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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 525
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 525 – PASSAGE – 2

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 525
READING PASSAGE – 2
Which Cheese is This?
A. What is cheese exactly? Technically, it is the coagulation of the milk protein casein by an enzyme called rennet into a hard, or semi-hard substance, known as curd, leaving a liquid, known as whey behind. “Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey, as the popular nursery A rhyme goes. These curds are separated, and from this point onwards, ripening must occur, unless you want your cheese “fresh”. Few do, since the ripening process, which can take from weeks to years, results in physical, chemical, and microbiological changes that give cheese its distinct variety of flavours.
B. After this long complex treatment, which could involve molds and yeasts, herbs and spices, ageing, colouring, salting, smoking, or curing, the final product is pressed into traditional shapes, and there you have cheese-a product with many practical and nutritional benefits. It is compact and portable, can be easily packaged and shipped, has a long shelf life and a high content of fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus. It comes with history and tradition, taste and texture, and some 500 to 1000 varieties (depending on your system of definition and categorisation).
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C. The first way to categorise cheese is by the source of the milk used in its production. While most of the world’s commercially available cheese is made from cows’ milk, a few use the milk from goats and sheep. Feta is made from the latter, soaked and stored in salty water, and traditionally produced in Greece, where three quarters of the cheese consumed there is of this variety.
Roquefort cheese, from southern France, is another example, and comes with a rich tradition. To be classified as genuine Roquefort, it must be aged in the caves of that region, in whose soil exist naturally occurring spores of a special mold, giving the cheese its distinctive veins of green. The cheese is white and crumbly, with a sharp smell, and usually pressed into wheel-shapes.
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D. In fact, the presence of mold as a maturing agent often distinguishes the variety of cheese. It can result in very distinctive colours, flavours, textures, and aromas, and the latter can be almost overpowering, as in the case of Limburger cheese. This mold may be on the outside, forming a crust that results in the strong taste of aged cheeses such as Brie and Camembert. The latter constituted a standard ration to French soldiers in World War I, resulting in its firm position in French culture.
Alternatively, the mold can develop from the inside. Stilton cheese’s distinctive blue veins are created by piercing the crust of the cheese with needles, allowing the mold’s spores to migrate into the core and take root. After three months of ripening, it too returns a strong smell and taste.
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E. Another way of categorising cheese is in the moisture content, giving us soft, semi-soft, and hard. Some famous cheeses which fall into these categories are the semi-soft Swiss-style products E such as Emmental and Gruyère, with their famous holes or ‘eyes’ (a result of gas formation during the ripening stage).
Cheeses of this type melt without problems into a creamy consistency, making them ideal on toast for quick snacks or simple meals. Harder cheeses result by packaging the curds into moulds with greater pressure, as well as allowing longer ageing times. This removes more moisture, resulting in gratable cheeses, often used in cooking. This includes the famous cheddar (which originated in the village of Cheddar, England), as well as the well-known Dutch cheeses, Edam and Gouda.
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F. Despite such a bewildering variety of cheese types, a few stand out as firm favourites. The French mostly consume Emmental and Camembert, leaving their traditional Roquefort to be mostly sold to Spain, where it is highly relished. In the USA, it is mozzarella which leads the way, accounting F for nearly a third of consumption. This is not so much a testimony to this cheese, but more to the popularity of pizza there, where this cheese forms its main topping. The Greeks, as mentioned, go for feta, while the ubiquitous cheddar is Britain’s favourite, and strongly liked in the USA and Australia as well, both of which now produce this generic brand in large quantities.
G. Such reflections on all the varieties and tastes of cheeses throughout northern and southern Europe might mislead one to think cheese-consumption is universal. In fact, cheese is very much a product of the European races, with their evolved ability to digest the lactose in this product. In other parts of the world, such as Africa and Asia, and among many native or aboriginal communities, lactose intolerance is quite common, resulting in a relative absence of milk products in their cuisines. One does feel, however, upon discussing the rich history of cheeses, that these people are somewhat worse off for this fact.
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Questions 14 – 19
Which one of the following paragraph headings matches Paragraphs A – G?
A. Texture of cheese
B. Inedible cheese
C. Components of cheese
D. Desired cheese
E. Benefits of cheese
F. Infected cheese
G. Unusual cheese
14. Paragraph B
15. Paragraph C
16. Paragraph D
17. Paragraph E
18. Paragraph F
19. Paragraph G
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Questions 20 – 25
Complete the gaps in the table with ONE word only.
Cheese | Taste/Appearance | Associated Fact |
‘Fresh’ | Lacking (20)………….. | Not popular |
Feta | (21)………….. taste | Popular in Greece |
Roquefort/ Stilton | Has coloured (22)………….. | Strong aroma |
(23)……….. | Mold on outside | Given to troops |
Emmental/ Gruyère | Has holes | (24)…….. without problems |
Cheddar/ Edam/ Gouda | Hard and (25)………….. | Well-known |
Question 26
Which of the following is NOT true?
A. The Spanish like French cheese.
B. Cheddar is preferred in the USA.
C. All cheese has lactose.
D. Africans and Asians eat little cheese.
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ANSWERS
14. E
15. G
16. F
17. A
18. D
19. B
20. FLAVOUR(S)
21. SALTY
22. VEINS
23. CAMEMBERT
24. MELT
25. GRATABLE
26. B
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