近年來，發達國家正面臨愈演愈烈的食品浪費現象。生活在這些國家的人們仍掉大量的食物，與其對比，另有一些國家的人們面臨食物緊缺，饑餓難耐。本期《隨身英語》討論導致食物浪費的原因和可減少浪費的辦法。

課文內容

Vocabulary: waste 詞匯: 浪費

How much food do you buy each week? Are you someone who stuffs your fridge and cupboards full of edible treats so that you'll always have something to munch on and so that you'll never go hungry? Or maybe, like me, you're more efficient with your shopping, only buying what you need and using up your leftovers so that you keep food waste to a minimum.  

Throwing away unwanted food has become a big issue in the developed world. While some of us chuck away unwanted items, people in other parts of world face food shortages and are starving. It's a shocking fact that a third of the world's food is wasted each year. The actual figure is 1.3 billion tons of food, which is enough to feed a billion hungry people. 

You may think supermarkets are the main contributors to this mountain of food. After all, they do discard stuff that's past its sell-by-date and they often refuse to sell vegetables or fruit that are the wrong shape or look damaged. They've also been criticised for encouraging customers to buy more than they need through promotions such as 'buy one get one free'. 

But the biggest culprit for creating food waste is us. In Europe an incredible 53% of food waste comes from households, which results in 88 million tonnes of food waste a year. So instead of filling our bellies, our food is filling up landfill sites – it's buried and left to rot. Unfortunately this causes greenhouse gases which eventually leads to global warming and climate change.

In Denmark, a woman called Selina Juul has been working hard to tackle this problem. She moved from Russia many years ago and was amazed to see the abundance of food available in the supermarkets. But despite so much availability, she found that people were buying more than they needed and throwing too much away.

She convinced some supermarkets to stop selling their items in bulk so that people bought only what they needed. She produced a leftovers cookbook and she's now set up an education programme in schools. This has helped create a significant 25% reduction in food waste, which shows that something can be done. 

Clearly, we need to think twice when we put something in our shopping trolley, and when we're at home we should make the most of the food we have – using recipes that use up our leftovers or even sharing our excess food with our friends and neighbours.

詞匯表

edible 可食用的
efficient 效率高的
leftover 剩飯，剩菜
chuck 扔
contributor 貢獻者
discard 扔掉
sell-by-date 出售截至日期
buy one get one free 買一贈一
culprit 罪魁禍首
landfill 垃圾填埋廠
rot 腐爛
greenhouse gas 溫室氣體
abundance 大量，充足
bulk 批量，大量
cookbook 食譜
think twice 三思而后行
excess 多余的

測驗與練習

1. 閱讀課文并回答問題。

1. How many hungry people could be fed with the amount of food that is thrown away each year?         

2. What happens to the food that is dumped in landfill sites?          

3. True or false: A woman called Selina Juul helped reduce food waste by convincing supermarkets to sell her leftovers cookbook.  

4. What are supermarket promotions such as 'buy one, get one free' thought to encourage customers to do?

5. Which word in the article means 'ill or dying caused by not having enough to eat'?       

2. 請你在不參考課文的情況下完成下列練習。選擇一個意思合適的單詞填入句子的空格處。

1. Volunteers in London have opened a 'repair cafe' to stop people ______ things away when they could be fixed.

landfilling       excessing       chucking       abundance     

2. Members of London's City Hall are looking at ways to prevent millions of plastic bottles being ______ in the River Thames instead of being recycled.

discard       discarded       discarding       discards          

3. A burglar has broken into a family's home and stolen their Christmas presents. The ______ left the Christmas paper after unwrapping and stealing ￡900 in gifts.

contributor       culprit       leftover       excess

4. The air pollution is so bad today, you need to ______ about going outside.

thinking twice       think two       think once       think twice

5. The Australian state of Victoria has an ______ of koalas and in some parts there are so many that they're running out of trees.

significant       abundance       edible       abundant

答案

1. 閱讀課文并回答問題。

1. How many hungry people could be fed with the amount of food that is thrown away each year?
1.3 billion tons of food is thrown away, which is enough to feed a billion hungry people.    

2. What happens to the food that is dumped in landfill sites?
It's buried and left to rot.    

3. True or false: A woman called Selina Juul helped reduce food waste by convincing supermarkets to sell her leftovers cookbook.
False. She convinced some supermarkets to stop selling their items in bulk so that people bought only what they need.    

4. What are supermarket promotions such as 'buy one, get one free' thought to encourage customers to do?
These promotions are believed to encourage customers to buy more than they need.    

5. Which word in the article means 'ill or dying caused by not having enough to eat'?
Starving. 

2. 請你在不參考課文的情況下完成下列練習。選擇一個意思合適的單詞填入句子的空格處。 

1. Volunteers in London have opened a 'repair cafe' to stop people chucking things away when they could be fixed. 

2. Members of London's City Hall are looking at ways to prevent millions of plastic bottles being discarded in the River Thames instead of being recycled.

3. A burglar has broken into a family's home and stolen their Christmas presents. The culprit left the Christmas paper after unwrapping and stealing ￡900 in gifts. 

4. The air pollution is so bad today, you need to think twice about going outside. 

5. The Australian state of Victoria has an abundance of koalas and in some parts there are so many that they're running out of trees.