2

1. Answers will vary. Make sure students understand

that food from other countries can refer to food
cooked at home or food eaten in a restaurant.
Note that it’s common for foreign food to be
changed somewhat to adapt to the tastes of the
people eating it. Sometimes it becomes a whole
new cuisine, such as Tex-Mex in the United States
or Japanese curry in Japan.
2. Answers will vary. Spicy dishes usually contain
chili peppers of some variety. Some examples of
spicy foods include various types of curry, kimchi,
tom yum soup, bibimbap, and jerk chicken.

U2-p.21
˄ Many people believe pizzas were first made by the Greeks. Pictures like this
one show the Romans made them, too. They made large, round pieces of
bread and put food, olive oil, and spices on them.
U2A-p.22
Before You Read

A. Quiz. What do you know about pizza? Look at the pictures and
captions on pages 22–24. Then answer the questions below.

1. Who made the first pizza?

2. Name some things people put on pizza.
3. What is your favorite pizza topping?

1. According to the caption on page 22, many

people believe the Greeks were the first to make
pizza, but the Romans also made it. The passage
tells us that pizza-type food was made as long
ago as the Stone Age.
2. Answers will vary. Olive oil and spices are
mentioned in the caption, but others include
cheese, sausage, vegetables, anchovies, and
pepperoni.
3. Answers will vary.

U2A-p.22
 Predictions may vary, but students should be
able to make guesses using the title and
subheadings.
B. Predict. Read the title and subheadings on pages 23–24. Check
(✓) the questions you think the passage answers.

✓Where is pizza from?

 What kind of pizza do most people like?

✓When did people first put tomatoes on pizza?

U2A-p.22
2A

U2A-p.23
Today, pizza is one of the world’s favorite foods. All over the world,
people make different pizzas, with different ingredients. But where
does pizza come from? And who made the first one?

▌The First Pizza

People have been making pizza for a very long time. In the Stone
Age,1 some people mixed flour2 with water to make dough. Then
they cooked it on hot rocks. Over time, people started using the
cooked dough as a plate, covering it with various other foods,
herbs, and spices.3 They had made the world’s first pizza.

1 The Stone Age is a very early time in human history when people used things made
of stone.
2 Flour is powder made from the seeds of wheat or corn.
3 Herbs and spices are used to add taste to food.

U2A-p.23
▌A New Ingredient

Then—in the early 1500s—European explorers brought the first

tomatoes back from the Americas. Tomatoes are a basic ingredient in
many pizzas today. At first, however, most Europeans thought eating
tomatoes would make them sick. So, for about 200 years, few people
ate them.

Slowly, people learned that tomatoes were safe to eat, as well as tasty.
In the early 19th century, cooks in Naples, Italy, started the tradition of
putting tomatoes on baking dough. The flat bread soon became a
favorite food for poor people all over Naples. In 1830, a cook in Naples
took another big step in the history of pizza—he opened the world’s first
pizza restaurant.

U2A-p.24
▌A World Food
Today, about five billion pizzas are made every year around the world. In
the U.S. alone, people eat about 350 slices every second! People may
not know it, but every piece is a slice of history.

U2A-p.24
Reading Comprehension

Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer for each question.

Main Idea 1. What is the main idea of the passage?

a. Stone Age people made the first pizza.
b. Pizza was an important food in Naples, in Italy.
c. Pizza has a long history and has changed over time.
Detail 2. What does people started using the cooked dough as a plate
(lines 7–8) mean?
a. People put other foods on top of the dough.
b. People cooked the pizza dough on hot rocks.
c. People used the same pizza dough again and again.
Paraphrase 3. In lines 16–17, the phrase safe to eat, as well as tasty could be
replaced with ______ .
a. only safe when they tasted good
b. safe to eat, and they tasted good
c. good to eat if they were cooked well

U2A-p.25
Vocabulary 4. In line 17, the word century refers to ______ .
a. 50 years
b. 100 years
c. 200 years
Detail 5. Who were the first people to put tomatoes on pizza?
a. people in the U.S.
b. people in Naples, Italy
c. people in the Stone Age.
Inference 6. Which of the following sentences is likely to be true?
a. Tomatoes were a basic ingredient in pizzas in the 1700s.
b. The first pizzas in Naples didn’t cost much money.
c. Europeans in the 1500s didn't like the taste of tomatoes.

