U6

Reading Comprehension Review

DIRECTIONS: Read the passage and answer the questions.

Food Revolution
In 2009, Huntington, West Virginia, was called the unhealthiest city in the United States. Jamie Oliver, a chef
and activist, wanted to help—and started a food revolution.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is on a mission to change people’s eating habits. As part of his mission, Oliver
opened a new community food center in Huntington, West Virginia, in 2009. Oliver chose Huntington largely
because of the city’s high rates of food-related illnesses.
At the time, over 45 percent of the adult population was obese, according to a government report. Oliver’s
team spent five months in Huntington coaching people about fresh food. At the food center, called Jamie’s
Kitchen, his team taught cooking lessons and served healthy meals. Three years after the Kitchen opened,
obesity levels in Huntington had dropped by 10 percent.
NO FOOD CULTURE
In his books and on his TV shows, Oliver highlights why eating healthily is such a challenge today. At the
heart of the issue is widespread ignorance. Oliver thinks many people, particularly children, are out of touch
with what’s on their plates. They are not aware of the ingredients in the food they eat or how it was made. At
home, at school, and on Main Street, people are no longer learning about good food, cooking, and healthy
eating.
In the past, Oliver explains, dinners at home were usually cooked with fresh ingredients. However, over the
past 30 years, convenience foods have replaced fresh home-cooked meals. These convenience foods are
highly processed and full of additives. While these additives increase the shelf life of foods, they can be
harmful to our health. Processed foods1 are also common in schools. Too often, the main criterion for
choosing which meals to serve is cost. This means children are fed meals that are mass-produced using
unhealthy ingredients.
Oliver also sees problems on “Main Street”—the stores and restaurants where people buy food. Fast-food
restaurants offer cheap meals that are often high in sugar and fat, but low in nutrition. Additionally, the
portion sizes in many restaurants are huge, encouraging people to eat more than is healthy. In supermarkets,
food labeling can be confusing or misleading. For example, Oliver wonders how supermarkets can “say
something is low-fat when it’s full of so much sugar.”
CREATING A MOVEMENT
Oliver has some ideas about how we can address these problems. For example, he encourages people to share
simple recipes, so that more people get into the habit of home cooking. He also suggests that supermarkets
hire “food ambassadors” to help consumers make better choices about the foods they buy. He urges big food
brands to provide better labeling on their products. He has also worked with schools to develop healthier
meals, and to help children learn about good nutrition.
Inspired by his experiences in Huntington, Oliver created an annual event called Food Revolution Day. Food
Revolution Day events raise awareness of how food affects our well-being and remind people that cooking
with fresh ingredients is fun. In 2014, groups in over 100 countries participated. Through initiatives like Food
Revolution Day and Jamie’s Kitchen, Jamie Oliver hopes people will live healthier lives. Oliver wants to
create “a movement to educate every child about food [and] to inspire families to cook again.”
____ 1. What is this passage mainly about?
a. the various kinds of food-related illnesses
b. the problem of and solution to unhealthy eating
c. the way different kinds of foods are processed
____ 2. What does Food Revolution mean?
a. the way the food chain goes in a circle
b. to stop buying food and grow your own
c. a change in the way people cook and eat
____ 3. Which word from the passage refers to healthy foods?
a. processed
b. cheap
c. fresh
____ 4. In paragraph 4, what does Jamie Oliver mean when he says people are “out of touch with what’s on their
plates”?
a. They don’t know the names of the foods they are eating.
b. They don’t know how their food was made.
c. They are unable to prepare their own food.
____ 5. Where are cheap, mass-produced meals usually served?
a. at home
b. in schools
c. on “Main Street”
____ 6. Which is NOT one of Jamie Oliver’s solutions?
a. to stop putting additives into food
b. to prepare better meals at schools
c. to educate people on nutrition
____ 7. According to paragraph 6, what makes it difficult to eat healthily at restaurants?
a. huge portions
b. short shelf life
c. few vegetables
____ 8. Who are “Food Ambassadors”?
a. someone who teaches others how to cook
b. someone who gives shoppers advice on healthy food
c. someone who learns ways to cook from other countries
____ 9. Who does Jamie Oliver think really needs food education?
a. parents
b. children
c. educators
____ 10. Which of the following statements is NOT true about Food Revolution Day?
a. The event is held once every two years.
b. It aims to educate people about how food can affect our health.
c. People from many countries join in with the event.

Reading Comprehension Extension

 DIRECTIONS: Read the passage and answer the questions.

