[originaltext]Every summer, when I top up my selection of summer outfits from t

Every summer, when I top up my selection of summer outfits from the department stores, my eyes would nearly pop out of my head. I’m overwhelmed with a wide range of different slimming products each year. And more shockingly, these products are often advocated by very slim models. Having lived in Asia for almost 10 years now, I’ve seen various dieting tips come and go. I remember in Japan, people heading directly to the fruit section in the supermarket when the banana diet was at its peak. Then there was the black tea and oolong tea diet, followed by the soybean diet and the tomato juice diet. The list goes on and on.
Apart from what people eat, I’ve also seen many interesting slimming products. In Hong Kong, I’ve seen girls wrapping their whole body or both legs up with a special type of slimming tape which is supposed to help make them thinner. But it just reminded me of the roasted ham my mother usually puts on the dinner table at Christmas. Then there were the face slimming rollers that were said to improve your blood circulation and make your face smaller. Personally, I do not believe in any of these slimming gadgets and I think I have a very different perspective when it comes to the definition of what is beautiful.
Asian women prefer to avoid the sun, because being pale or white is considered beautiful, whereas a tanned complexion is considered much more beautiful and sexy in the West. It is most certainly shaped by a person’s culture as well as how they were raised in their childhood.
As each summer season approaches, there’s no escape from it. But it’s not only women who are affected by this pressure to look good. Men aspire to be able to show off their six packs or their V-shaped backs, and there’s a growing market of slimming pills aimed at men too.
I think no matter what diets we follow or what slimming products we obsess ourselves with, at the end of the day there’s no magic trick to shape up for the summer. Eat in a balanced way and incorporate the right level of physical activity. For me, this still seems to be the best plan.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19. What overwhelms the speaker when she buys her summer outfits each year?
20. What does the speaker think of girls wrapping their legs up with slimming tape?
21. What does the speaker think affects people’s interpretation of beauty?