Unit 2 单元拓展阅读训练 2023—2024学年 牛津上海版（试用本） 英语八年级下册

Unit 2 单元拓展阅读训练 2023—2024学年 牛津上海版（试用本） 英语八年级下册 一、阅读理解 Maybe nothing tastes as delicious and refreshing (凉爽的) as a cold, juicy, round watermelon on a hot summer day. No wonder this healthy fruit has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years. But how about trying square watermelons instead of round ones? Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? If you have been paying attention to all the exciting news lately, then surely you have seen all the wonderful shapes that watermelons come in these days. There are watermelons that look like Egyptian pyramids, there are special heart shaped watermelons for Valentine’s Day and of course, there are all kinds of round shapes. But did you know that it all started with square watermelons? Recently, farmers in the southern Japanese town have discovered a technique to grow their watermelons in a square shape. The reason why they’re doing this in Japan is that there is not enough space in refrigerators. They are trying to make watermelons “refrigerator-friendly”. A round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator, and the usual round fruit often sits awkwardly (笨拙地) on refrigerator shelves. Smart Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape by putting the watermelon into square, glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine (藤). The new kind of square watermelons are so easy to store. You can just stack them up, which means more of them will fit in a container. This save a lot of space and also money on shipping. Also, people can now fit them better in their tiny refrigerators at home and can start buying bigger watermelons. But these square watermelons come with a high price. Regular watermelons in Japan cost from $15 to $25 each, while each square watermelon costs about $82. Being quite expensive, these watermelons will certainly not be bought by the general public. Maybe people will give them as gifts! But it is also said that there does appear to be a growing U.S. market for water