APPENDIX # 4

UNIVERSIDAD DE SUCRE

Curso: Comprensión de textos en Inglés. Sesión 1: ________________________

Docente: Francisco Sánchez

Tema: Prediction, details and scanning

READING COMPREHENSION

Prediction BEFORE YOU READ

Mark with a (X) the information you think you will read about in the text.

1. What are the traditional foods in the world _____

2. How can be prepared foods _____

3. How is food preservation _____

4. What kinds of food preservations there are _____

5. History of food preservation _____

6. Benefits of food preservation _____

Scanning READING

Scan the text to check your predictions. Then read the whole text.

FOOD

1. Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats,

water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human for
nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals
or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol. Although
many human cultures sought food items through hunting and gathering, today
most cultures use farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other
methods of a local nature included but playing a minor role.

2. Most traditions have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions,

preferences, and practices, the study of which is known as gastronomy. Many cultures have
diversified their foods by means of preparation, cooking methods and manufacturing. This also
includes a complex food trade which helps the cultures to economically survive by-way-of food,
not just by consumption.

FOOD PRESERVATION

3. Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food in a way that
preserves its edibility and nutrition value. The main effort is to stop or greatly
slow down spoilage to prevent foodborne illness (e.g. salting, cooling, cooking).
 However some methods utilize benign bacteria, yeasts or fungi to add specific qualities and to
preserve food (e.g. cheese, wine). While maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and
flavour is important in preserving its value as food; this is a culturally dependent determinant as
what qualifies as food fit for humans in one culture may not qualify in another culture.

4. Preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi and other micro-
organisms, as well as retarding the oxidation of fats which cause rancidity. It also includes
processes to inhibit natural ageing and discoloration that can occur during food preparation such as
the enzymatic browning reaction in apples which causes browning when apples are cut. Some
preservation methods require the food to be sealed after treatment to prevent re-contamination with
microbes; others, such as drying, allow food to be stored without any special containment for long
periods.

5. Common methods of applying these processes include drying, spray drying, freeze drying,
freezing, vacuum-packing, canning, preserving in syrup, sugar crystallization, food irradiation,
adding preservatives or inert gases such as carbon dioxide. Other methods that not only help to
preserve food, but also add flavour, include pickling, salting, smoking, preserving in syrup or
alcohol, sugar crystallization and curing.

AFTER YOU READ

Write the number of the paragraph that answers the following questions. Then underline it in the
text.

1. What is the meaning of Food? ___1_

Understandi
ng details 2. What is the meaning of Gastronomy? _______

3. What is food preservation? ______

4. What do preservation methods help to avoid in foods? _______

5. How can food be preserved? _____

6. What other methods help to preserve foods? _____

Write in each statement F for False or T for True

1. The methods pickling, salting, and smoking only preserve food F

Understandi
ng details
2. Preservation helps to prevent the growth of bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms ___

3. Farming, ranching, fishing, and hunting can be sourced to seek for food ___

4. The main effort of food preservation is to stop or greatly slow down spoilage to prevent
foodborne illness ___

5. The oxidation is not so important in food preservation ___

 6. There is only one kind of preservation and from that are subdivided the others ones ___

7. What for some cultures can qualify as food fit for human might not for another culture ___

Answer the following questions

Relating
reading to 1. Do you like eating canned food?
personal 2. Do you think it is good for your health to eat canned food?
experience
3. Is food preservation safe for people?