VOA标准英语2010年-Soup Swap Adds Variety to Winter Menus

As the days in the northern hemisphere, get darker and colder, hot soup sounds pretty inviting¹. A homemade pot of soup can be healthy, economical and delicious. But by day four, it can also get kind of boring. So people are coming together to get more mileage² out of the humble³ bowl of soup.

 

A few years ago, Seattle, Washington, technical consultant⁴ Knox Gardner made a big pot of soup, and got a little sick of eating it day after day. So he decided⁵ to get a few friends together for a trade.

"My original idea was that it would be some loud, boisterous⁶ kind of event, where you would trade three of my corn chowders, because you know I'm an awesome⁷ cook, for, you know, one of your minestrones," says Gardner.

This was the beginning of Soup Swap⁸. As you can imagine, the math on this laissez-faire approach didn't work too well. So Gardner came up with some guidelines.

"You bring six quarts, and then draw numbers and go around the room six times until everybody gets all new soups."

In addition to a set of rules, Gardner got a website, a self-proclaimed National Soup Swap day in January, and some Internet hype from food bloggers. The idea spread across the country. There are swaps⁹ in New York with hand-foraged mushroom chowder, and swaps in Texas showcasing processed cheese soup.

 
VOA - D. Prichep
A variety of containers, some of them recycled, are used during Soup Swap night.
In Portland, Oregon, Jon Van Oast and Megan Kelley invited a dozen friends to a Soup Swap on a chilly¹⁰ Sunday. People started by sharing their stories, a little ritual Gardner calls, "The Telling of the Soup." Some recipes came from the Internet, and some, like Christina Kellogg-Gratschner's fruit soup, were family traditions.

"Fruit soup is something that my mom would make out of all her home canning pears, peaches, whatever she happened to have," Christina Kellogg-Gratschner. "And she'd cook it up with a little bit of cornstarch, and pour it on whole wheat toast."

Swappers then went around the circle, choosing their six quarts. People were definitely excited about leaving with a variety of soups... especially those balancing busy lives. Stacy Meyer teaches fifth grade, and scrambles¹¹ to fit inexpensive and healthy meals into her schedule.

"I will admit to having the breakfast-for-dinner kind of thing, that's happened before," says Meyer. "And so being able to have a ready-made dinner in the freezer helps out quite a bit."

People are increasingly coming together for these sorts of informal swaps, says Boston University economist¹² Juliet Schor. In her latest book, "Plenitude," Schor says the economic downturn has made more people open to the idea of swapping¹³. And the Internet has made it easier.

"In the past, if you wanted to organize some kind of a neighborhood swap or sharing scheme, you'd have to go around and call the people in the neighborhood, knock on their doors, etc. So there's a lot of what economists¹⁴ call transactions costs. With the Internet, that's drastically reduced."

And Schor says that once these swaps do come together, they reinforce connections between people. It's what economists and sociologists call "social capital." And Schor says communities with strong social capital work better.

"Soup may seem like a small thing, but it may turn out that your sharing network is very important to you if you lose your job, if your housing is in jeopardy¹⁵. You're going to have these folks to rely on."

There has been a rise in Soup Swap activity every year, as more groups start up. Founder¹⁶ Gardner agrees the Internet and the economy have helped its popularity, but - he insists - it's also because of the soup.

"I think that there's something really fundamental that happens when people bring food together to share it. Soup's like the ultimate soul food."

The fifth national soup swap will be held on January 22, 2011 and Gardner is expecting thousands of quarts of soup to change hands.
 

1 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

2 mileage   

n.里程，英里数；好处，利润

参考例句：

• He doesn't think there's any mileage in that type of advertising.他认为做那种广告毫无效益。
• What mileage has your car done?你的汽车跑了多少英里？

3 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

4 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

7 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

8 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

9 swaps   

交换( swap的名词复数 )； 交换物，被掉换者

参考例句：

• He swaps his old car for a new motorcycle. 他用旧车换了一辆新摩托车。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语
• Swaps the anchor and end points of the current selection. 交换当前所选内容的定位点和结束点。

10 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。

11 scrambles   

n.抢夺( scramble的名词复数 )v.快速爬行( scramble的第三人称单数 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• The breaking of symmetry scrambles the underlying order of nature. 对称性的破坏会打乱自然界的根本秩序。 来自互联网
• The move comes as Japan scrambles for ways to persuade women to have more babies. 这一行动的出现正值日本政府想尽各种办法鼓励妇女多生育孩子。 来自互联网

12 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

13 swapping   

交换，交换技术

参考例句：

• The slow swapping and buying of horses went on. 马匹的买卖和交换就是这样慢慢地进行着。
• He was quite keen on swapping books with friends. 他非常热衷于和朋友们交换书籍。

14 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

16 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。