A. CONCEPT B. CONTENT C. CONTACT D. CONTEXTTASK 2

80. A. concept B. content C. contact D. context

Task 2: READING COMPREHENSION

Read the passage and choose the best answer for each question below.

Centuries ago, man discovered that removing moisture from food helped to preserve it, and

that the easiest way to do it was to expose the food to sun and wind, In this way the North American

Indians produced pemmican (dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the

Scandinavians made stock fish and the Arabs dried dates and apricots.

All foods contain water – cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% wave,

potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish anything from 80% to 60%

depending on how fatty it is. If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food

to bad is checked.

Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also

in California, South Africa and Australia. The methods used carry, but in general the fruit is spread

out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun. In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and

apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying. Plums for making prunes, and

certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order

to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, so increasing the rate of drying.

Nowadays most of foods are dried mechanically; the conventional method of such

dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about

110

⁰

C at entry to about 45

⁰

C at exit. This is usual method for drying such things as vegetables,

minced meat, and fish.

Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated

horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air

passes. In the first case, the dried material is scraped off the roller as a thin film which is then

broken up into small, though still relatively coarse flakes. In the second process it falls to the bottom

of the chamber as a fine powder. Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as

in soup, the ingredients are dried separately and then mixed.

Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans of frozen,

and they do not need to be stored in special conditions. For these reasons they are invaluable to

climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space. They are also popular with

housewives because it takes so little time to cook them.