听播客学英语 277 在超市

 　　I am in my local supermarket. I am here to do some shopping. You are here to practice the English names of fruit and vegetables.

　　During the winter, there are only a few English grown vegetables in the shops. The main ones are potatoes, carrots, leeks¹, onions, parsnips and cabbage. But we can of course buy many other vegetables which have been imported from warmer countries around the Mediterranean². For example, we have tomatoes and courgettes from Spain, French beans from Egypt, sweetcorn from Italy and avocado pears from Tunisia. Most of our salad vegetables, such as lettuce³, are also imported in winter.

　　Over here in the fruit section there are English apples and pears, and several sorts of oranges from Spain, bananas from Latin America, grapes from South Africa and strawberries from Egypt.

　　Many people in Britain are becoming more concerned about the way our food is produced. I am now in the section which sells organic fruit and vegetables. “Organic” means that the food is grown without artificial fertiliser or pesticide⁴. Today there are many more organic foods in supermarkets than there were a few years ago. Here I can buy fresh organic apples, pears, bananas, onions, potatoes, beans, carrots, leeks and lettuce. Some of these are grown in this country, others are imported – often by air – from for example the USA, Egypt or Kenya. And we know that aircraft are an important source of carbon dioxide, which causes global warming. It is not always easy to be an environmentally conscious consumer!

　　I have put together a website with pictures af all the fruit and vegetables mentioned in this podcast, and several more as well. You can use it to practice. Click on the link on the podcast website to go to it.

　　NOTE : in some languages, people use a word related to the English word “biological” to mean food grown without artificial fertilisers and pesticides⁵. Remember that the English word is “organic”, not “biological”.

1 leeks   

韭葱( leek的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Leeks and potatoes go well together in a soup. 汤中放韭菜和土豆尝起来很对味。
• When I was young I grew some leeks in a pot. 小时候我曾在花盆里种了些韭葱。

2 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

3 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

4 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

5 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》