The History of the Lunch Box

A) It was made of shiny, bright pink plastic with a Little Mermaid sticker on the front, and I carried it with me nearly every single day. My lunch box was one of my first prized possessions, a proud statement to everyone in my kindergarten: “I love Mermaid-Ariel on my lunch box.”

B) That bulky container served me well through my first and second grades, until the live-action version of 101 Dalmatians hit theaters, and I needed the newest red plastic box with characters like Pongo and Perdita on the front. I know I’m not alone here — I bet you loved your first lunch box, too.

C) Lunch boxes have been connecting kids to cartoons and TV shows and super-heroes for decades. But it wasn’t always that way. Once upon a time, they weren’t even boxes. As schools have changed in the past century, the midday meal container has evolved right along with them.

D) Let’s start back at the beginning of the 20th century — the beginning of the lunch box story, really. While there were neighborhood schools in cities and suburbs, one-room schoolhouses were common in rural areas. As grandparents have been saying for generations, kids would travel miles to school in the countryside (often on foot).

E) “You had kids in rural areas who couldn’t go home from school for lunch, so bringing your lunch wrapped in a cloth, in oiled paper, in a little wooden box or something like that was a very long-standing rural tradition.” says Paula Johnson, head of food history section at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D. C.

F) City kids, on the other hand, went home for lunch and came back. Since they rarely carried a meal, the few metal lunch buckets on the market were mainly for tradesmen and factory workers.

G) After World War Ⅱ , a bunch of changes reshaped schools—and lunches. More women joined the workforce. Small schools consolidated into larger ones, meaning more students were farther away from home. And the NationalSchool Lunch Act in 1946 made cafeterias much more common. Still, there wasn’t much of a market for lunch containers — yet. Students who carried their lunch often did so in a re-purposed bucket or tin of some kind.

H) And then everything changed in the year of 1950. You might as well call it the Year of the Lunch Box, thanks in large part to a genius move by a Nashville-based manufacturer Aladdin Industries. The company already made square metal meal containers, the kind workers carried, and some had started to show up in the hands of school kids.

 I) But these containers were really durable, lasting years on end. That was great for the consumer, not so much for the manufacturer. So executives at Aladdin hit on an idea that would harness the newfound popularity of television. They covered lunch boxes with striking red paint and added a picture of TV and radio cowboy Hopalong Cassidy on the front.

J) The company sold 600,000 units the first year. It was a major “Ah-ha!” moment, and a wave of other manufacturers jumped on board to capitalize on new TV shows and movies. “The Partridge Family, the Addams Family, the Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman — everything that was on television ended up on a lunch box,” says Allen Woodall. He’s the founder of the Lunch Box Museum in Columbus, Georgia. “It was a great marketing tool because kids were taking that TV show to school with them, and then when they got home they had them captured back on TV,” he says.

K) And yes, you read that right: There is a lunch box museum, right near the Chattahoochee River. Woodall has more than 2,000 items on display. His favorite? The Green Hornet lunch box, because he used to listen to the radio show back in the 1940s.

L) The new trend was also a great example of planned obsolescence, that is, to design a product so that it will soon become unfashionable or impossible to use and will need replacing. Kids would beg for a new lunch box every year to keep up with the newest characters, even if their old lunch box was perfectly usable.

M) The metal lunch box craze lasted until the mid-1980s, when plastic took over. Two theories exist as to why. The first — and most likely — is that plastic had simply become cheaper. The second theory — possibly an urban myth — is that concerned parents in several states proposed bans on metal lunch boxes, claiming kids were using them as “weapons” to hit one another. There’s a lot on the internet about a state-wide ban in Florida, but a few days worth of digging by a historian at the Florida State Historical Society found no such legislation. Either way, the metal lunch box was out.

N) The last few decades have brought a new lunch box revolution, of sorts. Plastic boxes changed to lined cloth sacks, and eventually, globalism brought tiffin containers from India and bento boxes from Japan. Even the old metal lunch boxes have regained popularity. “I don’t think the heyday ( 鼎盛时期) has passed,’’ says D. J. Jayasekara, owner and founder of lunchbox. com, a retailer in Pasadena, California. “I think it has evolved. The days of the ready-made, ‘you stick it in a lunch box and carry it to school’ are kind of done. ”

O) The introduction of backpacks changed the lunch box scene a bit, he adds. Once kids started carrying book bags, that bulky traditional lunch box was hard to fit inside. “But you can’t just throw a sandwich in a backpack,” Jayasekara says. “It still has to go into a container.” That is, in part, why smaller and softer containers have taken off — they fit into backpacks.

P) And don’t worry — whether it’s a plastic bento box or a cloth bag, lunch containers can still easily be covered with popular culture. “We keep pace with the movie industries so we can predict which characters are going to be popular for the coming months,” Jayasekara says. “You know, kids are kids.”

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   1    Lunch containers were not necessary for school kids in cities.

