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Losing weight is easier when there is money on the line, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said weight-loss programs that award people with money-and remind them of the cash they stand to lose if they fail-provided with a powerful incentive to lose weight compared with more conventional approaches.(1)____(2)____ Dr. Kevin Volpp of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine was looking for an effective way to treat obese, a &owing problem that carries serious health risks.(3)____ He said many weight-loss programs fail before people are being asked to make sacrifices now.(4)____
Volpp and colleagues studied two kinds of incentive programs for weight loss. One was a lottery-based design in which participants played a lottery and were allowed to collect their winnings if they met their weight-loss target. The other was a deposit contract, in which participants invested small amount of their own money which they would lose at the end of the month if they succeeded to reach their goals.(5)____(6)____ People in this group also got a bonus if they met their goal.
The researchers resigned 57 0bese but otherwise healthy people to one of these two groups or a control group, in which people were simply weighed at the end of each month.(7)____ All were aimed to lose 7.26 kg by the end of four months.(8)____ People in the incentive groups lost far more weight than that who got no pay for their efforts, with about half of the participants in each group meet their weight loss goals.(9)____(10)____

答案解析

文章大意
本文讨论的是金钱可以刺激减肥。美国研究者宣布，当把减肥和金钱联系在一起时，减肥成功的机率会更大。以往许多减肥方案都要求减肥者为了将来的回报而在当下做出牺牲，因此纷纷以失败告终。而用金钱作为奖励，同时提醒人们如果减肥失败他们将会失去减肥计划里的这笔钱，与传统的减肥方法相比，这种金钱相关法给了减肥者更大的动力。
答案详解
1．award→reward词汇错误。award作动词表示“授予；奖给；判定”，reward表示“报答；酬谢”，本文中提到的减肥方案是对达到减肥目标的人群予以金钱上的回报，故用reward更符合文意。
2．with→with语法错误。provide sb. with sth.是固定搭配，表示“给某人提供某物”，但此处provide后面并没有接双宾语，故不需要介词with，直接用provide sth.的形式即可，表示“提供某物”。
3．obese→obesity语法错误。obese是形容词，表示“过度肥胖的”，此处动词treat后应该接名词，另外逗号后面的a growing problem是该词的同位语，故可推测此处应该用名词obesity表示“肥胖，肥胖症”。
4．before→because语篇错误。本句前半部分说“他认为很多减肥方案失败”，后半部分说“减肥者被要求为了将来的回报而在当下做出牺牲”，从句子之间的逻辑关系来判断，此处不是强调两个动作发生的先后顺序，而是前果后因，后半句是对前半句的解释，故用because。
5．∧small→a词汇错误。amount是名词，表示“数量，数额”，是可数名词，an amount of是固定搭配，表示“相当数量的，一些”，由于此处small放在amount前面，故应加上不定冠词a。
6．succeeded→failed语篇错误。此处是if引导的条件状语从句，“如果成功达到目标”，与前文提到的“他们在月底会失去这笔钱”意义相悖，所以这里想表达的应该是“如果没能达到目标，则会失去这笔钱”。succeeded应改为failed。
7．resigned→assigned词汇错误。resign表示“辞职；放弃”，放在此处与上下文不符，这里是说“研究人员将57名身体健康的肥胖者分配到两个激励组中的一组或者另一个控制组”，应该用assign，表示“分配，指定”。
8．aimed→aiming语法错误。aim to do sth.是固定搭配，表示“致力于……”，当主语是人时，应该用主动语态，由于aimed前面出现了be动词were，故将aimed改成aiming，表示现在进行时，意为“所有人都努力在四个月后减掉7.26公斤”。
9．that→those词汇错误。此处用在比较级之后，替代前面的People．因此应该用复数形式的those。
10．meet→meeting语法错误。此处是with引导的独立主格结构，动词应该用非谓语形式，由于前面的participants与meet their goals是主动关系，因此用meet的现在分词形式，即meeting，本句意为“激励组的成员比那些努力减肥但无金钱回报的人减掉了更多的体重，而每组中都有约一半的参与者达到了其减肥目标”。