Going Bananas Reading Answers

Dec 12, 2022

Going Bananas Reading Answers is an important topic for the IELTS Cambridge test. This Going Bananas IELTS reading Answers passage is about the research that highlighted the possibility that bananas, one of the oldest crops may disappear in the coming 10 years. There is a wide range of IELTS reading topics, and this one has two types of questions and includes 13 questions.

There are 3 types of questions given in this Going Bananas Reading Answers:

Fill in the blanks with 2-3 words
Match the statement with the person
True/false

This Going Bananas Reading Answers is Management of Production Problems in Tropical Fruit Crops. The passages mention that in the coming 10 years the world’s favorite fruit could disappear forever. IELTS reading samples on Going Bananas help the candidates to answer the questions with proper explanations. IELTS reading practice paper is an essential part if the candidate's need to secure a good IELTS score.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Going Bananas Reading Answers

The world’s favorite fruit could disappear forever in 10 years’ time. The banana is among the world’s oldest crops. Agricultural scientists believe that the first edible banana was discovered around ten thousand years ago. It has been at an evolutionary standstill ever since it was first propagated in the jungles of South-East Asia at the end of the last ice age. Normally the wild banana, a giant jungle herb called Musa acuminata, contains a mass of hard seeds that make the fruit virtually inedible. But now and then, hunter-gatherers must have discovered rare mutant plants that produced seedless, edible fruits. Geneticists now know that the vast majority of these soft-fruited plants resulted from genetic accidents that gave their cells three copies of each chromosome instead of the usual two. This imbalance prevents seeds and pollen from developing normally, rendering the mutant plants sterile. And that is why some scientists believe the world’s most popular fruit could be doomed. It lacks the genetic diversity to fight off pests and diseases that are invading the banana plantations of Central America and the small-holdings of Africa and Asia alike.
In some ways, the banana today resembles the potato before blight brought famine to Ireland a century and a half ago. But “it holds a lesson for other crops, too”, says Emile Frison, who works at the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain in Montpellier, France. “The state of the banana”, Frison warns, “can teach a broader lesson: the increasing standardization of food crops around the world is threatening their ability to adapt and survive.”
The first Stone Age plant breeders cultivated these sterile freaks by replanting cuttings from their stems. And the descendants of those original cuttings are the bananas we still eat today. Each is a virtual clone, almost devoid of genetic diversity. And that uniformity makes it ripe for a disease like no other crop on Earth. Traditional varieties of sexually reproducing crops have always had a much broader genetic base, and the genes will recombine in new arrangements in each generation. This gives them much greater flexibility in evolving responses to disease – and far more genetic resources to draw on in the face of an attack. But that advantage is fading fast, as growers increasingly plant the same few, high-yielding varieties. Plant breeders work feverishly to maintain resistance in these standardized crops. Should these efforts falter, yields of even the most productive crop could swiftly crash. “When some pest or disease comes along, severe epidemics can occur,” says Geoff Hawtin, director of the Rome-based International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.
The banana is an excellent case in point. Until the 1950s, one variety, the Gros Michel, dominated the world’s commercial banana business. Found by French botanists in Asian the 1820s, the Gros Michel was by all accounts a fine banana, richer and sweeter than today’s standard banana and without the latte’s bitter aftertaste when green. But it was vulnerable to a soil fungus that produced wilt known as Panama disease. “Once the fungus gets into the soil it remains there for many years. There is nothing farmers can do. Even chemical spraying won’t get rid of it,” says Rodomiro Ortiz, director of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria. So plantation owners played a running game, abandoning infested fields and moving to “clean” land – until they ran out of clean land in the 1950s and had to abandon the Gros Michel. Its successor, and still the reigning commercial king, is the Cavendish banana, a 19th-century British discovery from southern China. The Cavendish is resistant to Panama disease and, as a result, it literally saved the international banana industry. During the 1960s, it replaced the Gros Michel on supermarket shelves. If you buy a banana today, it is almost certainly a Cavendish. But even so, it is a minority in the world’s banana crop.
