UNIT 1 Food Warm up-Thinking about the Topic
Look at the two pictures below. Talk about them with your partner. 1 What type of environment do the people and the plants live in? 2 Match the descriptions to the right picture:
a. . .. look like a cactus, but are not related.
b. . .. grow in dry sandy or rocky areas.
c. . .. move around the Kalahari dert in arch of foo
d. d. . .. walk long distances on the hot sand.
e. . .. only grow about 400 cm tall.
f ... have flowers which are 3 - 4 cm across.
逃北者
g. . .. are traditional hunter-gatherers, who do not grow food.
3 Now , work together with a partner to make some ntences about the San people and the hoodia plant. Speak, do not write.
“The san …Hoodia plants …
Beginning to read
Skimming-Finding the Passage Structure and the Main Idea Complete the activities below to practice how to do this. Keep to the time limit! Hoodia
The San live in that part of Africa called the Kalahari Dert. Life there is hard,and nature can be harsh . There are somewhere between 45,000 and 100,000 of them living in countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe. They're not rich and they don't live in expensive hous. T here are no roads or schools or hospitals near them. They don't have many material p osssion s like cars or computers, things that people in the developed world can't do without. In fact, they have many problems such as unemployment and poverty. On top of this, they also suffer from alcoholism, drinking A
TIP
日本语能力考试报名For IELTS reading, you need to be able to read QUICKLY to find main ideas and the structure, or
organisation, of the
chine medicine
reading passage.
to forget their problems. They're the San, a tribe of traditional hunter-gatherers, w ho ud to travel in arch of food for their families instead of growing it or keeping animals. They have a culture that is 20,000 years old, but their old way of life is disappearing fast and has nearly gone forever. So yes, they're poor, and yes, their lifestyle is not attractive to outsiders, but they do have one thing that certain people in the developed world are very , very interested in and want to have, and that may make them some money. It's called hoodia.
Many countries have basic, common crops t hat . people plant for food, such as rice or potatoes. Potatoes are grown in many European countries as well as South America (They originated there!), and rice is a staple food in Asia. But not all plants are grow just for food; some of them can also be ud as medicine. A few examples are garlic, which is said to help with colds or high blood pressure, ginger to help with headaches o r toothache, or the magnolia tree which is ud in Chine traditional medicine to treat some forms of cancer and heart dia. Hoodia, a cactus-like plant, only grows in the area where the San live, and they know where to find it and the best time to u it. They have known about it for centuries and they understand how to u it, but they don't u it for food, and they don't u it to cure dia either. They u it to fight hunger. In the old days when the San had to travel in arch of food, they and their children sometimes had to go without food for
veral days. This was even longer in times of famine or when the rains failed. They ate the hoodia plant when they were starving, to help them survive until they found food, to stop their children from crying, and to give them the strength to continue their arch. However, i t didn't give them energy like normal food would. Instead, the chemicals in the hoodia plant killed the feeling of hunger and stopped them wanting food. They didn't know exactly how it worked; the only thing they knew for certain was that it did work. Scientists have now discovered that the plant contains a substance w hich they have called P57. This chemical makes the brain believe that the stomach is full and that the body doesn't need food. That is why people in the developed wo rld, especially tho in pharmaceutical companies, are extremely interested in this very promising plant. Obesity in the developed w orld is a huge and growing problem, not only among
adults, but increasingly among children. It has been estimated that up to 50% of people in the developed world are overweight and 20% of the are obe; at the time of writing, for example, 30% of Chine children were considered to be too heavy for their age. One cau of obesity is eating too much, too often, and another is eating the wrong kind of food. Our grandparents h ad the time to prepare simple yet nourishing meals, and t hey didn't have money to afford expensive food. They didn't eat as much meat or fatty foods as we do nowadays, and that's one reason why they were slimmer and healthier than their descendants. Today we have less time to cook, and we have
B水稻的英文
德威英国国际学校C
D
E
华东师大二附中more money, so the easiest thing to do is to buy ready-made meals. They may be convenient and taste good, but they're often high in fat, salt and sugar. Too much of the make people unhealthy and fat. They need to lo weight, and that's where hoodia comes in.
