Quiz on Reading

Read the text about living longer and do the activities that follow
Living for a Century
The good news is that we can all expect to live both longer and healthier than aby other
generation in history. How well we age, however, is basically up to us!

The 20th century will probably be largely remembered for having the
highest increase in life expectancy in recorded history. The average
lifespan for men and women has now almost doubled. What’s more, this
seems to be continuing trend.
5 Not only are we living longer, but we are also living a far healthier
lifestyle. With record number of fit, healthy people reaching the age of 90
and over, it is becoming clear that negative predictions of a greying
population, troubled by increasing numbers of diseases as well as huge
medical bills, have been exaggerated.
Our view of what old age actually means has changed dramatically.
10
Many of today’s pensioners, compared to the elderly in days gone by,
tend to enjoy a quality of life without stress, travelling here, there and
everywhere, learning new skills, taking up different sports, starting
businesses and actively looking forward to each new day. Our actual
opinion of what is old and what is not old tends to change with the passing
15 of time as well as higher levels of longevity.
We can see that there are many different aspects affecting the ageing
process, including lifestyle, attitude social circumstances, and diet.
Studies carried out on mice, for example, have shown that intake of fewer
calories allowed mice to live up to 40% longer that those who ate as much
as they wanted. In human years, this is equal to 30 to more years of life.
20 The mice also stayed energetic longer, had better memories and lower
levels of cancer. Japanese people living on the island of Okinawa, in fact,
consume 20 per cent fewer calories than the rest of the population in
Japan and, as a result, have the highest population in centenarians
anywhere in the world.
25 The challenge the rest of us now face is how to delay the ageing
process. There are, in fact, two different aspects that we need to be aware
of, the one involving the natural passing of time and the other involving
the natural, physical ageing of the body. While we have no control over
our chronological age, we can, up to a point, do a lot to show down
biological ageing by taking the following advice
30
✓ Be optimistic
✓ Give up smoking
✓ Learn how to relax
✓ Have a sense of humour
✓ Do yoga to help posture
35
✓ Have a 30-minute walk each day
✓ Learn new skills to keep the mind active
 ✓ Have access to good medical facilities
✓ Avoid stress in order to improve health generally
✓ Mix with a variety of people of different ages
✓ Use suitable creams to protect the skin in summer
✓ Have at least five pieces of fruit and vegetables per day
40
✓ Improve diet by eating smaller portions, especially at
night
A. Choose the answer you think fits best for each question according to the text. Then, underline in
the text the fragments that justify your choice and indicate what question each fragment relates to
(4 x 2 = 8)
1. The writer feels that the increase in life expectancy
A. Is something that will continue
B. Was completely predictable
C. Was worrying trend
D. Has been exaggerated
2. According to the writer, life in old age is improving because
A. Older people are in better health
B. Record number attend fitness classes
C. The number of diseases is decreasing
D. People pay more for medical treatment
3. Research has shown that
A. Mice live 40% longer if they stay energetic
B. Eating fewer calories can help us live longer
C. Intake of calories helps older people live longer
D. Mice remembered more when they ate what they wanted
4. The writer recommends
A. Regular exercise to improve your mental skills
B. Socializing with people younger than yourself
C. Taking up yoga as a relaxation technique
D. Having regular medical check-ups.
B. Answer the following questions by writing complete sentences (3 x 2.5 = 7.5)
a. Which are the different factors regarding ageing that, in the writer’s view people should take
into account?
b. According to the writer’s recommendations, what should people not do in order to promote their
general well-being?
c. What is the writer’s view of growing old?
C. Explain the meaning of the following extract using your own words (2 points?
“Our view of what old age actually means has changed dramatically” (l. 14)
 Reading
You are going to read an article about the history of food.
1. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which best fits each gap (1-6). There is an extra
sentence which you do not need to use (6 x 1 = 6 points)
A. The avocado was known to the Maya, one of the ancient peoples of Mexico
B. Elsewhere, in Ecuador, there is evidence that chilis have been used in cooking for over
6,000 years.
C. At first the local people were shocked and believed that the animal and its riders were
the same creature.
D. This affected our diet and our languages
E. Instead they were grown for decoration
F. Supermarket shelves are full of evert imaginable type of fruit and vegetable
G. It was known in ancient times: Alexander the Great had encountered the fruit while he
was travelling in India.

The First Food Revolution

Can you imagine goulash, the national dish of Hungary, without its spicy
paprika? Or Italian cooking without the tomato? These foods are a huge part of
each country’s national cuisine. So, it comes as rather a shock to know that both
countries have been using these ingredients for little more than 600 years. This is
5 because both paprika and the tomato came to Europe from the New World, after
the arrival of Columbus in the Americas in 1492.
After the first encounter of Europeans and Native Americans, there was an
enormous movement vice-versa. (1) ________The words tomato, avocado and
chocolate all originate from the civilisations of the New World, such as the Aztecs.
10 Agriculture in the New World was very old indeed. Peoples such as the Maya
and Aztecs in modern Mexico had developed a wide range of interesting foodstuffs.
For example, the Spanish conquistadors were astonished to see the Aztec ruler
Montezuma drinking chocolate. They soon exported this drink to Europe (2)_____.
The spice would be mixed with corn, which was also grown on ancient farms.
Like all new things, there was suspicion on the discoveries made by the
15
European explorers. Originally, both the turkey and the tomato were not used as
food in some parts of Europe. (3)______ The turkey was kept for its beautiful
feathers and the tomato as plant for gardens. In the past, experts believed the
tomato was a similar plant to belladonna and so many people believed that it was
20
dangerous to eat. There is some truth in this, as the leaves and the roots of the
plant are actually poisonous.
The huge movement of foods which took place after 1492 has become known
as the Columbian Exchange. This is because the traffic was not all one-way. In
addition to new crops moving to Europe and Asia, Old World crops were planted
25 across North and South America.
One example is the banana. (4)______ Once it moved to the Caribbean islands,
it soon became an enormously important crop throughout the area. In the same
wat, coffee was discovered in Africa and then transported to South America. We
now have a situation where the world’s largest producer of the drink in Brazil, which
30 dominates world production.
The arrival of the horse into the Americas also had dramatic effects. (5)_____
Quickly, they learnt how to domesticate and use the animals themselves. In North
America, the horse revolutionised the native American’s way of life. On horseback,
35 the local tribes were able to hunt the wild buffalo, which were then common across
the continent.
 From the Columbian Exchange we can see that globalisation is not a new
process, but rather the result of centuries of cultural exchange. In our modern
world, we are now able to buy and grow all of these food products with ease.
(6)___________ This makes it difficult to imagine a world where a tomato was
40 looked at with fear and a horse was something magical. This is one of the greatest
losses of our era; that we are no longed excited by the extraordinary world around
us.
2. Explain the meaning of the following statements using your own words (2 x 2 = 4 points)
a. “there was a suspicion of the discoveries made by the European explorers”
b. “the horse revolutionised the native American’s way of life”
3. Answer the following questions by writing complete sentences (2 x 2.5 = 5 points)
a. Why was the movement of foods after 1492 called the Columbian Exchange?
b. What is the relationship between the Columbian Exchange and globalisation?
4. What do the following refer to? (2 x 2 = 4 points)
“this” (l. 21)
“this” (l.41)
5. Find two connectors in the text with different meanings. Write the connectors and their
meaning and indicate the corresponding line in the text. (Note: you may not choose “and”,
“but”, “because”, “so” or “for example”) (2 x 0.5 = 1 point)