Deep-Fried Candy Bars

What satisfies a sweet tooth better than a chocolate bar?    A chocolate bar that has been deep fried!    This is
the opinion of customers who purchased deep-fried Mars bars in 60 fast food restaurants around Scotland.   
Of these customers, 75% were children.    Doctors and nutritionists view this 420-calorie snack as far from
healthy.   
According to a report published by Scotland's National Health Service, the number of obese    children is
rising. The report said that in 2002, “30 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds were estimated to be overweight—this
was double the expected number." Among the adult population, Scotland has very high rates of heart disease,
cancer, and strokes.    Poor diet, among other problems, is a major cause of these illnesses.
History shows how the Scottish diet changed over time.    Before the Industrial Revolution, people ate locally
grown/raised food, such as oats, vegetables, venison, and seafood.    But when many people moved from the
countryside to urban areas, they had less access to these healthy foods.    Frying foods, compared to less
fattening methods, became popular as a safe way to cook. (It killed bacteria and viruses.)    Also, the sugar
trade during the 18th and 19th centuries increased the amount of sweet foods people consumed.
Some people think history and statistics are used to make a situation seem more serious than it really is.   
Kevin McIndoe, a newspaper journalist from Glasgow, Scotland, says the Scots’ reputation as unhealthy
eaters is exaggerated.    It’s a stereotype like any other, such as saying “everyone in London likes jellied eels.” 
McIndoe may be right.    After all, almost everybody (especially children) loves sweets, and any country that
has been through the Industrial Revolution has had some diet changes.    But for any health-conscious eater,
avoiding sweet treats like deep-fried Mars bars may be best.

____ 11. What is the purpose of this passage?

a. to discuss the diet of people in Scotland
b. to compare food in different countries
c. to advise people not to eat fried food
____ 12. Which number represents the amount of energy in a deep fried Mars bar?
a. 2002
b. 30
c. 420
____ 13. Which word is closest in meaning to obese?
a. overweight
b. healthy
c. intelligent
____ 14. What is this passage mainly about?
a. why Scottish people’s diets changed during the 18th and 19th centuries
b. how deep fried-Mars bars may be related to unhealthy eating habits
c. how many people enjoy eating deep-fried Mars bars
____ 15. Which happened first?
a. Most people grew their own vegetables and hunted for their own meat.
b. The Industrial Revolution caused people to move from the country to the city.
c. Fast food restaurants began selling deep fried food items such as french fries and candy
 bars.
____ 16. In paragraph 3, what does less access refer to in the following sentence?

But when masses of people moved from the countryside to urban areas, they had less access to these
healthy foods.   

a. It was more difficult to obtain healthy food.

b. They didn’t need healthy food anymore.
c. They had less money and couldn’t afford healthy food.
____ 17. What does It refer to in paragraph 3?
a. the sugar trade
b. frying foods
c. the Industrial Revolution
____ 18. What does the author of the passage probably believe?
a. Deep-fried Mars bars are unhealthy.
b. Deep-fried Mars bars are the main cause of obesity in children.
c. Deep-fried Mars bars cause disease in Scotland.
____ 19. Which word is related in meaning to exaggerated in paragraph 4?
a. health-conscious
b. reputation
c. stereotype
____ 20. According to the last paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?
a. Most people like sweets.
b. Most restaurants sell deep-fried Mars bars.
c. Most countries have had diet changes throughout their histories.

Reading Skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the excerpts from Jamie Oliver’s 2010 TED Talk. Decide if each excerpt
describes a Problem of (P) or Solution to (S) unhealthy eating. Write P or S.

21. “Ten percent of what we spend on healthcare, as I said earlier, is on obesity, and it’s going to double.”
Problem or Solution: ___

22. “There’s sugar in everything. I know the ins and outs of those ingredients. It’s in everything. Even the milk
hasn’t escaped the kind of modern-day problems. There’s our milk. There’s our carton. In that is nearly as
much sugar as one of your favorite cans of fizzy pop, and they [children] are having two a day.”
Problem or Solution: ___

23. “... they [children] need to be cooked proper, fresh food from local growers on site. OK? There needs to be a
new standard of fresh, proper food for your children. Yeah?”
Problem or Solution: ___
 24. “Under the circumstances, it’s profoundly important that every single American child leaves school knowing
how to cook ten recipes that will save their life. Life skills.”
Problem or Solution: ___

TED Talk Comprehension

DIRECTIONS: Read the excerpt below from Jamie Oliver’s 2010 TED Talk. Then determine
the purpose of the sentences in the paragraph.

Jamie Oliver—Teach Every Child About Food

“I want to tell you about something that kind of epitomizes the trouble that we’re in, guys. OK? I want to talk
about something so basic as milk. Every kid has the right to milk at school. Your kids will be having milk at
school, breakfast and lunch. Right? They’ll be having two bottles. OK? And most kids do. But milk ain’t good
enough anymore. Because someone at the milk board, right—and don’t get me wrong, I support milk—but
someone at the milk board probably paid a lot of money for some geezer to work out that if you put loads of
flavorings and colorings and sugar in milk, right, more kids will drink it. . . . For me, there ain’t no need to
flavor the milk. Okay?”

