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TOEFL Directory > TOEFL writing > TOEFL Reading Class Unit 2_Passage 23_Question 243-253
TOEFL Reading Class Unit 2_Passage 23_Question 243-253
You have about 15 minutes to finish this passage.
First,use about 3-4 minutes to read the passage, try to understand the main idea of this passage.
Don't read it so slowly or try to remember all details.You need to do "fast reading",and "scan" the passage.
Second, read questions 1-11, and with questions you go back the passage again and look for correct answers.
Question 243-253
Passge 23
It was reputedly in ancient Egypt that the art of making raised bread was discovered. Conditions there were favorable, because wheat was an important factor, specifically wheat that did not have to be parched before the grain was separated from the stalk.
The starchy endosperm, the inner nutritive portion of wheat grain, contains gluten-forming proteins. In favorable conditions, yeast, the other essential ingredient of raised bread, produces carbon dioxide gas. If the two ingredients are brought together in a bread mix, the result is a spongy mass consisting of tiny gas bubbles, each enclosed in an elastic skin of gluten. When the mixture is subsequently heated, the gluten becomes firm instead of elastic, and this is what holds the bread in its raised form. If, however, the gluten-forming proteins have been subjected to heat before they come into contact with the yeast, their nature has already been changed; they have become inelastic and unable to "rise.?br />
Since most of the early grains needed some degree of toasting before they could be separated from the stalk, raised bread was a chemical impossibility. But, approximately five thousand years ago in Egypt, a wheat had been developed that could be separated from the stalk without being heated.
According to one theory, leavening bread so that it will rise was discovered when some yeast spores drifted onto a dough that had been set aside for a while before baking. It would rise, not very much, perhaps, but enough to make the bread lighter and more appetizing than usual. Afterward, inquiring minds set about the task of reproducing deliberately a process that had been discovered by accident.
But an alternative and even more likely theory proposes that on some occasion a fermented beverage was used instead of water to mix the dough. The rise would be more spectacular than that produced by a few errant spores, and the effect would be easy to explain and equally easy to reproduce.
243. What does the passage mainly discuss?
a) The discovery of the process for making bread rise
b) The varieties of wheat used in making bread
c) The chemical properties of yeast
d) The diet of ancient Egyptians
244. According to the passage, what advantage did the new variety of wheat have over older varieties?
a) It was thought to have a superior flavor.
b) It required less liquid to make the bread dough.
c) It grew in great abundance.
d) It did not need to be parched to be separated from the stalk.
245. What is the purpose of paragraph 2 ?
a) To present the scientific basis of a process
b) To explain why principles of nutrition were slow to be discovered
c) To present the historical record of events
d) To explain why starch is needed in the human diet
246. The word subsequently in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) thoroughly
b) afterward
c) reliably
d) vertically
247. According to the passage, where are gluten-forming proteins found?
a) In spores drifting in the air
b) In wheat stalks
c) In the starchy endosperm
d) In fermented beverages
248. The word that in the passage refers to
a) beverage
b) water
c) dough
d) rise
249. The word inquiring in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) curious
b) confused
c) mature
d) confident
250. The word alternative in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) understandable
b) excellent
c) different
d) descriptive
251. The word reproduce in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) organize
b) discontinue
c) observe
d) copy
252. It can be inferred that the fermented beverage mentioned in paragraph 5 contained
a) gluten
b) proteins
c) dough
d) yeast
253. According to the passage, yeast will NOT be effective in causing bread dough to rise if the wheat in the dough
a) has produced carbon dioxide
b) has been heated
c) contains gluten-forming proteins
d) has become spongy
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