Did You Know?

The world’s largest
pizza was made in
Italy. It was about
40 meters (131 feet)
across.
U2A-p.25
Reading Skill
Identifying the Parts of a Passage

U2A-p.26
A. Identifying. Look back at the passage on pages 23–24. Which parts
of a passage are used there? Check (✓) the parts you can find.


✓a title ✓photos  a globe

✓subheadings  illustrations  a map

✓a main text ✓captions ✓footnotes

B. Scan. Look back at the passage again, and answer the questions
below.

1. How many paragraphs are there? (3 / 5)

2. How many headings are there? (4 / 6)
3. Does every picture have a caption? (Yes / No)
4. How many footnotes are there? (3 / 5)
5. Is there a globe or map? (Yes / No)

U2A-p.26
Critical Thinking

Discuss with a partner. Why do you think pizza is so popular? Do you

think pizza is good for you? Why or why not?

Answers will vary. Pizza is not generally considered a

healthy food these days, but it can be made healthier
with the addition of nutritious toppings.

U2A-p.26
Vocabulary Practice

A. Words in Context. Complete each sentence with the correct answer.

b 1. If you are poor, you have _______________ money.

a. a lot of b. only a little
a 2. An example of something flat is _______________.
a. a piece of paper b. a ball
b 3. To cook food, you usually make it __________.
a. cold b. hot
b 4. A tradition is _______________ way to do something.
a. a new b. an old
a 5. An example of a basic food is _______________.
a. bread or rice b. chocolate cake
˄ A hamburger

U2A-p.27
B. Completion. Complete the information below with words from the box. One
word is extra.

cook flat ingredient tasty traditional various

Who Made the First Hamburger?

various people who say the first hamburger
Around the world, there are 1. __________
was made in their country. For example:
cook
Some say that in the 1200s, Mongolian soldiers had no time to 2. __________
their food. So they put meat under their saddles1 to make it soft and flat, like
the patties in hamburgers today.
Others in Hamburg, Germany, say hamburgers came from “Hamburg steak”—
traditional German dish. The main 4. ____________
a(n) 3. ___________ ingredient in this dish is
salty meat, which is put on bread.

1 A saddle is a seat for a rider that is placed on a horse’s back.

U2A-p.27
 cook flat ingredient tasty traditional various

One story says, in 1885, a man named Charles Nagreen was selling
meatballs at a U.S. fair. The meatballs were very 5. _____________,
tasty
but were hard to eat while walking. So Nagreen put them between
pieces of bread. Without knowing it, he had made a new type of food.
Which story is true? No one knows for sure.

Word Partnership Use basic with: (n.) basic skills, basic

needs, basic training, basic questions.

U2A-p.27
U2B-p.28
Before You Read

A. True or False. Look at the information above. Then mark each sentence
below as true (T) or false (F).

1. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is hotter than the T F

Dorset Naga.
2. The Scoville is a type of chili pepper. T F
3. Tabasco peppers are hotter than jalapeños. T F
4. Sweet bell peppers have a very high SHU level. T F

B. Scan. In Assam, India, a woman named Anandita Dutta Tamuly likes to eat
very hot chilies. Quickly scan the passage on the next page. Which of the
chilies above is she famous for eating?
Naga Jolokia, or “Ghost Peppers”

U2B-p.28
 1B
You may have experienced the feeling—your
mouth feels like it’s on fire, and the heat
causes your eyes to water. You’ve just eaten
one of nature’s hottest foods—the chili pepper!

Chili peppers, also called chilies, are found in

dishes around the world. They are in dishes
like Indian curries, Thai tom yum soup, and
Mexican enchiladas. Chilies come from the
capsicum plant. They are “hot” because they
contain something called capsaicin.

Capsaicin is very good for your health. It helps

you breathe better, and it may even help keep
you fit: Capsaicin makes you feel less hungry.
It also makes your body burn more
calories.1
1 Calories are units used to measure the energy value of food.
U2B-p.29
We can measure the heat of chilies in units called
Scoville heat units (SHU). The world’s hottest chili
is the Carolina Reaper. It sometimes measures up
to 2 million SHU!

