A
Throwing a plastic spoon or fork into the trash after using it once is fashionable. In India, about 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery (餐具) end up in the garbage each year. But that may change soon thanks to Narayana Peesapaty, the founder of Bakey's, which transforms ordinary cutlery into delicious treats.
The company's first product is a spoon. Made of sorghum (高粱), rice and wheat flour, the spoon has a shelf life of up to three years and can be used for both eating and serving food. Thanks to its primary ingredient sorghum, the spoon is able to resist anything from hot soups to frozen desserts for about 15－20 minutes.
Tasting like sugar, the spoons are a delicious treat. However, even those who do not wish to consume the spoon won't feel sorry about throwing them away. That's because unlike plastic spoons, Bakey's spoons decompose (分解) within 5－6 days.
Apart from this, Peesapaty said that the reason for selecting sorghum was that the climatesmart hardy grain required fewer nutrients and water to grow. As a result, Bakey's spoons use far fewer resources than the more popular alternatives. Peesapaty said that as his product became more popular, he hoped to encourage more farmers to switch to growing sorghum instead of rice which requires 60 times the amount of water!
Peesapaty, who has sold over 1.5 million spoons since he started Bakey's in 2011, has two main challenges—bringing the production costs down so that the price of the spoons is as affordable as plastic spoons and also setting up an international distribution system so that they can be made available globally. The company also hopes to expand their offerings to additional cutlery items like forks and chopsticks.
篇章导读：本文是一篇说明文。印度一家公司发明了可食用的餐具，人们可以在吃完饭后再把餐具吃掉。
1．What can we learn about the edible spoon from the passage?
A．It has been on sale for almost eight years.
B．It can resist anything for 5－6 minutes.
C．It can break down within 15－20 days.
D．It tastes sour and spicy.
答案：A 细节理解题。由最后一段第一句可知，可食用餐具是在2011年上市的，到现在为止大约八年了。
2．Sorghum is chosen as the main ingredient for the spoon because ________.
A．it is stronger
B．it is more energysaving
C．it tastes better
D．it is easy to break down
答案：B 细节理解题。由第四段前两句可知，高粱成为备选材料的原因是它更节约资源。
3．What's Peesapaty's attitude towards the edible spoon?
A．Satisfied. B．Suspected.
C．Hopeful. D．Uncertain.
答案：C 推理判断题。由最后一段可知，Peesapaty想在全球推广这种可食用勺，并制造可食用叉子和筷子。由此可推知，他们对可食用勺的前景是充满希望的。
4．What can we infer about the company from the last paragraph?
A．Its spoons have brought in great profits.
B．There is still a long way to go for it.
C．It determines to make forks and chopsticks.
D．Average people can't afford its products.
答案：B 推理判断题。由最后一段可知，Peesapaty的公司依然面临着两大挑战，故此公司任重而道远。
ingredient n. 原料；要素 resist v. 抵抗；忍耐，忍住 alternative n. 供替代的选择
第四段第三句：Peesapaty said that as his product became more popular, he hoped to encourage more farmers to switch to growing sorghum instead of rice which requires 60 times the amount of water!
译文：Peesapaty说，随着他的产品越来越受欢迎，他希望鼓励更多的农民转向种植高粱，而不是种植需要60倍水量的大米！
分析：这是一个复合句，said后面是that引导的宾语从句。在宾语从句中as引导时间状语从句；which引导定语从句，修饰先行词rice。60 times the amount of “60倍的……量”。
