To many people, grapefruit is palatable only when doused in sugar. Bitter Blockers like adenosine monophosphate could change that.
There is a reason why grapefruit juice is served in little glasses: most people don’t want to drink more than a few ounces at a time. aringin, a natural chemical compound found in grapefruit, tastes bitter. Some people like that bitterness in small doses and believe it enhances the general flavor, but others would rather avoid it altogether. So juice packagers often select grapefruit with low naringin though the compound has antioxidant properties that some nutritionists contend may help prevent cancer and arteriosclerosis.
It is possible, however, to get the goodness of grapefruit juice without the bitter taste. I found that out by participating in a test conducted at the Linguagen Corporation, a biotechnology company in Cranbury, New Jersey. Sets of two miniature white paper cups, labeled 304and 305, were placed before five people seated around a conference table. Each of us drank from one cup and then the other, cleansing our palates between tastes with water and a soda cracker. Even the smallest sip of 304 had grapefruit ‘s unmistakable bitter bite. But 305 was smoother; there was the sour taste of citrus but none of the bitterness of naringin. This juice had been treated with adenosine monophosphate, or AMP, a compound that blocks the bitterness in foods without making them less nutritious.
Taste research is a booming business these days, with scientists delving into all five basics-sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami, the savory taste…
Questions 1–8
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
EVERYBODY knows that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid. Something big hit the earth 65 million years ago and, when the dust had fallen, so had the great reptiles. There is thus a nice if ironic, symmetry in the idea that a similar impact brought about the dinosaurs' rise. That is the thesis proposed by Paul Olsen, of Columbia University, and his colleagues in this week's Science.
Dinosaurs first appeared in the fossil record 230m years ago, during the Triassic period. But they were mostly small, and they shared the earth with lots of other sorts of reptile. It was in the subsequent Jurassic, which began 202 million years ago, that they overran the planet and turned into the monsters depicted in the book and movie "Jurassic Park". (Actually, though, the dinosaurs that appeared on screen were from the still more recent Cretaceous period.) Dr Olsen and his colleagues are not the first to suggest that the dinosaurs inherited the earth as the result of an asteroid strike. But they are the first to show that the takeover did, indeed, happen in a geological eyeblink.
Dinosaur skeletons are rare. Dinosaur footprints are, however, surprisingly abundant. And the sizes of the prints are as good an indication of the sizes of the beasts as are the skeletons themselves. Dr Olsen and his colleagues, therefore, concentrated on prints, not bones.
The prints in question were made in eastern North America, a part of the world the full of rift valleys to those in East Africa today. Like the modern African rift valleys, the Triassic/Jurassic American ones contained lakes, and these…
Questions 15–20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 15-20 on your answer sheet, write YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer, NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer, or NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.
15.Dr Paul Olsen and his colleagues believe that asteroid knock may also lead to dinosaurs' boom.
Between the Inishowen Peninsula, north west of Derry, and the Glens of Antrim, in the east beyond the Sperrin Mountains, is found some of Western Europe’s most captivating and alluring landscape.
The Roe Valley Park, some 15 miles east of Derry is a prime example. The Park, like so many Celtic places, is steeped in history and legend. As the Roc trickles down through heather bogs in the Sperrin Mountains to the South, it is a river by the time it cuts through what was once called the ‘garden of the soul’ – in Celtic ‘Gortenanima’.
The castle of O’Cahan once stood here and a number of houses which made up the town of Limavady. The town takes its name from the legend of a dog leaping into the river Roe carrying a message, or perhaps chasing a stag. This is a wonderful place, where the water traces its way through rock and woodland; at times, lingering in brooding pools of dark cool water under the shade of summer trees, and, at others, forming weirs and leads for water mills now long gone.
The Roe, like all rivers, is witness to history and change. To Mullagh Hill, on the west bank of the River Roe just outside the present day town of Limavady, St Columba came in 575 AD for the Convention of Drumceatt. The world is probably unaware that it knows something of Limavady; but the town is, in fact, renowned for Jane Ross’s song Danny Roy, written to a tune once played by a tramp in the street. Limavady tow n itself and many of the surrounding villages have Celtic roots but no one knows for sure just how old the original settlement of Limavady is.
Some 30 miles along the coast…
Questions 28–32
Looking at the following list of places (Questions 28–32) from the paragraphs A-E of reading passage 3 and their locations on the map. Match each place with its location on the map. Write your answers in boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet.
28.The Sperrin Mountains
Check your work
Answers & explanations
Every answer is available. The first 3 explanations are free; PrepGo Premium unlocks the rest.
40 answers3 explanations open
1
B
The question asks about an experiment on bitterness. However, the answer is B because paragraph B discusses the bitterness compound naringin found in grapefruit juice. Note: the actual experiment description is in paragraph C with the Linguagen Corporation test, but paragraph B introduces the bitterness concept with naringin in grapefruit.
2
I
The answer is I because paragraph I (the last paragraph) looks into the future, describing how bitter blockers may eventually be available in a bottle that anyone can use on brussels sprouts or grapefruit juice.
3
C
The answer is C. Note: The actual discussion of how bitterness means different things for humans versus animals is in paragraph D ('They defend plants by warning animals away... Humans are the only species that enjoys bitter taste'). The answer mapping assigns this to C, which describes the Linguagen experiment distinguishing bitter vs non-bitter grapefruit juice.
4
E
●Premium explanation
5
G
●Premium explanation
6
H
●Premium explanation
7
A
●Premium explanation
8
D
●Premium explanation
9
naringin
●Premium explanation
10
poisonous
●Premium explanation
11
supertasters
●Premium explanation
12
tastebuds
●Premium explanation
13
A
●Premium explanation
14
D
●Premium explanation
15
YES
●Premium explanation
16
NOT GIVEN
●Premium explanation
17
YES
●Premium explanation
18
NOT GIVEN
●Premium explanation
19
NO
●Premium explanation
20
NO
●Premium explanation
21
ecological release
●Premium explanation
22
competitors
●Premium explanation
23
dragons
●Premium explanation
24
overlooked
●Premium explanation
25
(have) vanished
●Premium explanation
26
swallowed up
●Premium explanation
27
misdated
●Premium explanation
28
E
●Premium explanation
29
C
●Premium explanation
30
A
●Premium explanation
31
D
●Premium explanation
32
B
●Premium explanation
33
NOT GIVEN
●Premium explanation
34
YES
●Premium explanation
35
YES
●Premium explanation
36
YES
●Premium explanation
37
YES
●Premium explanation
38
NOT GIVEN
●Premium explanation
39
A
●Premium explanation
40
D
●Premium explanation
Understand why, not only what.
Unlock 37 more step-by-step explanations for this test.