   2    Putting TV characters on lunch boxes proved an effective marketing strategy.

   3    Smaller lunch boxes are preferred because they fit easily into backpacks.

   4    Lunch boxes have evolved along with the transformation of schools.

   5   Around the beginning of the nineteen fifties, some school kids started to use metal meal containers.

   6    School kids are eager to get a new lunch box every year to stay in fashion.

   7    Rural kids used to walk a long way to school in the old days.

   8    The author was proud of using a lunch box in her childhood.

   9   The most probable reason for the popularity of plastic lunch boxes is that they are less expensive.

   10    The durability of metal meal containers benefited consumers.

36. 午餐盒对城市里的学生来说不是必需品。

解析 F。由kids in cities 可定位至F 段。另一方面，城里的孩子回家吃午饭，然后返回学校。由于他们很少带午饭，市场上为数不多的金属午餐盒主要是为商人和工厂工人准备的。由此可知，城里的孩子并不需要午餐盒，题干中的kids in cities 对应City kids，not necessary 对应rarely carried a meal，故F 为正确答案。

37. 事实证明，把电视人物印在饭盒上是一种有效的营销策略。

解析 J。由TV characters on lunch boxes 和marketing 可定位至J 段。第1 句说到，公司第一年就售出了60 万个午餐盒，这个数额令人震惊，其他一些制造商也纷纷加入进来，利用新的电视节目和电影获利。最后1 句引用艾伦· 伍德尔的话，表示这是一种很好的营销方法， 因为孩子们可以把电视节目里的人物和午餐盒一起带到学校，然后当他们回家时，他们又能在电视上看到这些节目了。由此可知，把电视人物印在饭盒上是一种有效的营销策略，能大幅度提升销量。题干中的an effective marketing strategy 是a great marketing tool 的同义替换， 故J 为正确答案。

38. 较小的午餐盒更受欢迎，因为它们很容易装进背包里。

解析 O。由Smaller lunch boxes 和fit into backpacks 可定位至O 段最后1 句。这就是更小、更便携的容器受欢迎的原因之一——它们容易放进背包。题干中的Small lunch boxes 对应smaller and softer containers，fit into backpacks 在原文复现，故O 为正确答案。

39. 午餐盒随着学校的转变而发展。

解析 C。由Lunch boxes have evolved 和the transformation of schools 可定位至C 段最后1 句。在过去的一个世纪里，随着学校的变化，午餐盒也随之演变。题干中的Lunch boxes have evolved 对应the midday meal container has evolved， 题干中的the transformation of schools 是As schools have changed 的同义替换，故C 为正确答案。

40. 大约在20 世纪50 年代初，一些学生开始使用金属饭盒。

解析 H。由Around the beginning of the nineteen fifties 可定位至H 段第1 句。在1950 年， 一切都变了。纳什维尔制造商阿拉丁工业公司制作了工人同款的方形金属饭盒，其中一些已经送到学生手中。由此可知，一些学生从1950 年左右开始使用金属饭盒。题干中的Around the beginning of the nineteen fifties 对应the year of 1950，题干中的some school kids started to use metal meal containers 是some had started to show up in the hands of school kids 的同义替换， 故H 为正确答案。

41. 学校的孩子们每年都渴望一个新的午餐盒，以跟上潮流。

解析 L。由a new lunch box every year 可定位至L 段最后1 句。孩子们每年都想要一个新的午餐盒，以跟上最新的角色，即使他们的旧午餐盒是完全可用的。题干中的are eager to get 是beg for 的同义替换，a new lunch box every year 在原文中复现，题干中的stay in fashion 对应keep up with the newest characters，故L 为正确答案。

42. 过去，农村孩子上学要走很长的路。

解析 D。由walk a long way to school 可定位至D 段最后1 句。正如祖父母几代人一直讲述的那样，孩子们需要走（通常情况下步行）好几英里去乡下上学。题干中的Rural kids 是kids in the countryside 的同义替换，walk a long way to school 对应would travel miles to school (often on foot)，故D 为正确答案。

43. 作者以童年使用午餐盒为荣。

解析 A。由The author 和proud of 可定位至A 段。我的午餐盒是我小时候最喜爱的、珍视的物品之一，我对幼儿园里每个人骄傲地宣告：“我喜欢午餐盒上的美人鱼爱丽儿。”由此可知，作者以童年使用午餐盒为荣。题干中的was proud of 是a proud statement 的同义替换，故A 为正确答案。

44. 塑料饭盒受欢迎最可能的原因是它们更便宜。

解析 M。由popularity、plastic lunch boxes 和less expensive 可定位至M 段第3 句。金属饭盒的狂热一直持续到20 世纪80 年代中期，直到塑料代替了金属。关于这一情况的原因，存在两种理论。首先，也是最有可能的原因，是塑料价格更低。由此可知，塑料饭盒受欢迎最可能的原因是它们更便宜。题干中的The most probable reason 对应most likely，less expensive 是cheaper 的同义替换，故M 为正确答案。

45. 金属饭盒的耐用性使消费者受益。

解析 I。由durability 和benefited consumers 可定位至I 段第1-2 句。但是这些午餐盒真的很耐用，一用就是好几年。这对消费者来说是好事，但对制造商来说却并非如此。由此可知，金属饭盒的耐用性使消费者受益。题干中的durability 是durable 的同义替换，题干中的benefited consumer 对应was great for the consumer，故I 为正确答案。