1. (2023高二下·乌鲁木齐月考) 阅读理解

"Wow, this carrot is shaped like a spaceship!"

As a child, I'd always been drawn to strangely shaped vegetables in the produce aisle: horseshoe eggplants, flat bell peppers, three-legged carrots...but as time passed, TV ads and perfect supermarket displays taught me that tomatoes should always be perfectly round, carrots straight and apples bright red. I was taught that what looked nice must taste nice.

Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) acts much like Vogue and Cosmopolitan, setting unrealistic beauty expectations on how produce ought to look, down to the exact color, shape and size. But appearance is a poor indicator of flavor, nutritional value and even freshness. Food stylists in TV ads have conditioned us to see pretty as delicious and nutritious. However, Linda Hagen, a professor of consumer behavior from the University of Southem Califomia, denies the connection between beauty and nutrition, explaining that it is just another marketing strategy used by food companies to increase sales.

In the United States alone, an estimated six billion pounds of ugly produce is left unharvested, unsold and uneaten every year. That's enough food to feed three million people for a whole year!

The discarding of imperfect produce is not just wasteful; it also contributes significantly to climate change. Rotting produce creates large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more effective than carbon dioxide. When supermarkets toss away an ill-shaped tomato, they are also tossing away all of the fertilizer, water and energy that went into growing, storing and transporting that tomato.

I've decided to take this issue into my own hands. Working with local farms, markets, meal centers and food banks, I have rescued over 4, 500 pounds of edible, nutritious, often organic, ugly produce in my city. However, helping can be a lot easier than driving from farm to farm every weekend.

1. （1） How does the writer find the USDA?

   A . Inactive. B . Invaluable. C . Inaccessible. D . Irresponsible.
3. （2） What is Prof. Linda Hagen's attitude towards the outside beauty of produce?

   A . It reflects the inside value of produce. B . It's a reasonable marketing strategy. C . It's by no means connected with nutrition. D . It indicates flavor, nutrition and freshness.
5. （3） What will be talked about next?

   A . Some simple ways to rescue ugly produce. B . Some other countries that waste produce. C . Some stories of the writer visiting farms. D . Some new discoveries by food professionals.