2014年职称英语卫生类概括大意习题（7）_第2页

　　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.”

　　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.”

　　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.

　　练习：

　　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_____________.