News feed：Have a bee in your bonnet
【明報專訊】MANY farmers are surely having a bee in their bonnet about bees! Fruit and vegetables rely on bees to carry pollen (花粉) to their fellows. Around one third of food in the globe depends on these insects. Due to restrictions on movement, some places in North America lacked beekeepers to do the work, affecting the production of many crops that are worth US$ 15 billion!
Vouching for businesses
WUHAN reopened on April 8. To ramp up business activity, the government offered its people shopping vouchers worth 500 million yuan, which can be used in retail stores, eateries, supermarkets and entertainment venues. They could be received via a ''lucky draw'' on WeChat. Users have to spend several times the face value of a voucher to use it.
When crude is not crucial
OIL is crucial for powering cars, factories, airplanes, etc. But amid the pandemic, all these things were shut down. That made demand crumble, and an indicator for crude oil (原油) dipped into negative territory unprecedentedly in mid-April. It was at one time as low as about minus US$40 a barrel, meaning that it was literally cheaper than water! Tanks were filled up so quickly that sellers would rather give them away.
■Gear up
According to the passages on this page, circle the correct answers.
(1) The Wuhan government offered its people a limited number of shopping coupons. ( True / False )
(2) ( A. Meat and milk / B. Fruit and vegetables / C. Cars and airplanes ) depend on bees to produce seeds.
(3) An indicator once showed that crude oil in the US was as cheap as about US$40 a barrel. ( True / False )
(Answers on next text)
■Glossary
have a bee in sb's bonnet (idiom) 念念不忘
voucher (n) 現金券
crucial (adj) 重要的
barrel (n) 桶
[Smarties' Power English 第279期]
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