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Kate: Today, we learned about *depopulation at school. The same thing is
happening in this town, right?
Yuta : Yes. Young people go to cities and old people stay in towns. Last
week, my father told me an interesting story of Mr. Yokoishi.
Kate: Who is he?
Yuta :He is a farm leader in a town in Shikoku. He has done that job since
he left college. He was worried about depopulation in his town and
was thinking of a good way for old people to have a happy life. One
day, he had a good idea.
Kate: What was that?
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Yuta :One day Mr. Yokoishi went to a Japanese restaurant with his friends.
There he saw some food with *leaves on one *plate. Suddenly he
had a great idea. He asked the *cook, “How did you get the leaves?"
The cook answered that he always went into the mountains to get
them. Then Mr. Yokoishi thought,
の
(ア the old people
イ it 15
ウ for
I easy
オ will be ) in my town to find leaves. They
know a lot about mountains and many kinds of leaves.” And he also
thought, “They can sell leaves to Japanese restaurants.
Kate:I see. His idea was to sell leaves. Why are leaves put on the plates?
Yuta: Because food looks more beautiful when we see it with leaves.
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Kate:So Japanese restaurants need them.
Yuta : Yes. He told。his idea to the old people in his town. At first, they
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didn't think they could do such a thing. But some of them thought
walking around the mountains to find beautiful leaves is good to
*stay healthy. So they decided to sell leaves with Mr. Yokoishi. Mr. 25
Yokoishi taught them the way of using a computer. Now, they can
take *orders from all over Japan on the Internet.
Kate: That's great! Do the old people in the town have a happier life now?
Yuta : Yes. And they stay healthier, too.
