A
Ramen noodles have been a go-to(首选的)food for students for decades. After all, they only take eight minutes to cook in a dorm hotpot and are easy on the budget. Holly Grounds, a recent project design graduate of Ravensbourne University, in London, used to eat a lot of ramen noodles when she studied. But it got her thinking that the packaging of a product that takes just minutes to cook and eat shouldn’t take decades or more to decompose(分解). That’s why she decided to make eatable wrappers for noodles, avoiding the need for plastic.
Grounds wanted to produce a product that the user could watch actually dissolve in the pot, unlike other bio-based films(包装膜)that are being developed. “While other bio-based alternatives to plastic claim to be compostable(可用作堆肥的), from a consumer perspective it’s not always that simple, ”she said. “Many of the emerging bio-based films only break down in an industrial composter(堆肥机)at 50 degrees Celsius, so they often end up in the wrong place without the consumer really knowing that they caused damage to the planet. ”
Now, instead of plastic packs of seasonings(调料), the dried spices and flavorings are part of a flavorless bioplastic film that wraps the noodles and keeps them fresh. The film dissolves in less than a minute when it comes into contact with boiling water, according to Grounds, and the liquid becomes the sauce for the noodles and larger ingredients like dried shrimp.
“The ingredients are blended and heated until the mixture is thick enough. At this point, I add the spices and flavorings before pouring it into a mold to set for 24 hours, ”Grounds said. These noodle parcels are then packaged in a wax-coated paper.
With plastics taking hundreds of years to decompose and filling landfills and oceans globally, eatable packaging and single-use items are seen as the way to go. Grounds sees opportunities to use her eatable packaging for other ready meals and she wants to contribute to the global fight against single-use plastics.
【文章大意】本文是一篇说明文。食品包装袋给食物套上精致的外衣, 却让环境为之买单。近日, 英国一大学生制作出一种可食用包装袋, 这种食品袋集包装、防腐、调味为一体, 热水冲泡后几分钟内化为汤料, 方便又环保。
1. Why does Grounds want to replace plastic wrappers with eatable ones?
A. The plastic ones are not eco-friendly.
B. The plastic ones do harm to our health.
C. The eatable ones appeal to more consumers.
D. The eatable ones save more cooking time.
【解析】选A。推理判断题。根据第一段最后两句But it got her thinking that the packaging of a product that takes just minutes to cook and eat shouldn’t take decades or more to decompose. That’s why she decided to. . . 可知, 她觉得塑料制品分解时间太长, 所以她决定为面条做一个可吃的包装, 避免了对塑料的需求。
2. What makes the bio-based films fail to be compostable in practice?
A. The immature technology.
B. The high cost of dissolving.
C. Their special material composition.
D. Their specific decomposing conditions.
【解析】选D。推理判断题。根据第二段Many of the emerging bio-based films only break down in an industrial composter at 50 degrees Celsius, so they often end up in the wrong place without the consumer really knowing that they caused damage to the planet. 可知, 许多新兴的生物基薄膜只能在50摄氏度的工业堆肥机中分解, 因而实践中不能堆肥, 这是因为他们特定的溶解条件。
3. What do we know about the eatable wrapper according to Paragraph 3?
A. It ensures longer preservation time.
B. It requires a special cooking method.
C. It ends up as the sauce for food.
D. It improves the taste and flavor of noodles.
【解析】选C。细节理解题。第三段介绍了这种无味的生物塑料包装薄膜可以与沸水接触溶解后, 这种液体就会变成一些较大食材的调味汁。