Englisch BHS, Maturatraining mit Audio-CD

36 Reading Chilled: How refrigeration changed the world Read the review of a book about refrigeration. Complete the sentences (1–8) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. Four-word sentence completion 14 Chilled: How refrigeration changed the world Modern life without refrigeration is unthinkable – we depend on our ability to chill or freeze produce close to its source and keep it cold while it is transported, stored, sold and then stashed away in our homes. If we suddenly had to return to the age of the pantry and eat food that had just been harvested or butchered, we would soon be very hungry. Tom Jackson, the author of this book, makes the point that heat and light have been at the command of humans since we learnt to master –re, but the battle to control cold was really only won a century ago. Many civilizations wrestled with the problem of trying to prevent ice from melting: the underground ice-house was to the super-rich of the early modern era what a wine cellar-spa-gym-cinema in the basement is to the billioniare of today. At the dawn of the modern refrigeration age, however, the world did not realize that it needed to chill. When compressors were developed in the 19 th century, making ice-machines possible, no-one was interested, because natural ice cut from lakes was cheaper. By the 1880s –ve million tons of ice were being consumed in the United States, much of it being taken from New England Lakes. However the ensuing epidemics of typhoid and dysentery helped to overcome any initial doubts about using manufactured ice. It took James Harrison, a Scottish journalist working in Australia, to make the breakthrough. He developed and manufactured machines in England and shipped them out in parts to Australia. In 1851 his –rst machine made ice. He then assembled the world’s –rst functioning refrigerator. It was used to chill beer. e down- side of the machine was that it was the size of a small house. e invention of the domestic refrigerator is credited to a French monk, who was also focused on local priorities. His machine was designed to keep wine cool. General Electric acquired the rights in 1911 and began selling the machines for $1,000, twice the price of a car. Today a quarter of American homes have at least two fridges. Europeans were slower to embrace the technology. In 1965 they were only in a third of UK households. But as the prices of fridges dropped, supermarkets were born, we stopped having to go to the shops every day and we started eating some new types of food. In 1912 a taxidermist and trapper called Clarence Birdseye went to Labrador with the intention of making himself a fortune in furs. It is hard to imagine what modern eating habits would be like if he hadn’t got distracted from his original plan. Birdseye noticed, while –shing with the Inuit, how quickly the –sh they caught froze and how tasty it was a er it was thawed and cooked. He began £ash freezing on an industrial scale. A century later, –sh –ngers and peas have become a national dish in Britain. ere is plenty more fascinating stu† in this readable book. Who knew that so many famous names were involved in the development of refrigeration, among them Isaac Newton, Anders Celsius and the botanist Linnaeus? Even Albert Einstein patented a refrigerator, though it was too complicated to compete with simpler models. e science of cold is everywhere: in our air conditioning systems, in the production of fertilisers that help to feed millions, in the transportation of natural gas and in the super- conductor inside an MRI scanner. However, Tom Jackson’s extravagant claim that the refrigerator is ‘humanity’s greatest achievement’ is surely open to question. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv