How can we keep our food fresh for a long time? Put it in a fridge!     1     Then how did people prevent their food from going bad in old times?

In the days of hunter-gatherers, food was always eaten straight away. The idea of cooling food was a long way off. But our ancestors slowly gave up being on the “hunt” for food all the time. As people settled, they had to find ways of keeping food fresh.     2     Food was also often put in ponds and wooden containers.

In 1748, artificial cooling was invented in Scotland. Chemical fridges were developed and taken to the market in the 1830s. However, these fridges were too expensive and too big.     3     So most people still stored their food in wooden boxes that contained ice. This explains the origin of the word “icebox.” Today, some people still use it to refer to fridges.

It was not until the 1950s that fridges “took off”. Development in technology helped fridges become smaller and     4     With fridges, they no longer had to shop daily. This saved them a lot of time.

    5     And thanks to new. technologies, they are able to keep food fresh for a longer time. They have also become more environmentally friendly.

【推荐3】Hot pot (火锅) is one of the most popular food in China. There are many stories about how hot pot appeared. The most traditional and oldest one has to do with Genghis Khan.

He was the founder (建立者) of the Mongol Empire (蒙古帝国). He was also one of the greatest leaders (领袖). The place where he lived was very cold in winter. He needed food to keep his army warm, strong and healthy. When it was time to eat, they put ice (冰) and snow into a pot. When they became water, and the temperature was high, they put meat into it. After a short time, the meat was OK. That might be the first hot pot. The meat they ate most was mutton, beef and horse meat. Later, people brought hot pot to other parts of China and improved it. People began to put more kinds of food into the hot pot, such as vegetables and seafood (海鲜).

By the Qing Dynasty, hot pot became popular in most parts of China.

Today we can find different kinds of hot pot in Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan and some foreign countries. When we eat the delicious hot pot, we also feel the special food culture of China.

【推荐1】In China, there are 24 solar terms(节气) in a year. The Autumn Equinox is one important solar term. It falls on September 23 this year.

The Autumn Equinox is at the midpoint of autumn. It divides the season into two equal parts. On this day, the length of the day and the length of the night are about the same all over the world. After this day, days become shorter and nights become longer in the northern hemisphere(北半球).

Autumn is the time to eat someseasonalfoods. During this time, crab(蟹肉) is very delicious. Pears, beans and many other plants are there to harvest. You can pick and eat these fresh fruits and vegetables.

Most areas in China become cool after the Autumn Equinox. Many flowers blossom during this period. You can enjoy the cool weather and the beautiful flowers in a park. So why not have an outing on the weekends?

I love eating hairy crabs. They are so tasty. I want to live by Yangcheng Lake so that I could eat them every day. The hairy crab is a kind of seasonal food. It is delicious in late autumn. If you like it, you can go to Yangcheng Lake after the Autumn Equinox.