Half a billion people in Asia and Africa depend on bananas. Bananas provide the largest source of calories and are eaten daily. Its name is synonymous with food. But the day of reckoning may be coming for the Cavendish and its indigenous kin. Another fungal disease, black Sigatoka, has become a global epidemic since its first appearance in Fiji in 1963. Left to itself, black Sigatoka which causes brown wounds on leaves and premature fruit ripening – cuts fruit yields by 50 to 70 percent and reduces the productive lifetime of banana plants from 30 years to as little as 2 or 3. Commercial growers keep Sigatoka at bay by a massive chemical assault. Forty sprayings of fungicide a year is typical. But despite the fungicides, diseases such as black Sigatoka are getting more and more difficult to control. “As soon as you bring in a new fungicide, they develop resistance,” says Frison. “One thing we can be sure of is that the Sigatoka won’t lose in this battle.” Poor farmers, who cannot afford chemicals, have it even worse. They can do little more than watch their plants die. “Most of the banana fields in Amazonia have already been destroyed by the disease,” says Luadir Gasparotto, Brazil’s leading banana pathologist with the government research agency EMBRAPA. Production is likely to fall by 70 percent as the disease spreads, he predicts. The only option will be to find a new variety.
But how? Almost all edible varieties are susceptible to diseases, so growers cannot simply change to a different banana. With most crops, such a threat would unleash an army of breeders, scouring the world for resistant relatives whose traits they can breed into commercial varieties. Not so with the banana. Because all edible varieties are sterile, bringing in new genetic traits to help cope with pests and diseases is nearly impossible. Nearly, but not totally. Very rarely, a sterile banana will experience a genetic accident that allows an almost normal seed to develop, giving breeders a tiny window for improvement. Breeders at the Honduran Foundation of Agricultural Research have tried to exploit this to create disease-resistant varieties. Further backcrossing with wild bananas yielded a new seedless banana resistant to both black Sigatoka and Panama disease.
Neither Western supermarket consumers nor peasant growers like the new hybrid. Some accuse it of tasting more like an apple than a banana. Not surprisingly, the majority of plant breeders have till now turned their backs on the banana and got to work on easier plants. And commercial banana companies are now washing their hands of the whole breeding effort, preferring to fund a search for new fungicides instead. “We supported a breeding program for 40 years, but it wasn’t able to develop an alternative to Cavendish. It was very expensive and we got nothing back,” says Ronald Romero, head of research at Chiquita, one of the Big Three companies that dominate the international banana trade.
Last year, a global consortium of scientists led by Frison announced plans to sequence the banana genome within five years. It would be the first edible fruit to be sequenced. Well, almost edible. The group will actually be sequencing inedible wild bananas from East Asia because many of these are resistant to black Sigatoka. If they can pinpoint the genes that help these wild varieties to resist black Sigatoka, the protective genes could be introduced into laboratory tissue cultures of cells from edible varieties. These could then be propagated into new, resistant plants and passed on to farmers.
It sounds promising, but the big banana companies have, until now, refused to get involved in GM research for fear of alienating their customers. “Biotechnology is extremely expensive and there are serious questions about consumer acceptance,” says David McLaughlin, Chiquita’s senior director for environmental affairs. With scant funding from the companies, the banana genome researchers are focusing on the other end of the spectrum. Even if they can identify the crucial genes, they will be a long way from developing new varieties that smallholders will find suitable and affordable. But whatever biotechnology’s academic interest, it is the only hope for the banana. Without banana production worldwide will head into a tailspin. We may even see the extinction of the banana as both a lifesaver for hungry and impoverished Africans and as the most popular product on the world’s supermarket shelves.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Question 1-3
Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

The banana was the first eaten as a fruit by humans almost …………………… years ago.

