Beep! Beep! Barcode (条形码) makes it faster and easier to buy things in stores. This year, it is 50 years old!

On a Sunday afternoon in 1971, IBM engineer George Laurer thought of a code that could be printed on food labels(商标). Later it developed into the Universal Product Code, which was used by many grocery companies starting in 1973, according to The New York Times. Before this, cashiers (收银员) had to ring up prices by hand.

Today, barcodes are scanned over 6 billion times every day and used by 2 million companies worldwide. What information does a barcode hold? Where the product comes from, where it has been, its price... you name it. It can also help stores keep track of(追踪) their products. For example, if there are 10 boxes of milk and a customer buys one, it will be recorded so that the store owner knows there are nine boxes left. In the 1980s, libraries started using barcodes to keep track of books in this way.

The next generation of barcodes, such as QRcodes, can hold more information. They can tell customers if product has allergens (过敏原) or if it is organic (有机的). This provides customers with a greater level of trust in the products they buy.

【小题1】How old is the barcode?
_____________________________________________________
【小题2】How did the cashiers ring up prices before 1973?
_____________________________________________________
【小题3】Why did libraries start using barcodes?
_____________________________________________________
【小题4】What can the next generation of barcodes tell customers?
_____________________________________________________
【小题5】What does the passage mainly tell us?
_____________________________________________________