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阅读理解
What makes Americans spend nearly half their food dollars on meals away from home?The answers lie in the way Americans live today．During the first few decades of the twentieth century, canned and other convenience foods freed the family cook from full-time duty at the kitchen．Then, in the 1940s, work in the wartime defense factories took more women out of the home than ever before, setting the pattern of the working wife and mother．
Today about half of the country’s married women are employed outside the home．But, unless family members pitch in with food preparation, women are not fully liberated from that housework．Instead, many have become, in a sense, prisoners of the completely cooked convenience meals．It’s easier to pick up some fried chicken on the way home from work or take the family out for meals than to start opening cans or heating up frozen dinners after a long, hard day．
Also, the rising divorce rate means that there are more single working parents with children to feed．And many young adults and elderly people, as well as unmarried and divorced grown-ups, live alone rather than as part of a family unit and don’t want to bother cooking for one．
Fast food is attractive because it is fast, it doesn’t require any dressing up, it offers“fun”break in the daily routine, and the expense seems small．It can be eaten in the cars－sometimes picked up at a drive-in-window without even getting out－or on the run．Even if it is brought home to eat, there will never be any dirty dishes to wash because of the handy disposable wrappings．Children, especially, love fast food because it’s finger food, no struggling with knives and forks, no bothersome instructions from adult about table manners．
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