By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox had entered the American language, bu

By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” hadentered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect thediet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with thegrowth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-lookingcity 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 intohousehold 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 tofamilies of their own use. This had become possible because a new householdconvenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had beeninvented.

Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we mightnow suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat,which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. Thecommonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice frommelting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performedthe cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping theice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the endof the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulationand 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 milesoutside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was themarket center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butterto market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff inthe tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金)price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. Oneadvantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer haveto travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．The influenceof ice on the diet.

B．Thedevelopment of refrigeration.

C．Thetransportation of goods to market.

D．Sources ofice 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 bore1850

C．during thecivil war                      D．near the endof the nineteenth century.

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

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

4.The author mentions “fish” in the passage because_____.

A．many fishdealers also sold ice.

B．fish wasshipped in refrigerated freight cars.

C．fish dealerswere among the early commercial users of ice

D．fish was notpart of the ordinary person’s diet before theinvention of the icebox.

试题答案

【答案】

1.B

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

试题