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(汉堡包), but at least you’ll get rid of that terrible hum.
练习题：
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] 句意理解题。由句中的childhood可知，fifties指的`应该是50年代，而不可能是50多岁，据此可排除A、B;fridgeless是合成词，由词根fridge"冰箱”和表示否定的后缀-less组成，由可推断其意为“无冰箱的"，故C正确。
2.[D] 事实细节题。在第2段中，说到“不会浪费东西”前，作者指出把吃剩的面包和牛奶做成蛋糕，以防止浪费，故D正确。A、C在文中并未提及，排除;B所述并非不浪费食物的原因，也可排除。
3.[B] 观点态度题。综观全文，作者对认为冰箱不是必备品，最后一段更明确指出，它对人类幸福的贡献微不足道，故可推断，消费者从冰箱中获益最少，故B正确。
4.[A] 词义理解题。A中的hum指"发出嗡嗡声",表明冰箱产生的嗓音，是对环境的负面作用，故正确。B、D只是指出冰箱在实际上没有必要使用的地区却被广泛使用;C仅说明冰箱是对人工加热房间的影响，并不能说明其对环境的影响，故排除。
5.[B] 观点态度题。考査作者的观点，可根据文中细节得出答案。第3段首提到，冰箱对保存食物没有多大贡献，最后一段首则指出它对环境的影响已是显而易见的，这些细节都表明作者对冰箱持批评态度。
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