The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers
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The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers has 13 questions that are to be answered in 40 minutes. IELTS topic- The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers deals with human smell sense. The Flavour of Pleasure IELTS reading question type has one kind of question. That is writing the correct answer. Candidates need to skim through the passage for the best answer. The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers help students to prepare for IELTS exams.They can also refer to IELTS Reading practice papers.
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Section 1
Read the passage to answer the following questions
The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers
The Flavour of Pleasure&
When it comes to celebrating the flavour of food , our mouth gets all the credit but in truth it is the nose that knows.
No matter how much we talk about tasting our favourite flavours, relishing them really depends on a combined input from our senses that we experience through mouth, tongue and nose. The taste, texture, and feel of food are what we tend to focus on, but most important are the slight puffs of air as we chew our food – what scientists call “retronasal smell”.
Certainly, our mouths and tongues have taste buds, which are receptors for the five basic flavours: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, or what is more commonly referred to as savoury. But our tongues are inaccurate instruments as far as flavour is concerned. They evolved to recognise only a few basic tastes in order to quickly identify toxins, which in nature are often quite bitter or acidly sour.
All the complexity, nuance, and pleasure of flavour come from the sense of smell operating in the back of the nose. It is there that a kind of alchemy occurs when we breathe up and out the passing whiffs of our chewed food. Unlike a hound’s skull with its extra-long nose, which evolved specifically to detect external smells, our noses have evolved to detect internal scents. Primates specialise in savouring the many millions of flavour combinations that they can create for their mouths.
Taste without retronasal smell is not much help in recognising flavour. Smell has been the most poorly understood of our senses and only recently has neuroscience, led by Yale University’s Gordon Shepherd, begun to shed light on its workings. Shepherd has come up with the term ‘neurogastronomy’ to link the disciplines of food science, neurology, psychology, and anthropology with the savoury elements of eating, one of the most enjoyed of human experiences.
In many ways, he is discovering that smell is rather like face recognition. The visual system detects patterns of light and dark and, building on experience, the brain creates a spatial map. It uses this to interpret the interrelationship of the patterns and draw conclusions that allow us to identify people and places. In the same way, we use patterns and ratios to detect both new and familiar flavours. As we eat, specialised receptors in the back of the nose detect the air molecules in our meals. From signals sent by the receptors, the brain understands smells as complex spatial patterns. Using these, as well as input from the other senses, it constructs the idea of specific flavours.
This ability to appreciate specific aromas turns out to be central to the pleasure we get from food, much as our ability to recognise individuals is central to the pleasures of social life. The process is so embedded in our brains that our sense of smell is critical to our enjoyment of life at large. Recent studies show that people who lose the ability to smell become socially insecure, and their overall level of happiness plummets.
Working out the role of smell in flavour interests food scientists, psychologists, and cooks alike. The relatively new discipline of molecular gastronomy, especially, relies on understanding the mechanics of aroma to manipulate flavour for maximum impact. In this discipline, chefs use their knowledge of the chemical changes that take place during cooking to produce eating pleasures that go beyond the “ordinary”
However, whereas molecular gastronomy is concerned primarily with the food or “smell” molecules, neurogastronomy is more focused on the receptor molecules and the brain’s spatial images for the smell. Smell stimuli form what Shepherd terms “odour objects”, stored as memories, and these have a direct link with our emotions. The brain creates images of unfamiliar smells by relating them to other more familiar smells. Go back in history and this was part of our survival repertoire; like most animals, we drew on our sense of smell, when visual information was scarce, to single out prey.
Thus the brain’s flavour-recognition system is a highly complex perceptual mechanism that puts all five senses to work in various combinations. Visual and sound cues contribute, such as crunching, as does touch, including the texture and feel of food on our lips and in our mouths. Then there are the taste receptors, and finally, the smell, activated when we inhale. The engagement of our emotions can be readily illustrated when we picture some of the wide-ranging facial expressions that are elicited by various foods – many of them hard-wired into our brains at birth. Consider the response to the sharpness of lemon and compare that with the face that is welcoming the smooth wonder of chocolate.
The flavour-sensing system, ever receptive to new combinations, helps to keep our brains active and flexible. It also has the power to shape our desires and ultimately our bodies. On the horizon, we have the positive application of neurogastronomy: manipulating flavour to curb our appetites.
Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-5
Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.&
- According to scientists, the term………………………….characterises the most critical factor in appreciating flavour.
Answer: retronasal smell
Supporting Sentence: The taste, texture, and feel of food are what we tend to focus on, but most important are the slight puffs of air as we chew our food, what scientists call “retronasal smell”.
Keywords: but most important, the slight puffs, retronasal smell
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, lines 2-4
Explanation: According to the first paragraph, we frequently pay attention to food's flavour, appearance, and feel. But the most crucial sensory cues are the tiny air that form as we chew, or "retronasal smell," according to scientists.
- ‘Savoury’ is a better-known word for………………………
Answer: umami
Supporting Sentence: umami, or what is more commonly referred to as savoury
Keywords: umami, commonly referred, as savoury
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, lines 2-3
Explanation: The second paragraph states that without a doubt, taste buds are located in our mouths and tongues. It is where the five main taste receptors sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savour, which is typically described as unami could be found.
