The American population was the tallest in the world from about the American Revolution to World WarⅡ ― that’s a long time. The U.S. had a very resource rich environment, with game, fish and wildlife. In fact we have data on disadvantaged people in America, such as slaves. They were obviously among the most mistreated populations in the world, but given the resource abundance，and given the fact that the slave owners needed their work, they had to be fed relatively fairly well. So the slaves were taller than European peasants. It’s no wonder that Europeans were just flooding to America.
Americans today are no longer the tallest people in the world. After World WarⅡ，many Western and Northern European countries began to adopt favorable social policies. There is universal health insurance in most of these societies ― that, of course, makes a difference in health care. You can also consider income inequality in the U.S., since people who are at the low end of the totem pole (图腾柱) have considerable adversity making ends meet. I suspect the difference in height between Americans and Europeans is due to both diet and health care.
Americans today suffer from an additional problem: obesity (肥胖). If children are too well nourished, then they’re not able to grow best. There are certain hormones (荷尔蒙) that control the start of the adolescent (青春期的) growth and the start of adolescence. Nutrition is one of the factors, along with genetic and hormonal ones which are associated with the start of puberty (青春期). And if puberty comes too early, then the youth will peak out sooner, and will not become as tall in adulthood as someone who had better nutrition．Also, the overload of carbohydrates and fats in a fastfood diet may hinder (阻碍) the consumption of micronutrients necessary to growth．
63. The word “game” in Paragraph 1 refers to ______.
A. rich natural resources B. sports events to be held
C. activities played by kids D. animals hunted for food
64. Slaves in America were taller than European peasants because ______.
A. they were badly treated B. they did not do farm work
C. they had enough food to eat D. they enjoyed better health care
65. It is implied in the second paragraph that ______.
A. Europeans could make more money than Americans
B. welfare helps Europeans grow taller than Americans
C. average Americans used to be shorter than Europeans
D. people on the totem pole are leading a comfortable life
66. According to the third paragraph, overweight children in the U.S ______.
A. tend to eat more food to grow taller
B. will fail to grow into an ideal height
C. will grow taller than average children
D. tend to have better nutrition for growth