The fridge is considered necessary. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food list appeared with the label: "Store in the refrigerator."
In my fridgeless Fifties childhood, 1 was fed well and healthy. The milkman came every day, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times each week. The Sunday meatwould last until Wednesday and surplus(剩余的) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.
The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food preservation. Many well-tried techniques already existed -- natural cooling, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, bottling...
What refrigeration did promote was marketing --- marketing hardware and electricity, marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around the world in search of a good price.
Consequently, most of the world’s fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the rich countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside an artificially-heated house -- while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge.
The fridge’s effect upon the environment has been evident, while its contribution to human happiness has been not important. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and mm off your fridge next winter. You may not eat the hamburgers(漢堡包), but at least you’ll get rid of that terrible hum.
練習題：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.The statement "In my fridgeless fifties childhood, I was fed well and healthily." suggests that______.
A.the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties.
B.the author was not accustomed to fridges even in his fifties.
C.there was no fridge in the author’s home in the 1950s.
D.the fridge was in its early stage of development in the 1950s.
2.Why does the author say that nothing was wasted before the invention of fridges?
A.People would not buy more food than was necessary.
B.Food was delivered to people two or three times a week.
C.Food was sold fresh and did not get rotten easily.
D.People had effective ways to preserve their food.
3.Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?
A. Inventors.
B. Consumers.
C. Manufacturers.
D. Travelling salesmen.
4.Which of the following phrases in the fifth paragraph indicates the fridge’s negative effect on the environment?
A.“Hum away continuously”.
B.“Climatically almost unnecessary”.
C.“Artificially-cooled space”.
D.“With mild temperatures”.
5.What is the author’s overall attitude toward fridges?
A. Neutral.
B. Critical.
C. Objective.
D. Compromising.
答案解析
1.[C] 句意理解題。由句中的childhood可知，fifties指的應該是50年代，而不可能是50多歲，據此可排除A、B;fridgeless是合成詞，由詞根fridge"冰箱”和表示否定的后綴-less組成，由可推斷其意為“無冰箱的"，故C正確。
2.[D] 事實細節題。在第2段中，說到“不會浪費東西”前，作者指出把吃剩的'面包和牛奶做成蛋糕，以防止浪費，故D正確。A、C在文中并未提及，排除;B所述并非不浪費食物的原因，也可排除。
3.[B] 觀點態度題。綜觀全文，作者對認為冰箱不是必備品，最后一段更明確指出，它對人類幸福的貢獻微不足道，故可推斷，消費者從冰箱中獲益最少，故B正確。
4.[A] 詞義理解題。A中的hum指"發出嗡嗡聲",表明冰箱產生的嗓音，是對環境的負面作用，故正確。B、D只是指出冰箱在實際上沒有必要使用的地區卻被廣泛使用;C僅說明冰箱是對人工加熱房間的影響，并不能說明其對環境的影響，故排除。
5.[B] 觀點態度題。考査作者的觀點，可根據文中細節得出答案。第3段首提到，冰箱對保存食物沒有多大貢獻，最后一段首則指出它對環境的影響已是顯而易見的，這些細節都表明作者對冰箱持批評態度。
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