Eating a hot chili can be painful, but some people

really like to eat them. Recently, Anandita Dutta
Tamuly, a woman from Assam, India, became
famous for eating chilies. She ate 51 hot peppers
in just two minutes! The peppers she ate were
Naga Jolokia (“Ghost Peppers”). They grow in
Assam and are the third hottest chilies in the
world.

˄ Anandita Dutta Tamuly eats a

tray full of Naga Jolokia,
“ghost peppers.”

U2B-p.29
“I found eating chilies was a great way to stay healthy,” says
Tamuly. She began eating chilies when she was a child. She
eats chilies when she is sick, too. “Every time I have a cold or
flu, I just munch on2 some chilies and I feel better. To be
honest,3 I barely notice them now.”

2 If you munch on food, you eat it, often noisily.

3 If someone is honest, they tell the truth.

U2B-p.29
Reading Comprehension

Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer for each question.

Gist 1. What is the reading mainly about?

a. how to eat very hot chili peppers
b. interesting facts about hot chili peppers
c. ideas for cooking using chili peppers
Purpose 2. What is the purpose of the third paragraph (from line 10)?
a. to explain why eating chilies is painful
b. to show the effect of chilies on the mind
c. to inform you about how chilies are good for you
Detail 3. How is capsaicin good for your health?
a. It helps you breathe better.
b. It makes you feel happier.
c. It makes you feel hungrier.

U2B-p.30
 Detail 4. How many SHUs are in the world’s hottest chili pepper?
a. up to 1,000,000
b. up to 2,000,000
c. up to 3,000,000
Detail 5. Which of the following sentences about Anandita Dutta Tamuly
is true?
a. She is making a movie about Naga Jolokia chilies.
b. She uses Naga Jolokia chilies to help sick people.
c. She started eating Naga Jolokia chilies as a child.
Paraphrase 6. In line 27, the phrase I barely notice them now can be replaced
with ______.
a. I usually don’t eat hot chilies anymore
b. I feel the heat of the chilies even more now
c. I almost don’t feel the heat of the chilies now

Did You Know?

It’s a tradition in
Mexico to put chilies
on Christmas trees.
U2B-p.30
Reading Skill
Pronoun Reference

U2B-p.31
A. Reference. In each sentence, draw an arrow between the pronoun in
bold and the word it refers to, as in the example above.

1. The jalapeño is a popular chili from Mexico. It takes its name from
Jalapa, in Veracruz.

2. My brother and sister asked my mother not to put chilies in the food
she made.

3. After Europeans brought chilies from the Americas, they spread very
quickly around the world.

4. The cayenne pepper is hotter than the sweet bell pepper, but it isn’t as
hot as the Carolina Reaper.

5. Indians put chili peppers in many of their dishes. They often add them
to curries.

U2B-p.31
B. Reference. Look back at the passage on page 29. Find the following
sentences in the passage, and write the word each pronoun in bold
refers to.

1. It helps you breathe better. (lines it = ____________________

Capsaicin
10–11)
2. She began eating chilies when she =Anandita Dutta Tamuly
____________________
she was a child. (line 24)
3. To be honest, I barely notice them chilies (the heat of
them = ____________________
now. (line 27) the chilies)

˂ People in the Americas were

eating chilies as early as
7,500 B.C.

U2B-p.31
Critical Thinking

Discuss with a partner. What do you like or dislike about chili

peppers? Why do you think Anandita Dutta Tamuly ate so many Naga
Jolokia peppers?

Answers will vary. Students should support their ideas

and opinions with reasons and examples.

U2B-p.31
Vocabulary Practice

A. Completion. Complete the information below with words from the box.

contains dishes measure painful recently

They may not look very tasty, but some types of cactus plants can be
eaten and are very healthy. In Mexico, nopalitos—young stems of the
cactus—have been eaten for hundreds of years.

Eating cactus has 1. _____________

recently become more and more popular
outside of Mexico. There are many tasty and healthy 2. _____________
dishes
that use cactus stems. One easy way to cook them is in a pan, in some
oil. This is how to do it.

