Why Does Food Cost So Much?

1. In 1959 the average American family paid $989 for a year's supply of food. In 1972 the family paid $1,311. That was a price increase of nearly one-third. Every family has had this sort of experience. Everyone agrees that the cost of feeding a family has risen sharply. But there is less agreement when reasons for the rise are being discussed. Who is really responsible?

2. Many blame the farmers who produce the vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and cheese that stores offer for sale. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the farmer's share of the $1,311 spent by the family in 1972 was $521. This was 31 per cent more than the farmer had received in 1959.

3. But farmers claim that this increase was very small compared to the increase in their cost of living. Farmers tend to blame others for the sharp rise in food prices. They particularly blame those who process the farm products after the products leave the farm. These include truck drivers, meat packers, manufacturers of packages and other food containers, and the owners of stores where food is sold. They are among the “middlemen” who stand between the farmer and the people who buy and eat the food. Are middlemen the ones to blame for rising food prices?

4. Of the $1, 311 family food bill in 1972, middlemen received $790, which was 33 per cent more than they had received in 1959. It appears that the middlemen's profit has increased more than farmer's. But some economists claim that the middleman's actual profit was very low. According to economists at the First National City Bank, the profit for meat packers and food stores amounted to less than one per cent. During the same period all other manufacturers were making a profit of more than 5 per cent. By comparison with other members of the economic system both farmers and middlemen have profited surprisingly little from the rise in food prices.

5. Who then is actually responsible for the size of the bill a housewife must pay before she carries the food home from the store? The economists at First National City Bank have an answer to give housewives, but many people will not like it. These economists blame the housewife herself for the jump in food prices. They say that food costs more now because women don't want to spend much time in the kitchen. Women prefer to buy food which has already been prepared before it reaches the market.

6. Vegetables and chicken cost more when they have been cut into pieces by someone other than the one who buys it. A family should expect to pay more when several “TV dinners” are taken home from the store. These are fully cooked meals, consisting of meat, vegetables, and sometimes desert, all arranged on a metal dish. The dish is put into the oven and heated while the housewife is doing something else. Such a convenience costs money. Thus, as economists point out: “Some of the basic reasons for widening food price spreads are easily traceable to the increasing use of convenience foods, which transfer much of the time and work of meal preparation from the kitchen to the food processor's plant. ”

7. Economists remind us that many modern housewives have jobs outside the home. They earn money that helps to pay the family food bills. The housewife naturally has less time and energy for cooking after a day's work. She wants to buy many kinds of food that can be put on her family's table easily and quickly. “If the housewife wants all of these.” the economists say, “that is her privilege, but she must be prepared to pay for the services of those who make her work easier.”

8. It appears that the answer to the question of rising prices is not a simple one. Producers, consumers, and middlemen all share the responsibility for the sharp rise in food costs.

練習(xí)：

1. Paragraph 3 ______________

2. Paragraph 4 ______________

3. Paragraph 5 ______________

4. Paragraph 6 ______________

A. The Cost of Convenience

B. A Surprising Answer Given by the Economists

C. The Effect of Inflation

D. Middlemen’s Limited Share in the Additional Profit

E. Farmers’ Denial of Increased Profit

F. Housewives' Need to Find Jobs

5. Many people agree that food prices have increased sharply but they have failed _____________.

6. The farmers have not been benefited very much ______________.

7. Housewives have to pay for the time they save ______________.

8. The economists have come to the conclusion that the cause of increased food prices lies in ________________________.

A. Nor have the middlemen

B. to increase the prices for food

C. that they cannot agree on the causes of the increase in prices

D. to agree on the reasons for the increase

E. by buying prepared food

F. the popularization of convenience food

詞匯：

average /'aevsnds/ adj. 一般的,普通的 sharply /'Jaipli/ adv.明顯地 cheese /tjiiz/ n.奶酪 process / 丨prauses/ v.力卩工 package /'paebds/ v.包裝

注釋：

... the vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and cheese that stores offer for sale. ?”???商店銷售的蔬 菜、水果、肉類和奶酪等。

dessert /di'z3it/ n.甜點(diǎn) spread /spred/ n.(生產(chǎn)成本和賣價(jià)的)差額 traceable /'treissbl/ adj.可追溯的 transfer /traens'f3：/ v.轉(zhuǎn)移

the jump in food prices:食品價(jià)格的猛漲。這里的jump是名詞,意為“猛烈地往上跳躍”。

3. Some of the basic reasons for widening food price spreads are easily traceable to the increasing use of convenience foods.造成食品生產(chǎn)成本與賣價(jià)間差額的擴(kuò)大,一些根本原因可以追溯到 人們?cè)絹碓蕉嗟厥秤梅奖闶称飞厦妗?/p>

答案與題解

1.E在農(nóng)場(chǎng)主首先否定了自己有多少利益，他們的所傳與生活指數(shù)的上升相比并不算多。

2.D根據(jù)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家的意見，中間商的獲利也少得驚人。

3.B在這一段，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家對(duì)問題給出了一個(gè)令人意想不到的答案，即食品價(jià)格上漲的原因竟 在于家庭主婦。

4.A家庭主婦喜歡省事、方便，喜歡買成品或半成品，這導(dǎo)致了用于食品上的開支的增加。

5.D動(dòng)詞foil后面跟帶to的動(dòng)詞不定式，表示“未能做某事”,在六個(gè)選項(xiàng)中有兩個(gè)帶to的不 定式，從意義上看應(yīng)該選Do

6.A原句是一個(gè)完整的句子，句末有句號(hào)。所以后面應(yīng)該是另外一個(gè)句子。在六個(gè)選項(xiàng)中只 有一個(gè)選項(xiàng)是一個(gè)完整的句子，即A。用nor幵始正好可以接上前面的否定句。

7.E對(duì)于省下的時(shí)間，家庭主婦可是要付錢的。那么她們是通過什么方式來節(jié)省時(shí)間的呢? 這里需要填入的是一個(gè)表示節(jié)省時(shí)間方式的狀語，by加上動(dòng)詞的-ing形式可用來表示方式 方法。

8.F句中用的lie in是個(gè)動(dòng)詞短語,意為“在于……”，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家得出的結(jié)論是食品價(jià)格上漲 的原因在于方便食品越來越受到青睞。

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