1 . When our ancestors were peasants in the earliest days of agriculture, the daily schedule was: work in field all day, eat midday meal in field, continue working in field. Today, after centuries of human advancement, it goes something like: work in coffee shop all day, buy and eat lunch there, continue working on laptop until the sun sets. Though it may seem like the tech boom and gig economy(临时工经济) led the way in this modern mobile work style, working and dining have always been closely connected. In major cities like New York, Washington D.C., Sydney and Hong Kong, restaurants are changing into official co-working spaces during off-peak hours.
Dr. Megan Elias, director of the gastronomy program at Boston University, says food and business have been linked since as far back as the ancient Sumer (who established civilization as we know it around 4000 B.C.) “What we think of as street food has always been part of human civilization,” she says. “There have always been marketplaces where humans came together to conduct some kind of business — like trading grain, trading animals or building houses. As long as there have been marketplaces, people have been eating at them while also doing business.”
The first example of a brick-and-mortar “restaurant” came during the merchant economy in the 15th and 16th centuries, according to Elias. During this stage in European, African, and East and South Asian history, inns allowed merchant businessmen to rest — and of course, eat — throughout their travels. During the colonial era of the 1600s and 1700s, concrete examples of American restaurants emerged as “Coffee Houses”. Coffee Houses were places that had newspapers, which at the time were very small and commercial,” author and social historian Jan Whitaker explains.
Coffee houses remained tradesman staples throughout the early 19th century, with simple menu items like rolls and meat pies. More “grand meals,” as Elias calls them, were still taking place within homes for non-traveling folk. But, when the U.S. began industrializing in the 1840s and people stayed near workplaces during the day, eating establishments popped up around factories.
“Industrialization of the city is also restaurantization of the city,” Elias says. “Places sprung up to serve a business lunch crowd and an after-work dining crowd again, still doing business.”
1. Why does the author mentioned our ancestors in paragraph1?| A．To lead in the topic of the passage. |
| B．To present examples in the ancient times. |
| C．To raise questions on working style. |
| D．To remember ancestors’ working style. |
| A．Around 4000 B.C. | B．In the 15th and 16th centuries. |
| C．During the 1600s and 1700s. | D．In the early 19th century. |
| A．Newspapers were produced there first. |
| B．The food served there was limited at first. |
| C．They were especially popular around factories. |
| D．It was a perfect place for entertainment and eating. |
| A．The Function of Eating out. | B．The Slow Formation of the Modern City. |
| C．The Evolution of the Restaurant. | D．The Age of More Work, Less Eating. |
