Clarence Birdseye and the Development of Frozen Food
Read Clarence Birdseye and the Development of Frozen Food and check the IELTS Reading answers. Born in 1886 in New York, the American naturalist Clarence Birdseye had an instinctive curiosity, a love of food, and a strong entrepreneurial streak. At the age of ten, he was hunting, selling live anima…
Passage preview
Born in 1886 in New York, the American naturalist Clarence Birdseye had an instinctive curiosity, a love of food, and a strong entrepreneurial streak. At the age of ten, he was hunting, selling live animals, and teaching himself taxidermy, the art of preserving and mounting the skins of animals. He studied science in college, but had to drop out because tuition was too expensive. Forced to support himself, he moved west, where he worked in Montana as an assistant naturalist, capturing small mammals to study the parasites that they often carried in their fur. Eventually, partly as a result of this research, the source of a prevalent disease was isolated.
Vocabulary from this passage
10 words worth learning before you sit the test, each with the sentence it appears in.
- acknowledge the value of verb phrase
To accept openly that something is useful or important.
In the passage:
Q10 says experts "disagree"; nutritionists prefer fresh food but "acknowledge the value of frozen food", a concession that makes it FALSE.
Synonyms: recognise the worth of, accept the benefit of
Opposites: dismiss
- fall out of favor verb phrase
To stop being popular or approved of by people.
In the passage:
Q8 says "a positive view"; the passage says frozen food "has fallen out of favor with the public", so the statement is FALSE.
Synonyms: lose popularity, go out of fashion
Opposites: come into fashion
- left a great deal to be desired verb phrase
To be very unsatisfactory or much worse than it should be.
In the passage:
"the food in Labrador left a great deal to be desired": a polite understatement meaning the food was poor.
Synonyms: be unsatisfactory, fall short
Opposites: leave nothing to be desired
- lock in verb phrase
To keep something firmly inside so that it cannot be lost or escape.
In the passage:
"this locks in many of the important nutrients": freezing at the peak of ripeness keeps the nutrients (Q11, Q12).
Synonyms: preserve, retain
Opposites: release
- peak of ripeness noun phrase
The time when a fruit or vegetable is at its best and fully ripe.
In the passage:
Q12 says "perfectly ripe"; the passage says produce is frozen "at their peak of ripeness".
Synonyms: perfectly ripe, fully ripe
Opposites: unripe
- prevalent adjective
Existing or happening very widely at a particular time or place.
In the passage:
Q2 says "a widespread"; the passage says "the source of a prevalent disease was isolated".
Synonyms: widespread, common
Opposites: rare
- relish verb
To enjoy something very much, especially a difficult or demanding experience.
In the passage:
Q3 says "enjoyed the"; the passage says Birdseye "relished the challenge that came with the cold climate".
Synonyms: enjoy, delight in, thrive on
Opposites: dread
- the advent of noun phrase
The arrival or start of an important new invention, event or period.
In the passage:
"the advent of flash-frozen food had a positive impact on the American economy": a formal way to say the arrival of something new.
Synonyms: the arrival of, the emergence of
- unwittingly adverb
Without realising what you are doing or what the result will be.
In the passage:
"Unwittingly, the young adventurer had made a powerful discovery": he did not realise it at the time (Q4).
Synonyms: unknowingly, inadvertently
Opposites: deliberately, knowingly
- withstand verb
To remain unharmed or unchanged under strain, pressure or harsh conditions.
In the passage:
"a glue for the packaging boxes to withstand the changes in temperature": Birdseye invented it himself (Q7).
Synonyms: endure, resist
Opposites: succumb to
Answers with explanations
- 1. college
The note's **financial reasons** become **tuition was too expensive**, and **left** becomes **drop out**. What he dropped out of is **college**. Science is only the subject he studied there, so it isn't what he left.
- 2. disease
Look for the work in Montana: he studied parasites in animal fur, and **partly as a result of this research** the **source** of a **prevalent** (= widespread) illness was **isolated**. So the gap needs **disease**. Parasites are what he studied, not what was found to be widespread.
- 2-3: blood
2: Look for the work in Montana: he studied parasites in animal fur, and **partly as a result of this research** the **source** of a **prevalent** (= widespread) illness was **isolated**. So the gap needs **disease**. Parasites are what he studied, not what was found to be widespread.
3: The note's **enjoyed** matches **relished**, and **such a harsh environment** matches **the cold climate and rugged landscape**. What he relished was **the challenge** of living there.
- 3. challenge
The note's **enjoyed** matches **relished**, and **such a harsh environment** matches **the cold climate and rugged landscape**. What he relished was **the challenge** of living there.
- 3-4: H
3: The note's **enjoyed** matches **relished**, and **such a harsh environment** matches **the cold climate and rugged landscape**. What he relished was **the challenge** of living there.
4: Find the **Inuit** and ice fishing in the paragraph about food in Labrador. The note's **made a** is copied almost directly from the passage: he **made a powerful discovery** by accident, and it later led to flash freezing. So the gap needs **discovery**.
- 4. discovery
Find the **Inuit** and ice fishing in the paragraph about food in Labrador. The note's **made a** is copied almost directly from the passage: he **made a powerful discovery** by accident, and it later led to flash freezing. So the gap needs **discovery**.
- 5. prisons
The note's **so poor** matches **beneath the culinary standard**, and **couldn't serve it** matches **banned**. The places that banned it were **prisons**. Convicts appear in the same sentence, but they are the people who would eat the food, not those who serve it.
- 6. membranes
Slow freezing made big ice crystals that **broke the membranes** around each cell. The note says flash-freezing kept them **intact**, which matches **flash freezing avoided this problem**. So the gap needs the plural noun **membranes**.
- 7. ink
The note's **created a new kind of** matches **inventing**. The sentence lists two things he invented for the packaging: a glue, and then, after 'as well as', **a waterproof ink** for the labels. The note already gives glue, so the gap is **ink**.
- 8. FALSE
The deciding words are **today** and **positive view**. The passage says that in the current age frozen food **has fallen out of favor with the public**, which is the opposite of a positive view, so the statement is FALSE. The later praise of frozen food comes from nutritionists, not the public.
- 9. NOT GIVEN
The deciding word is **Most**. The passage mentions **fish caught in the North Atlantic**, but only to say they could be eaten in distant cities. **Summer** appears only with **produce harvested**, not with fish. Nothing says when most fish are caught, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
- 10. FALSE
The deciding word is **disagree**. Nutritionists would prefer fresh local food, but they still **acknowledge the value of frozen food**, and the university scientists **came to the same conclusion**. Both groups agree that frozen food is beneficial, so the statement is FALSE.
- 11. TRUE
**Soon after being picked** matches **the minute a fruit or vegetable is harvested, it begins to decay**. Freezing then **locks in** the important **nutrients**, which means fresh produce that is not frozen loses them. The statement agrees with the text, so it is TRUE.
- 12. TRUE
Both **Most** and **perfectly ripe** are matched: **most frozen fruits and vegetables** are frozen **within hours of their harvest, at their peak of ripeness**. The produce is picked when it is at its best, so the statement is TRUE.
- 13. NOT GIVEN
The passage names **raspberries** and **vitamin C**, but only to compare frozen and unfrozen ones, which had nearly the same levels. It never ranks raspberries against other foods as a source of vitamin C. For TRUE or FALSE it would need to say how good a source they are, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.