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The fridge is considered a necessity. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food first appeared with the label: “store in the refrigerator.”
In my fridgeless Fifties childhood, I was fed well and healthy. The milkman came daily, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times a week. The Sunday meat would 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. A vast way of 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 globe 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 wealthy 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 insignificant. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and turn off your fridge next winter. You may miss the hamburgers (汉堡包), but at least you’ll get rid of that terrible hum.
11. The statement “In my fridgeless Fifties childhood, I was fed well and healthily.” (Line 1, Para. 2) suggests that ________.
A) the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties
B) the author was not accustomed to using 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（C）
12. 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.（D）
13. Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?
A) Inventors.
B) Consumers.
C) Manufacturers.
D) Traveling salesmen.（B）
14. 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”.（A）
15. What is the author’s overall attitude toward fridges?
A) Neutral.
B) Critical.
C) Objective.
D) Compromising.（B）
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