Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 544
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 544 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 544
READING PASSAGE – 3
The Story of Vanilla
Vanilla is a member of the orchid family, a sprawling conglomeration of some 25,000 different species Vanilla is a native of South and Central America and the Caribbean and the first people to have cultivated it seem to have been the Totonacs of Mexico’s east coast. The flavour and fragrance of vanilla varies according to where it is grown and there are four main Vanilla-producing regions: Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico and Tahiti.
Vanilla grows as a clinging vine, reaching lengths of up to 300 feet, from which sprout pale greenish- yellow flowers, about four inches in diameter. Vanilla in its native habitat is pollinated by bees. Each flower remains open for just 24 hours, after which, if not pollinated, it wilts, dies, and drops to the ground. In terms of farming it, this means that vanilla flowers need to be hand-pollinated.
IELTS General Reading Test
The problem with vanilla is that it costs a lot. It is the second most expensive spice in the world (after saffron), because its production is so labour-intensive. “Vanilla requires a fair amount of skill to grow,” explains Tom McCullum, co-founder of a direct-trade chocolate and vanilla company. “You can’t just put seed in the ground, tend to it and expect it to produce a yield. Hand pollination is a learned skill. Many farmers have been growing vanilla for three to four generations. Smallholder farmers have an absolute sixth sense as to when the orchids will bloom.”
Once pollination is completed, in approximately nine months, a fully-grown green bean is ready to be picked. The characteristic vanilla aromas and flavours don’t reveal themselves until the crop is cured and dried, so it’s also important to know how to manage the beans once they’re harvested. Farmer Alex Ellis explains. “Vanilla beans are sorted and graded. They are then blanched in hot water to halt fermentation and placed in large containers to sweat for 36 to 48 hours. It’s at this stage, when the beans start to change from green to brown, that they start to develop aroma.”
IELTS General Reading Test
From there, the beans undergo alternating periods of sun drying during the day and sweating at night, a process that ends with a period of slow drying. “This usually occurs indoors, in a well-ventilated room where beans are placed on racks,” Ellis says. “It can take up to 30 days, depending on the grade.” The entire process, from growing to preparing for export, takes around one year.
Vanilla is a stunningly complex and subtle spice, containing somewhere between 250 and 500 different flavour and fragrance components. Botanist Sylvia Karner explains that these wonderful attributes have created a different industry. “The most prominent of the components is vanillin, which can be artificially made from petrochemicals and from eugenol, a component of clove oil. As total worldwide vanilla production is only about 2000 metric tons, this does not satisfy demand. Therefore the vast bulk of vanilla-flavoured products on the market don’t actually contain vanilla. 98 per cent of the world’s vanilla consumption is artificial and only 2 per cent is real. Products that are labelled as having vanilla essence in them contain this artificial vanillin.”
IELTS General Reading Test
Right now, this demand for inexpensive vanilla flavouring comes with an environmental cost. According to eco-farming lecturer Anna Winter, “the production of artificial vanillin creates stream of wastewater that requires treatment before it can be released into surface water.
Catalysts currently used in the manufacturing of vanillin are also polluting and can only be used one time.” Scientists are trying to develop a new catalyst that removes the polluting step, but without success so far. This catalyst could theoretically be re-used and, they hope, lead to more environmentally-friendly ways of manufacturing the alluring compound.
IELTS General Reading Test
Vanilla production is also affected by changing world prices. “Vanilla’s price volatility is historic,” says Patricia Roberts, a dealer in vanilla. “In part, it is the result of cycles of tropical storms, something that may change in unpredictable ways due to climate change.” Prices are also affected by how the vanilla bean matures. Vanilla beans start to ferment as soon as they are harvested, so there is an urgent need for farmers to find buyers for their beans. Smaller producers typically sell green beans to middlemen, who collect larger amounts of beans and sell them to centralised curing facilities, or directly to the curing facilities themselves.
However, as there is no set market price for green beans, these farmers have limited options when it comes to negotiating for a higher price. “The money starts to pick up,” Roberts says, “when it reaches those who cure and dry the beans. The vanilla then goes through many more sets of hands with prices going up each time.” Those hands extend from traders who ship the beans to stores that stock them. “When prices for cured beans drop due to price speculation or an increased global supply,” economist Salim Aziz explains, “farmers tear up crops.
They can’t afford to keep growing vanilla when prices stay so low.” A decade ago, the prices for green beans dropped to 20 dollars a kilo and remained there for 5 years. The following price increase was built on speculation that, due to poor pollination, the vanilla crop would be small.
IELTS General Reading Test
So how does all this affect the vanilla we buy in markets? Patricia Roberts says it’s necessary to assess the vanilla bean before our purchase. “You should be able to take a bean, tie it around your finger, and untie it. That’s how supple a good vanilla bean should be. Also, in terms of appearance, avoid extraordinarily large beans, as they were likely not cured properly.”
Questions 28-35
Look at the following statements (questions 28-35) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person’s initials.
28. Some chemicals used in the production of vanillin cannot be recycled.
29. It is when vanilla beans change colour during treatment that they develop their important characteristics.
30. The quality of a vanilla pod can be assessed by its flexibility.
31. More vanilla is required than farmers can produce.
32. A lack of cash flow leads many farmers to stop growing vanilla.
33. Great skill and experience is required to know how to hand-pollinate the vanilla flower.
34. The quantities of vanilla produced is often subject to weather patterns.
35. Processing vanilla beans requires a location with good air circulation.
IELTS General Reading Test
TM: Tom McCullum
AE: Alex Ellis
SK: Sylvia Karner
AW: Anna Winter
PR: Patricia Roberts
SA: Salim Aziz
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 36-38
Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the text for each answer.
Producing Vanilla
– Vanilla flowers for only 24 hours – hand pollination is needed if it’s farmed, as the usual (36)……………. would not be reliable.
– Harvesting takes place 9 months following pollination.
– Following sorting and grading, blanching prevents (37)……………. .
– Sweating for up to 2 days, followed by 5 days of alternate sweating and drying, allows the bean to develop correctly.
Gradual (38)……………. ends the treatment process and the beans are exported.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 39 and 40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
39. Vanilla farmers must sell their beans to dealers quickly
A. to keep sustainable cash flow.
B. as the beans will otherwise go bad.
C. because poor weather can ruin a crop.
D. as beans need to be processed in large quantities to be commercially viable.
40. Worries about a recent poor vanilla harvest
A. led to farmers destroying their crops.
B. led to dealers storing crops from the previous year.
C. led to a rise in prices.
D. led to some farmers going out of business.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. AW
29. AE
30. PR
31. SK
32. SA
33. TM
34. PR
35. AE
36. BEES
37. FERMENTATION
38. DRYING
39. B
40. C
IELTS General Reading Test