One of the first men to make a commercial success of food conservation was Henry John Heinz. In 1869 he founded a company in Pittsburgh, USA. Like other Americans of his generation, Heinz made his name a household word throughout the western world. At last, man seems to have discovered how to preserve food without considerably altering its taste. The tins of food (Heinz tins!) which Captain Scott abandoned in the Antarctic were opened 47 years after his death, and the contents were not only edible, but pleasant.
The main argument against conserved foods is not that the canning of food makes it taste different; rather, people complain that the recipes which the canning chefs dream up are tedious or tasteless. But any recipe is tedious or tasteless if it is eaten in great quantities. And a company like Heinz can only produce something if it is going to be eaten in great quantities. The tomato is very pleasant to eat when it is freshly picked. A regular diet of tomatoes alone could well prove tedious. The canning companies try to cook the tomato in as many ways as possible. The Heinz factories in Britain use millions and millions of tomatoes every year.
There are many people who do not like to eat food out of season. They like their food to be fresh, and they like to cook it themselves in “the old-fashioned way”. It is very difficult for modern man to realize what it is like to live without the advantages of pre-packaged and canned food. European society in its present form could not cope without modern methods of food processing. Imagine your local supermarket without all the cans of pre-packaged foods. The supermarket would turn into a chaos of rotten vegetables, stale bread and unhealthy meat. The health problems would be insurmountable, unless we all went into the country to support ourselves.
So next time you reject canned food as being tasteless or unimaginative, remember that you can only afford to eat fresh food because canned food exists.
In which way was Henry John Heinz successful?
Henry John Heinz开了自己的食品加工厂，并因为开发出了罐装食品而成功。这种方法早前是Captain Scott使用，但因效果不好而抛弃了。而Henry成功地改造，使其能够延长食品保存期并不改变风味。
The main disadvantage of conserved food is ________.
定位第二段“...people complain that the recipes which the canning chefs dream up are tedious or tasteless”可 知，罐装食品的主要的劣势在于食品的配方单调且乏味。
Why do some people especially dislike canned food?
定位第三段，“They like their food to be fresh, and they like to cook it themselves in ‘the old-fashioned way’”，很多人不喜欢罐装食品是因为他们倾向于吃新鲜的食物，吃自己做的，按照传统方式烹饪的食 物，C项与文意相反，排除。
What would happen if there were no canned food?
第三段谈到如果没有罐装食品，现代人无法想象现代欧洲社会是如何运作的。超市货架上摆放的将是 变味的食品，而由此也会引发无尽的健康问题。因此总体来说，没有罐装食品，现代社会也没办法正常运 作。A项较D项更全面，B、C项不符合文意。
What is the writer’s attitude toward canned food?
作者对罐装食品的态度是支持赞同的，因为文中最后一段，作者很鲜明地为罐装食品做辩护，称正是 因为罐装食品的出现，人们才可以吃上新鲜安全的食物。