Why does one ripe banana speed up the whole fruit bowl?
A single ripe banana is quietly gassing every fruit around it into ripening faster.
Ripe bananas and other climacteric fruit give off ethylene, a plant hormone in gas form. That gas tells nearby fruit to start ripening - softening, sweetening, and changing color - and the ripening fruit then makes even more ethylene, so the effect snowballs.
Drop one spotty banana into a bowl of green avocados and by tomorrow they are soft and ready, days ahead of schedule.
Want fruit to ripen fast? Bag it with a banana. Want it to last? Keep ripe bananas away from it.
You can speed up hard avocados or slow down a fruit bowl just by choosing what sits next to what.
Ripe banana = a gas leak that ripens whatever is nearby.
Learn the idea and practice English at the same time.