• Clean and cut up the cactus stems. Watch out for the sharp parts of
the plant! You don’t want to cut yourself. That could be quite
3. _____________.
painful

U2B-p.32
contains dishes measure painful recently

• Next, 4. _____________
measure how much oil you need.
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the pieces of cactus.
Add some salt and cover the pan to let the
cactus cook.

contains
• The cactus 5. _____________ a strange liquid.
Cook the cactus until all the liquid comes out and
dries up. After that, the rest of the cactus stem
can be eaten.

˄ In a Mexican market, a man

cuts and cleans cactus stems.

U2B-p.32
B. Definitions. Match the words in red with their definitions.

c 1. plant • • a. a short time ago

b 2. hungry • • b. having a need for food
d 3. measure • • c. a living thing that grows in the ground
a 4. recently • • d. to find out something’s length, height, etc.
e 5. experience • • e. to do or see something, or have it happen
to you

Word Partnership Use painful with: (n.) painful cut, painful

experience, painful reminder, painful memory.

U2B-p.32
Before You Watch
A. Definitions. Look at the picture and read the caption. Pay attention to the
words in bold. Then match them with their definitions below.
˂ The land around the historic city of Oaxaca
(/ /) in Mexico is very hard for people
to move across. So, many of the native 1
cultures in this region— some that have
developed for over 13,000 years—have
been kept safe. This means their traditions,
as well as their unique foods, are still around
today. In fact, it is this complex mix of native
traditions and cultures that makes Oaxacan
food—for example, the seven types of mole2
it is famous for—one of a kind.

1 If something is native to a place, it

originally comes from there.
2 Mole is a kind of sauce that has chilies
and often chocolate in it.

Viewing-p.33
 historic
1. ________________: famous or important in history
develop
2. ________________: grew; slowly started to exist
ed
3. ________________: having many parts, often different from each other
complex
4. ________________: the ideas and traditions of different groups of people
cultures

B. Predict. You will hear the following words in the video.

traditions dishes ingredients chocolate dances national treasures

What do you think the video will be about? Discuss your ideas with a partner.

Answers will vary. Students should support their

guesses and ideas with reasons.

Viewing-p.33
While You Watch

Checking. As you watch the video, check your answers in Before You
Watch B. Were your ideas correct?

The video focuses on the food and traditions of a part

of Mexico called Oaxaca.

Viewing-p.33
 After You Watch

A. Completion. Complete the word web with words and phrases from the box.

Loves Started her own The Guelaguetza

chilies
1. __________ 2.cooking school
_______________

About the culture,

Susana history
6. __________,
Dances and music of Oaxaca
Trilling
A Taste of
Developed a long
Mexico
time before people
came from Food Buildings 500 years old
Europe
3. __________

mole
5. __________ Government
Has many different Many are Mexican
is a standard part building (now a
4. ingredients
____________ national
7. __________
hotel
8. __________)
treasures

Viewing-p.34
B. Discuss. Discuss these questions with a partner.

1. What traditions about food do you have in your country?

2. If you could go to a cooking school, what kind of cooking
would you want to learn?

Answers will vary. Students should support

their opinions with reasons and examples.

˂ A Zapotec woman makes

traditional tamales. The
Zapotec people are one of
Oaxaca’s native cultures.

Viewing-p.34
Explore More

Read the writing prompt. Visit the website to research information. Then plan your
paragraph response.

Can you describe five kinds of potatoes?

Click the link to visit National Geographic News and look at the photos and
captions.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/potato-variety
2A Vocabulary Definitions
ingredient (n.) one of the things that are used to make a food, product, etc.
cook (v.) to prepare food for eating, especially by means of heat
various (adj.) of different kinds
basic (adj.) forming or relating to the first or most important part of
something
tasty (adj.) having good flavor; pleasant to the taste
tradition (n.) a way of thinking or doing something that has been used by
the people in a particular group for a long time
flat (adj.) having a level surface, without raised areas
poor (adj.) having little or no money
2B Vocabulary Definitions
experience (v.) to do or see (something) or have (something) happen to you
dish (n.) food that is prepared in a particular way
plant (n.) a living thing that grows in the ground, usually has leaves or
flowers
contain (v.) to have as contents or parts; include
hungry (adj.) having an uncomfortable feeling in your stomach because
you need food
measure (v.) to ascertain the extent, quantity, etc. of (something), especially
by comparison with a standard
painful (adj.) feeling or giving pain
recently (adv.) not long ago