指控英文
It ems t o be the perfect solution. People in the West want to lo weight and F
hoodia is ideal. Western companies pay for the right to u the crets of the hoodia plant; by lling the rights to the West, the San make money and can then help themlves. Obe people lo weight and the San people make a profit, so everyone is happy.
Read the first and last ntence ONLY of each paragraph in the reading passage. Take NO MORE THAN FIVE minutes to do this.
4 Put the simple headings into the same order as the passage itlf. Write the number of the paragraph beside each one.
a. _________ Hoodia may help people to lo weight.
b. _________ Some children have a weight problem in the developed world.
c. _________ Most places have a staple foo
d.
d. _________ The San can be found in Kalahari dert in Africa.
e. _________ The San learnt to survive without food for days on end.
f .__________Hoodia contains P5 7.
Skimming to Summari the Reading Passage
1Now, work with a partner to complete a brief summary of this reading passage. Speak, do not write.
This passage is about ... It describes ... The main idea is that ...
IEL TS Type Question: Reading for Details and for Main Ideas Now, you should be able to read this passage quickly to find details and answer the following questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Circle the correct letter. Some questions may have more than one correct answer; and this will be indicated in the instructions.
1) The San:
a. herd cows and collect plants
b. hunt animals and grow plants
c. hunt animals and collect plants
d. herd cows and grow plants
2) Which problem is NOT mentioned in the passage?
a. they can't find jobs
b. they have family problems
c. they drink too much alcohol
d. they are very poor
3) Examples of staple foods are:
a. rice and potatoes
b. garlic and ginger
c. magnolia and hoodia
d. all of the above
4) In the old days, the San:
a. ate hoodia every day
b. ate hoodia when they were hungry
c. ate hoodia when there was a famine
d. ate hoodia when they wanted to diet
5) In the West:
a. most people are overweight
b. 30% of people are overweight
c. 20% of people are overweight
d. the majority of people are not overweight Locating Information
The passage has six paragraphs, A - F Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-F, beside the statements below.
NOTE: you may u any letter more than once. You may not need to u all the letters.
6) ___________Some foods are ud to cure health problems.
7) ___________ Many modern people do not eat well and have weight problems.
8) ___________The San have something that people in the West want.
9) ___________The sale of hoodia from Africa to the West might help everyone.
10) __________Hoodia was ud by the San to control hunger when food was scarce.
thirteenTIP
The questions usually follow the order of the passage
工程部英文Short Answers
Answer the questions below. Choo NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS from the passage for each answer.
11) What do the San not have that people in developed countries mostly have? ____________________________________________________________
12) How long have the San people known about hoodia?
__________________________________________
13) What does hoodia have that makes it so uful for western people?
______________________________________________________
14) What sort of meals does the writer say our grandparents prepared?
_____________________________________________________
15) What did our grandparents eat less of, compared to people the days? _________________________________________________________
Summary Completion
Complete the summary of the passage u sing words from the
box below. There are more words than gaps. nourishing
obesity ideal hoodia desire
unemployment cactus material overcome attractive originate traditional The San are a tribe of hunter-gatherers i n the Kalahari dert who 16)___________ lifestyle is changing fast. They now
suffer from 'modern' problems such as alcoholism, poverty and 17) ____________. Since ancient times they have ud a cactus-like plant, hoodia, to help 18) ___________hunger when food was scarce. In the West, where
19)____________ is becoming a major health issue, hoodia is en as a solution as it appears to control the 20)_____________ to eat.
Circle the Letter for the Correct Answer: Global Multi-Choice
21) The writer's main idea is that:
a) The ancient practice of using hoodia when food was scarce may lead to an improvement in the San's financial situation. b) Obesity , a growing problem all over the developed world, is spreading to the less developed countries as well. c) The ancient culture and lifestyle of the San is changing rapidly now. d) The pharmaceutical companies want to get control of supplies of hoodia. TIP Watch carefully for word endings and grammar clues to
help you with this.
TIP 1
You will usually find the answer to this question in the
final and / or the first paragraph.
TIP 2
Some or all of the four choices will be ideas from the passage.
You job is to choo the main, or most important one
>mmarket
