Scribd
Upload
274 views4 pages

The Sense of Flavour 2

The passage discusses the human sense of taste and smell. It states that scientists believe taste evolved to help humans differentiate between edible and poisonous plants, with sweet tastes usually indicating edible plants and bitter tastes indicating poisonous ones. It also discusses how smell plays a major role in flavor perception, with aroma detected in the nose contributing up to 90% of the flavor experience. The passage traces the history and importance of flavor for empires, trade, and the development of the modern flavor industry.

Uploaded by

HOÀNG NHI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
274 views4 pages

The Sense of Flavour 2

The passage discusses the human sense of taste and smell. It states that scientists believe taste evolved to help humans differentiate between edible and poisonous plants, with sweet tastes usually indicating edible plants and bitter tastes indicating poisonous ones. It also discusses how smell plays a major role in flavor perception, with aroma detected in the nose contributing up to 90% of the flavor experience. The passage traces the history and importance of flavor for empires, trade, and the development of the modern flavor industry.

Uploaded by

HOÀNG NHI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Reading Practice

The sense of flavour 2


{A} Scientists now believe that human beings acquired the sense of taste as a way to avoid
being poisoned. Edible plants generally taste sweet; deadly ones, bitter. Taste is supposed
to help us differentiate food that’s good for us from food that’s not. The taste buds on our
tongues can detect the presence of half a dozen or so basic tastes, including sweet, sour,
bitter, salty, and umami (a taste discovered by Japanese researchers, a rich and full sense
of deliciousness triggered by amino acids in foods such as shellfish, mushrooms, potatoes,
and seaweed). Tastebuds offers a limited means of detection, however, compared with the
human olfactory system, which can perceive thousands of different chemical aromas.
Indeed, ‘flavor’ is primarily the smell of gases being released by the chemicals you’ve just
put in your mouth. The aroma of food can be responsible for as much as 90% of its flavor.

{B} The act of drinking, sucking or chewing a substance releases its volatile gases. They
flow out of the mouth and up the nostrils, or up the passageway at the back of the mouth,
to a thin layer of nerve cells called the olfactory epithelium, located at the base of the nose,
right between the eyes. The brain combines the complex smell signals from the epithelium
with the simple taste signals from the tongue, assigns a flavor to what’s in your mouth, and
decides if it’s something you want to eat.

{C} Babies like sweet tastes and reject bitter ones; we know this because scientists have
rubbed various flavors inside the mouths of infants and then recorded their facial reactions.
A person’s food preferences, like his or her personality, are formed during the first few
years of life, through a process of socialization. Toddlers can learn to enjoy hot and spicy
food, bland health food, or fast food, depending upon what the people around them eat.
The human sense of smell is still not fully understood. It is greatly affected by psychological
factors and expectations. The mind filters out the overwhelming majority of chemical
aromas that surround us, focusing intently on some, ignoring others. People can grow
accustomed to bad smells or good smells; they stop noticing what once seemed
overpowering.

{D} Aroma and memory are somehow inextricably linked. A smell can suddenly evoke a
long-forgotten moment. The flavours of childhood foods seem to leave an indelible mark,
and adults often return to them, without always knowing why. These ‘comfort foods’
become a source of pleasure and reassurance a fact that fast-food chains work hard to
promote Childhood memories of Happy Meals can translate into frequent adult visits to
McDonald’s’, like those of the chain’s ‘heavy users’, the customers who eat there four or
five times a week.

{E} The human craving for flavour has been a large unacknowledged and unexamined
force in history. Royal empires have been built, unexplored lands have been traversed,
great religions and philosophies have been forever changed by the spice trade. In 1492,
Christopher Columbus set sail in order to try to find new seasonings and thus to make his
fortune with this most desired commodity of that time. Today, the influence of flavour in the
world marketplace is no less decisive. The rise and fall of corporate empires – soft-drink
companies, snack-food companies, and fast-food chains – is frequently determined by how
their products taste.

Access http://mini-ielts.com for more practices 1


{F} The flavor industry emerged in the mid-1800s, as processed foods began to be
manufactured on a large scale. Recognizing the need for flavor additives, the early food
processors turned to perfume companies that had years of experience working with
essential oils and volatile aromas. The great perfume houses of England, France, and the
Netherlands produced many of the first flavor compounds. In the early part of the 20th
century, Germany’s powerful chemical industry assumed the lead in flavour production.
Legend has it that a German scientist discovered methyl anthranilate, one of the first
artificial flavours, by accident while mixing chemicals in his laboratory. Suddenly, the lab
was filled with the sweet smell of grapes. Methyl anthranilate later became the chief
flavoring compound of manufactured grape juice.

{G} The quality that people seek most of all in a food, its flavour, is usually present in a
quantity too infinitesimal to be measured by any traditional culinary terms such as ounces
or teaspoons. Today’s sophisticated spectrometers, gas chromatograph, and headspace
vapor analyzers provide a detailed map of a food’s flavour components, detecting chemical
aromas in amounts as low as one part per billion. The human nose, however, is still more
sensitive than any machine yet invented. A nose can detect aromas present in quantities of
a few parts per trillion. Complex aromas, such as those of coffee or roasted meat, may be
composed of gases from nearly a thousand different chemicals. The chemical that provides
the dominant flavour of bell pepper can be tasted in amounts as low as 0.02 parts per
billion; one drop is sufficient to add flavour to the amount of water needed to fill five
average-sized swimming pools

Access http://mini-ielts.com for more practices 2


Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in The Passage?

In boxes 1 – 5 on the answer sheet write


TRUE if the statement is True
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN If the information is not given in the passage
1..................... The brain determines which aromas we are aware of.

2.....................The sense of taste is as efficient as the sense of smell.

3.....................Personal tastes in food are developed in infancy.

4.....................Christopher Columbus found many different spices on his travels.

5.....................In the mid-1880s, man-made flavors were originally invented on purpose.

Questions 6-11
Complete the sentence below. Choose ONE word from The Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6 – 11 on your answer sheet

It is thought that the sense of taste was 6..................... in order to 7..................... the foods which
to us from those that are not 8...................... The sense of smell, which gives us the flavour we de
food, helps us to take pleasure in our food. Indeed this 9..................... for flavour was, in the past,
why so many explorers ventured to distant lands to bring back new 10......................which were g
after in Europe. Here they were used in cooking to enhance the usual 11.....................and unappe
eaten by rich and poor alike.

Question 12-13
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet

12. We associate certain smells with the past as they are 12.....................

13. Modern technology is able to help determine the minute quantities of 13.....................
found in food.

Access http://mini-ielts.com for more practices 3


Solution:
1. NOT GIVEN 8. GOOD
2. NOT GIVEN 9. AROMA
3. TRUE 10. SEASONINGS
4. NOT GIVEN 11. FLAVOUR
5. FALSE 12. INDELIBLE
13. CHEMICAL
6. ACQUIRED
AROMAS
7. DIFFERENTIATE

Access http://mini-ielts.com for more practices 4

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy