Dig for the meaning

Read the following text.

If, as it was in our grandfathers' time, gardening remains one of the most popular pastimes in Britain, one must at least remark on the change of attitude on the part of gardeners in recent years. It is no longer a question of merely growing enough fruit and vegetables to provide food in the winter and flowers to give colour in the summer. Changes in our eating habits together with the advent of the freezer, plus the availability of new varieties of seeds, have led to this new approach. Now the aim is to sow quick-growing, more exotic items and value them for their price-saving rather than life-saving qualities.

Even with the basic root-crops, carrots being the prime example, this may now be observed. They are sown in early summer and pulled in August while still very small in size as this leaves the ground free to bear another crop before autumn.

Some words in the passage are in bold type. Can you explain what words or phrases of the passage they refer to?

Answers to `Dig for the meaning'

1. it gardening

2. it gardening

3. items fruit, vegetables and flowers

4. their fruit, vegetables and flowers

5. this the sowing of quick-growing items

6. They carrots

7. this pulling in August

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