝两杯酒，女性为一杯。

　　埃里克・利姆(Eric Rimm)说：“体重增长最少的人都是适量饮酒的人，无论选择的是何种(酒精)饮料。”他是哈佛医学院(Harvard Medical School)流行病学与营养学副教授，也是2010年美国饮食指南酒类评论的主席。他说，体重增长的差异并不显著，所以“开始喝酒并不是个减肥办法。”

　　各种各样的研究促成了持久的争论：到底酒精是如何作用于人的食欲、体重和整体健康的。研究者们说答案并不是单一的，每个人的新陈代谢、饮酒方式和性别都会有一定的影响。

　　Weight Watchers International首席科学官卡伦・米勒-科瓦奇(Karen Miller-Kovach)说，酒精的确是“控制体重时的一个未知数” 。她说，以每克七卡路里来计算，酒精的卡路里含量比起碳水化合物和蛋白质更接近脂肪。她还提到，酒精会减弱人们的自制力，这使得人在吃东西时更加放纵自己。

　　《肥胖研究》(Obesity Research)期刊在2004年发表的一项研究肯定了适度饮酒在帮助控制体重增长中的作用。这项研究在八年间追踪了近50,000名女性。更早的一项研究发表于1994年的《美国流行病学杂志》(American Journal of Epidemiology)，该研究对7,000人进行了10年的追踪，并发现适量饮酒的人比不喝酒的人体重增长得更少。两项研究都对不同组别腰围的变化进行了比较，并得出了相似的结论。

　　利姆说适量饮酒者似乎可以抵抗一般的体重增长，其原因尚不明确，但可能与代谢调节有关。人们饮酒后，心跳加快，所以他们会在接下来的一小时里燃烧更多卡路里。

　　“这一消耗量并不算高”，他说。“但是如果一个人吃了100卡食物，而另一个人喝了一杯酒，喝酒的人消耗的卡路里会略多一些。”