My interest in Chinese food started years a90, when l was a young reporter for the Washington Post. Our office wasn’t far from Chinatown, where I found some very good Chinese restaurants．

The first time I ever ate Chinese food I loved it. I noticed the fresh taste of the meat and vegetables. When I learned more about the food, I began to understand why it has this special feature.

Many years ago, China had an energy crisis because it lost much of its wood due to over population and poor management of its forests. This loss was very bad for the country, of course, but it turned out to be very good for the food. Wood became very expensive and hard to get，so the Chinese had to either find a substitute for their valuable wood，or learn how to use it better. There weren’t any substitutes so people found ways to economize.

In order to economize in cookin9, they had to use very little wood. So they started cutting their meat and vegetables into small pieces before they put them in the hot oil．That way，the food cooked faster and they saved their fuel. The food prepared in this way kept its fresh flavor一and it's this flavor that attracts people from other countries to the art of Chinese cooking.

1.This text is mainly about________.

A. what caused Chinese food to taste fresh

B. how Chinese food is cooked in the US

C. when the author started to make Chinese food

D. why most foreigners like cooking Chinese food

2.The author mentioned the energy crisis to show________.

A. it is important to protect the forests

B. it is necessary to find substitutes for wood

C. why the Chinese changed their way of cooking

D. what problems a big population is causing China today

3.It can be inferred from the text that before the energy crisis Chinese food________.

A. was cooked in rather large pieces

B. was cooked in water but not oil

C. didn’t taste good

D. didn’t look fresh

By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families of their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金) price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly discuss?

By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families of their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had been invented.

Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.

But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金) price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．The influence of ice on the diet.

B．The development of refrigeration.

C．The transportation of goods to market.

D．Sources of ice in the nineteenth century.

2.According to the passage, when did the word “icebox” become part of the language of the United States?

A．in 1803                               B．sometime bore 1850

C．during the civil war                      D．near the end of the nineteenth century.

3.The phrase “forward-looking” in line 3 is closest in meaning to______.

A．progressive        B．popular           C．thrifty            D．well-established

4.The author mentions “fish” in the passage because _____.

A．many fish dealers also sold ice.

B．fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars.

C．fish dealers were among the early commercial users of ice

D．fish was not part of the ordinary person’s diet before the invention of the icebox.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns(酒馆), and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor (前身) of the modern fridge, had been invented.
　　Making an efficient icebox as not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary(未发展的). The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
　　But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price(高价) for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
【小题1】Where was ice used after the Civil War?