1 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. astonishing   B. processing   C. ensure   D. blame   E. virtually F. routinely     G. occurs       H. consequences I. admitted   J. decent   K. estimated

As many sit down to enjoy plentiful holiday meals this season, it’s also a good time to note the growing problem of food waste.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, it is     1     that one-third of food produced for human consumption worldwide annually is lost or wasted.

The economic and environmental impacts of food loss and waste are     2    . More than a quarter of the world’s agricultural land is being worked to grow food that nobody eats.

What’s the difference between food loss and food waste? Waste happens toward the back end of the food chain, at the retail and consumer level. Loss, on the other hand, mostly     3     at the front of the food chain — during production, post-harvest, and     4     — and it’s more common in the developing world, where all of the food usually can’t be delivered in     5     shape, to consumers.

In developed nations, extreme-efficient farming practices, plenty of refrigeration, and first-rate transportation and storage     6    that most of the food they grow reaches the retail level. But things go rapidly south from there.

Store managers     7     over-order goods, for fear of running out of a particular product. The British supermarket chain Tesco, for example,     8     throwing out nearly 50,000 tons of food within their UK stores during the latest financial year.

Consumers are also to     9    . We often order too much food in restaurants without taking leftovers home. We overbuy when there is a discount for invitingly packaged food. When we store food, many of us take “use by” dates literally, and we suffer no     10     for dumping eatable food into a bin.