____ 25. “I want to tell you about something that kind of epitomizes the trouble that we’re in, guys. OK? I want to talk
about something so basic as milk.”
a. to introduce a problem
b. to give details about a problem
____ 26. “Every kid has the right to milk at school. Your kids will be having milk at school, breakfast and lunch.
Right? They’ll be having two bottles. OK? And most kids do.”
a. to give a solution
b. to give background information
____ 27. “But milk ain’t good enough anymore. Because someone at the milk board, right—and don’t get me wrong, I
support milk—but someone at the milk board probably paid a lot of money for some geezer to work out that if
you put loads of flavorings and colorings and sugar in milk, right, more kids will drink it.”
a. to give details about a problem
b. to give the main idea of the talk
____ 28. “For me, there ain’t no need to flavor the milk. Okay?”
a. to give an opinion
b. to give background information

DIRECTIONS: Read the excerpt from Jamie Oliver’s 2010 TED Talk. Complete the sentences
that follow with the correct word or number in parentheses.

“. . . OK, school. What is school? Who invented it? What’s the purpose of school? School was always
invented to arm us with the tools to make us creative, do wonderful things, make us earn a living, etc., etc.,
etc. You know, it’s been kind of in this sort of tight box for a long, long time. OK? But we haven’t really
evolved it to deal with the health catastrophes of America, OK? School food is something that most kids—31
million a day, actually—have twice a day, more than often, breakfast and lunch, 180 days of the year. So you
could say that school food is quite important, really, judging the circumstances. . . .
 Now, the reality is, the food that your kids get every day is fast food, it’s highly processed, there’s not enough
fresh food in there at all. You know, the amount of additives, E numbers, ingredients you wouldn’t believe—
there’s not enough veggies at all. French fries are considered a vegetable. Pizza for breakfast. They don’t even
get given crockery. Knives and forks? No, they’re too dangerous. They have scissors in the classroom, but
knives and forks? No. And the way I look at it is: If you don’t have knives and forks in your school, you’re
purely endorsing, from a state level, fast food, because it’s handheld. And yes, by the way, it is fast food: It’s
sloppy joes, it’s burgers, it’s wieners, it’s pizzas, it’s all of that stuff. Ten percent of what we spend on
healthcare, as I said earlier, is on obesity, and it’s going to double. We’re not teaching our kids. There’s no
statutory right to teach kids about food, elementary or secondary school. OK? We don’t teach kids about food.
Right?”

29. ______________ (31 / 180) million children eat school lunches each day.

30. Kids are eating mostly ______________________ (fast / fresh) food at school.

31. Fast food ____________________________ (is handheld / requires crockery).

32. We ______________ (are / aren’t) teaching kids enough about food.

Vocabulary

DIRECTIONS: Complete each sentence with a word from the box.    One word is extra.

awareness participate replace revolution urge

33. Personal computers have been a/an __________________ in the way people look for information and
communicate with one another.

34. In order to get rid of a bad habit, you often have to __________________ it with a different habit.    For
example, some people chew gum instead of smoking.

35. By increasing ____________________ of certain health risks, people are better able to avoid these risks.

36. I didn’t ________________________ in a lot of sports or other activities as a kid.    I just read books and
spent time with friends.

DIRECTIONS: Match each word to its definition.

a. widespread
b. consumers
c. nutrition
d. urge
____ 37. everywhere, not contained to one place
____ 38. to persuade someone to do something
____ 39. people who buy or use up something
 ____ 40. about food and its effect on health
U6
Answer Section
1. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
2. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
3. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
4. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
5. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
6. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
7. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
8. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
9. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
10. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Review
11. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
12. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
13. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
14. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
15. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
16. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
17. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
18. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
19. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
20. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: Reading Comprehension Extension
21. ANS:
P

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Reading

TOP: Reading Skills: Identifying Problems and Solutions
22. ANS:
P

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Reading

TOP: Reading Skills: Identifying Problems and Solutions
23. ANS:
S

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Reading

TOP: Reading Skills: Identifying Problems and Solutions
24. ANS:
S

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Reading

TOP: Reading Skills: Identifying Problems and Solutions
25. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
26. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
27. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
28. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B
OBJ: Reading TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
29. ANS: 31

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B OBJ: Reading

TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
30. ANS: fast

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B OBJ: Reading

TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
31. ANS: is handheld

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B OBJ: Reading

TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
32. ANS: aren’t

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson B OBJ: Reading

TOP: TED Talk Comprehension
33. ANS: revolution

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Vocabulary

34. ANS: replace

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Vocabulary

35. ANS: awareness

PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Vocabulary

36. ANS: participate
 PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A OBJ: Vocabulary
37. ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Vocabulary
38. ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Vocabulary
39. ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Vocabulary
40. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Unit 6 Lesson A
OBJ: Vocabulary