You’re sitting in a coffee shop. There are two couples in the shop sitting near you. The couple to your left is arguing about whether they want to go to dinner with friends. He says, “It’s never fun — you said so yourself last time.” She responds, “Of course you 【小题1】 (would, should) say that, because they’re my friends, and you have never considered the issue from my side.” He rolls his eyes, and in a very sarcastic (讽刺挖苦的) tone says, “Here we go. War and Peace, our personal edition (版本), volume whatever.” They turn away from each other and sit in silence.

The couple to your right is also discussing whether they want to go to dinner with friends. He says, “I guess I’m a little worried that it   【小题2】 (should, will) go on for hours and that it 【小题3】 (can, might) not be that fun. What do you think?” She says, “I get that. I really want to go, but maybe we 【小题4】 (must, can) plan a time when we have to leave as a compromise?” She continues, touching his hand and smiling, “Besides, it 【小题5】 (need, will) be nice to get home early.” He smiles and nods, and they continue to read and drink their coffee.

Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are 【小题1】 by the word "diet" everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that 【小题2】 us psychologically and physically.

Diet products seriously weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in the 【小题3】 to control the consumption (消耗) of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale (秤) instead. All we have to do is to recognize the word "diet" in food labels. On another level, diet products have greater psychological 【小题4】. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance (抵制) and 【小题5】.

The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can 【小题6】 harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients (营养成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calories only because the diet industry has 【小题7】 chemicals to produce these wonder products. Though the chemicals that go into diet products can’t make a(n) 【小题8】 impact, these products are not nutritional.

Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to 【小题9】 think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to 【小题10】 having diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.