Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
The twentieth century has brought with it many advances. With those advances, human lives have changed dramatically. In some ways life is worse, but mostly it is better. Changes in food preparation methods, for example, have improved our lives greatly.
二十世纪带来了许多进步。随着这些进步，人类的生活发生了巨大的变化。在某些方面，生活更糟，但大多数情况下是更好的。例如，食物制备方法的改变极大地改善了我们的生活。
The convenience of preparing food today is amazing. Even stoves have gotten too slow for us. Microwave cooking is much easier. We can press a few buttons and a meal is completely cooked in just a short time. People used to spend hours preparing an oven-cooked meal, and now they can use that time for other, better things. Plus, there are all kinds of portable, prepackaged foods we can buy. Heat them in the office microwave, and lunch at work is quick and easy.
今天准备食物的便利性令人惊叹。甚至炉子对我们来说也太慢了。微波炉烹调要容易得多。我们可以按几个按钮，一顿饭很快就熟了。过去人们花几个小时准备一顿烤箱煮的饭，现在他们可以把这段时间用在其他更好的事情上。另外，我们还可以买到各种便携式的、预先包装的食品。在办公室的微波炉里加热，工作时的午餐又快又容易。
Food preparation today allows for more variety. With refrigerators and freezers, we can preserve a lot of different foods in our homes. Since technology makes cooking so much faster, people are willing to make several dishes for even a small meal. Parents are more likely to let children be picky, now that they can easily heat them up some prepackaged macaroni and cheese on the side. Needless to say, adults living in the same house may have very different eating habits as well. If they don't want to cook a lot of different dishes, it's common now to eat out at restaurants several times a week.
今天的食物准备允许更多的种类。有了冰箱和冰柜，我们可以在家里保存很多不同的食物。由于科技使烹饪速度更快，人们甚至愿意为一顿小饭做几道菜。父母更可能让孩子挑食，因为他们可以很容易地把一些预先包装好的通心粉和奶酪放在一边加热。不用说，住在同一所房子里的成年人也可能有非常不同的饮食习惯。如果他们不想做很多不同的菜，那么现在每周去餐馆吃几次饭是很普遍的事情了。
Healthful eating is also easier than ever now. When people cook, they use new fat substitutes and cooking sprays to cut fat and calories. This reduces the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol. Additionally, we can buy fruits and vegetable fresh, frozen or canned. They are easy to prepare, so many of us eat more of those nutritious items daily. A hundred years ago, you couldn't imagine the process of taking some frozen fruit and ice from the freezer, adding some low-fat yogurt from a plastic cup and some juice from a can in the refrigerator, and whipping up a low-fat smoothie in the blender!
健康饮食也比以往任何时候都容易。当人们做饭时，他们使用新的脂肪替代品和烹饪喷雾来减少脂肪和卡路里。这降低了患心脏病和高胆固醇的风险。此外，我们还可以购买新鲜的、冷冻的或罐装的水果和蔬菜。它们很容易准备，所以我们中的许多人每天都要吃更多的这些有营养的东西。一百年前，你无法想象从冰箱里取出一些冷冻水果和冰块，从塑料杯里加入一些低脂酸奶，从冰箱里的罐头里加入一些果汁，然后在搅拌机里搅出低脂冰沙的过程！
Our lifestyle is fast, but people still like good food. What new food preparation technology has given us is more choices. Today, we can prepare food that is more convenient, healthier, and of greater variety than ever before in history.
我们的生活方式很快，但人们仍然喜欢美食。新的食品制备技术给了我们更多的选择。今天，我们可以准备比历史上任何时候都更方便、更健康、品种更丰富的食物