- The tongue was originally developed to recognise the unpleasant taste of……………………..
Answer: toxins
Supporting Sentence: They evolved to recognise only a few basic tastes in order to quickly identify toxins, which in nature are often quite bitter or acidly sour.
Keywords: recognise, few basic tastes, identify toxins
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, last two lines
Explanation: The passage states that to quickly recognise toxins that in nature are frequently quite bitter or acidic sour, tongue evolved to recognise only basic tastes.
- Human nasal cavities recognize……………………………much better than external ones.
Answer: internal scents
Supporting Sentence: our noses have evolved to detect internal scents
Keywords: our noses, detect internal scents
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, line 3
Explanation: The third paragraph states that there is a certain amount of alchemy going on when we inhale and exhale the flavours of our food. Human nostrils have evolved to detect internal scents, in contrast to the hound's skull, which was specifically designed to detect smells from the outside.
- Gordon Shepherd uses the word ‘neurogastronomy’ to draw together a number of…………………………related to the enjoyment of eating.
Answer: disciplines
Supporting Sentence: Shepherd has come up with the term ‘neurogastronomy’ to link the disciplines of food science, neurology, psychology, and anthropology with the savoury elements of eating, one of the most enjoyed
of human experiences.
Keywords: Shepherd, term ‘neurogastronomy’, link, disciplines of food
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, lines 4-5
Explanation: Shepherd coined the term "neurogastronomy" in to connect the disciplines of food science, neurology, psychology, and anthropology with the aspects of eating. It is one of the most pleasurable human experiences,&
Question 6-9
Complete the notes below, Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
| Face recognition | Patterns of dark and light are used to put together a (6)………………….. | The brain identifies faces | Facial recognition is key to our enjoyment of (7)……………………… |
| Smell& | Receptors recognition the (8)………………… in food& | The brain identifies certain (9)……………………. | Smell is key to our enjoyment of food |
Question: 6.
Answer: spatial map
Supporting Sentence: The visual system detects patterns of light and dark and, building on experience, the brain creates a spatial map.
Keywords: visual system, creates a spatial map.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, first two lines
Explanation: The sixth paragraph states that the visual system recognises patterns of light and dark, and the brain creates a spatial map based on prior knowledge. By examining the patterns and making deductions based on how they are related to one another, people and locations can be located.
Question: 7.
Answer: social life
Supporting Sentence: much as our ability to recognise individuals is central to the pleasures of social life.
Keywords: recognise individuals, pleasures of social life.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, first two lines
Explanation: The sixth paragraph states that it turns out that our ability to appreciate certain scents is essential to the enjoyment we derive from eating. This is just as our capacity to recognise different people is essential to the enjoyment we derive from social interactions.
Question: 8.
Answer: air molecules
Supporting Sentence: As we eat, specialised receptors in the back of the nose detect the air molecules in our meals.
Keywords:
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, lines 5-6
Explanation: The fifth paragraph states that we can distinguish between modern and traditional tastes using patterns and ratios. When we chew, specialised receptors at the back of the nose pick up the air molecules in our food.
Question: 9.
Answer: flavours
Supporting Sentence: Using these, as well as input from the other senses, it constructs the idea of specific flavours.
Keywords: it constructs , idea of specific flavours
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, last two lines
Explanation: The fifth paragraph states that on the basis of information received from the receptors, the brain interprets odours as intricate spatial patterns. These, along with data from the other senses, are used to develop the idea of distinct flavours.
Questions 10-13
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the text for each answer.
- In what form does the brain store ‘odour objects’?
Answer: Memories
Supporting Sentence: Smell stimuli form what Shepherd terms “odour objects”, stored as memories
Keywords: Smell stimuli, odour objects, stored as memories
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, lines 3-4
Explanation: In the eight paragraph it is states that “odour objects” are stored as memories.
- When seeing was difficult, what did we use our sense of smell to find?
Answer: prey
Supporting Sentence: we drew on our sense of smell, when visual information was scarce, to single out prey.
Keywords: sense of smell, visual information was scarce, single out prey.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, last two lines
Explanation: The eighth paragraph states that like most animals today, we used our sense of smell to help us identify potential prey. This was done in the past when there were few visual cues.
- Which food item illustrates how flavour and positive emotion are linked?
Answer: chocolate
Supporting Sentence: Consider the response to the sharpness of lemon and compare that with the face that is welcoming the smooth wonder of chocolate.
Keywords: sharpness of lemon, welcoming, chocolate.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 9, last two lines
Explanation: According to paragraph 9, chocolate demonstrates the connection between flavour and positive emotion.
- What could be controlled in the future through flavour manipulation?
Answer: appetites
Supporting Sentence: On the horizon, we have the positive application of neurogastronomy: manipulating flavour to curb our appetites.
Keywords: manipulating flavour, curb our appetites
Keyword Location: Last paragraph, last two lines
Explanation: The last paragraph states that the future holds the promise of neurogastronomy having a positive influence in the form of useful applications. They include the manipulation of flavour to regulate appetite.
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