摘要：下面是中大网校职称英语为大家总结的，2016年职称英语考试卫生类a级概括大意复习题

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.

  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 ______________.

  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

  词汇：

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

注释：

  ... the vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and cheese that stores offer for sale. ?”???商店销售的蔬 菜、水果、肉类和奶酪等。

dessert /di'z3it/ n.甜点 spread /spred/ n.(生产成本和卖价的)差额 traceable /'treissbl/ adj.可追溯的 transfer /traens'f3：/ v.转移

the jump in food prices:食品价格的猛涨。这里的jump是名词,意为“猛烈地往上跳跃”。

  3. Some of the basic reasons for widening food price spreads are easily traceable to the increasing use of convenience foods.造成食品生产成本与卖价间差额的扩大,一些根本原因可以追溯到 人们越来越多地食用方便食品上面。

  答案与题解

  1.E在农场主首先否定了自己有多少利益，他们的所传与生活指数的上升相比并不算多。

  2.D根据经济学家的意见，中间商的获利也少得惊人。

  3.B在这一段，经济学家对问题给出了一个令人意想不到的答案，即食品价格上涨的原因竟 在于家庭主妇。

  4.A家庭主妇喜欢省事、方便，喜欢买成品或半成品，这导致了用于食品上的开支的增加。

  5.D动词foil后面跟带to的动词不定式，表示“未能做某事”,在六个选项中有两个带to的不 定式，从意义上看应该选Do

  6.A原句是一个完整的句子，句末有句号。所以后面应该是另外一个句子。在六个选项中只 有一个选项是一个完整的句子，即A。用nor幵始正好可以接上前面的否定句。

  7.E对于省下的时间，家庭主妇可是要付钱的。那么她们是通过什么方式来节省时间的呢? 这里需要填入的是一个表示节省时间方式的状语，by加上动词的-ing形式可用来表示方式 方法。

 8.F句中用的lie in是个动词短语,意为“在于……”，经济学家得出的结论是食品价格上涨 的原因在于方便食品越来越受到青睐。

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