BEST IELTS General Reading Test 84

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GENERAL READING TEST 84 – PASSAGE – 3

GENERAL READING TEST – 84

READING PASSAGE –3

Read the text below and answer questions 28-40.

THE HUMBLE BANANA

As the world’s most eaten fruit, it is hard to believe that the banana has only become widely available in the last one hundred years. Nor can most people imagine a world without bananas. However, disease is threatening the existence of popular varieties, and while the banana itself is unlikely to die out, what consumers call a banana could change dramatically since new disease resistant strains may differ in taste, texture, size, and colour from fruit currently on offer.

History
A native of tropical South and Southeast Asia, it is thought bananas were first cultivated in today’s Papua New Guinea around 10,000 years ago. Spreading to Madagascar, Africa, and then the Islamic world, bananas reached Europe in the 15th century. The word ‘banana’ entered English via Portuguese from Wolof – a West African language. Only in 1872 did the French writer, Jules Verne, describe bananas to his readers in some detail as they were so exotic, and it was another 30 years before plantation-grown produce from Central America would flood the global market.

Botanical data
Most modern edible bananas come from the wild species Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, or their hybrids. Two common varieties today are the larger more curved Cavendish and the smaller straighter Lady Finger both of which turn yellow when ripe.

Bananas are herbs, not trees, although they can reach more than seven metres (24 ft). Their stem, not trunk, is a soft fibrous shoot from an underground corm, or bulb. After fruiting, the whole stem dies, and the plant regenerates from the corm, one of which may last 25 years.

Normally, each banana stem produces one very large purple heart inside of which the fruit develops from female flowers, and hangs in a cluster weighing 30-50 kilograms (66-110 lb) and containing hundreds of bananas.

Domesticated bananas no longer have seeds, so their propagation must occur through the removal and transplantation of part of the corm, or through tissue culture in a laboratory, the latter being a complicated procedure that can lead to plant contamination.

Uses and benefits
As bananas grow all year round, they have become a vital crop. They are easy to eat (just peel) and easy to transport (no packaging needed).
Banana fruit, skin, heart, and stem are all edible, and alcohol can also be made from the plant.

The world’s greatest banana-eaters are in East Africa, where the average Ugandan devours 150 kilograms (330.6 lb) a year, and receives 30% of calories this way. This habit is healthy since a single 100-gram (3.5 oz) banana contains 371 kilojoules (89 kcal) of energy, and protein represents 1.09% of its weight – 25 times more than that of an apple.

In daily requirements for an adult, one banana provides: 2% of Vitamin B1, 5% of B2, 4% of B3, 7% of B5, 28% of B6, 5% of B9; 15% of Vitamin C; 1% of calcium; 2% of iron; 7% of magnesium; 3% of phosphorous; 8% of potassium; and, 1% of zinc.

A further health benefit is a lower risk of breast, bowel, or liver cancer, and some psychiatrists recommend bananas as they increase dopamine levels in the brain, thus improving mood.

Aside from food and drink, bananas have other uses. Their large flexible leaves become recyclable plates or food containers in Asia. Traditionally, the Japanese boiled banana shoots in lye until their fibres softened and separated. Fine cloth was woven from this fibre. Paper is made from banana stems, and more recently, skins have been employed to clean up polluted rivers as their absorption of heavy metals is high.

In several religions, bananas feature prominently. Tamils believe the banana is one of three holy fruits. Buddhists often decorate trays with bananas to offer to the Buddha. Moslems eat copious quantities during the holy month of Ramadan during which time global trade in the fruit spikes.

Threats to bananas
Between 1820 and 1950, a banana called the Gros Michel was the most common commercial variety. Suddenly, this was attacked by a fungus called Panama disease, and worldwide, the Gros Michel was almost wiped out. Its commercial replacement, the Cavendish, considered less delicious by gourmands, may now suffer the same fate as its predecessor. All Cavendish bananas are genetically identical, making them susceptible to disease. While the original Panama disease was controlled, it mutated into Tropical Race 4 (TR4), which has destroyed banana crops in Southeast Asia, and for which there is no known defence except genetic modification.

Black Sigatoka is another deadly disease. In Uganda – once a world-leader in banana production – it reduced crops by 40% in the 1970s. The treatment for Black Sigatoka is as controversial as it is expensive ($1000 per hectare per annum) since chemical spray contaminates soil and water supplies. Banana cultivars resistant to Black Sigatoka do exist, but none has been accepted by major supermarket buyers because their taste and texture differ greatly from bananas that shoppers are used to.

In 2010, East Africa was hit by another plague – Banana Xanthomonas wilt. The Ugandan economy lost more than $500 million due to this, and thousands of small farmers abandoned bananas as a crop, leading to widespread financial hardship and a far poorer diet.

Scientists, however, have not given up hope, and the National Banana Research Programme in Uganda has been adding a sweet pepper gene, disease-resistant in a number of vegetables, to bananas. Yet genetically modified crops remain banned in Uganda, and other scientists believe identifying and domesticating disease-free wild bananas rather than adopting expensive and largely unproven gene technology would be more prudent.

Human civilization has a long and critical relationship with bananas. If this is to continue, it may be time to reconsider what a banana is. The supermarkets may no longer be stocked with big sweet yellow cultivars but with tiny purple, pink, red, or green-and-white striped ones that currently exist in the depths of the forest and will not be cheap to domesticate.

Questions 28-33

Choose ONE WORD OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

28. Only since the turn of the 20th century have bananas become readily ………………….. .

29. Farmers in what is now Papua New Guinea first started growing bananas about ………………….. years ago.

30. Banana plants do not have a trunk but a(n) …………………..

31. An adult can receive …………………..% of his or her daily vitamin C requirements from an average banana.

32. The Japanese used to make ………………….. from banana fibre.

33. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, international ………………….. in bananas increases dramatically.

Questions 34-39

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-I, below. Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 34-39 on your answer sheet.

34. The popular banana, the Gros Michel, was
35. Since Cavendish bananas lack genetic diversity,
36. Scientists and farmers fought Panama disease, but it was not eradicated. Instead, it
37. Large numbers of Ugandan farmers
38. Vegetables with additional sweet pepper genes
39. Food security worldwide is partly dependent on

A. are no longer growing bananas.
B. there are enough bananas.
C. they may also be destroyed by disease.
D. are keen to try GM banana strains.
E. almost made extinct by a fungus.
F. have successfully withstood disease.
G. a continuous supply of bananas.
H. became Black Sigatoka disease.
I. transformed itself into TR4.

Question 40

Choose TWO of the following letters: A, B, C, D, or E. Write the correct letters in box 40 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following does the writer believe about bananas on sale in supermarkets of the future?

A. They will not come from Africa.
B. They will be multicoloured.
C. They will taste better.
D. They will be less expensive.
E. They will be a variety of banana that is wild now.

ANSWERS ARE BELOW

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