Answer: Ten thousand

Explanation: The banana was the first eaten as a fruit by humans almost Ten thousand years ago. The first edible banana was discovered ten thousand years ago. This reading passage begins with the information of edible bananas. Also, it is mentioned that bananas among the world’s oldest crops. Moving on to the consumption of bananas, it is mentioned clearly that 10 thousand years ago bananas were discovered as edible.
Supporting sentence: Agricultural scientists believe that the first edible banana was discovered around ten thousand years ago.
Keywords: edible banana, ten thousand years ago.
Location in the passage: Paragraph A

The banana was first planted in …………………….

Answer: South-east Asia
Explanation: At the end of the last ice-age, the first banana was propagated in the jungles of south-east Asia. The passage begins with the formal information of banana and it is mentioned that The banana was first planted in South-east Asia. the time is mentioned as the end of the last ice age. The jungles of South-east Asia has a number of plants at that time and banana was one of them.
Supporting sentence: It has been at an evolutionary standstill ever since it was first propagated in the jungles of South-East Asia at the end of the last ice age.
Keywords: propagated, jungles of South-East Asia
Location in the passage: Paragraph A

Wild banana’s taste is adversely affected by its …………………….

Answer: Hard seeds/seed
Explanation: The characteristics of wild bananas are mentioned in this passage and these are a little different from the bananas we generally consume. Wild banana’s taste is adversely affected by its hard seeds. The bananas we generally consume do not have that hard seeds. As a result, it tastes different. The wild bananas have hard seeds in them and it adversely affects their taste. The wild banana contains hard seed/seeds which makes it inedible
Supporting sentence: Normally the wild banana, a giant jungle herb called Musa acuminata, contains a mass of hard seeds that make the fruit virtually inedible.
Keywords: wild banana, mass of hard seeds, inedible
Location in the passage: Paragraph A

Question 4-10

Look at the following statements (Questions 4-10) and the list of people below.

List of People:

Rodomiro
David Mclaughlin
Emile Frison
Ronald Romero
Lauder Gasparotto
Geoff Hawtin

Match each statement with the correct person, A-F. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 4-10 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

Pest invasion may seriously damage the banana industry.

Answer: Geoff Hawtin
Supporting sentence: “When some pest or disease comes along, severe epidemics can occur,” says Geoff Hawtin, director of the Rome-based International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.
Keywords: pest or disease, epidemics, Geoff Hawtin
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, last sentence

Explanation: It was Geoff Hawtin who claimed that the Pest invasion may seriously damage the banana industry. “When some pest or disease comes along, severe epidemics can occur,” says Geoff Hawtin. Geoff Hawtin is the director of the Rome-based International Plant Genetic Resources and his statement is clearly given in the passage which matches with the statement of this question. These epidemics can destroy any industry and the banana industry is not an exception here.

The effect of fungal infection in the soil is often long-lasting.

Answer: Rodomiro
Supporting sentence: “Once the fungus gets into the soil it remains there for many years.”
Keywords: fungus gets into the soil, remains there for many years, Rodomiro
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 5th sentence

Explanation: Rodomiro stated that the farmers cannot help it as the fungus stays in the soil for many years once they get in. Rodomiro Ortiz is the director of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria. As per his opinion, once fungus mixes into the soil, it will remain at that place for many years in the future. There is nothing in the hand of farmers in this matter and they cannot do anything. Even though they get rid of chemical spraying, it will not be helpful.

A commercial manufacturer gave up on breeding bananas for disease-resistant species.

Answer: Ronald Romero
Supporting sentence: “We supported a breeding program for 40 years, but it wasn’t able to develop an alternative to Cavendish.
Keywords: breeding, Cavendish
Keyword Location: Paragraph G, 5^th sentence

Explanation: Banana production was given up and they shifted to easier plants. In paragraph G, it is clearly mentioned. A quotation of Ronals Romero is given in this paragraph that supports this answer. Commercial breeding was literally a failure. This is the reason the manufacturer gave up the process. Ronald Romero was the head of research at Chiquita, one of the Big Three companies that dominate the international banana trade.

The banana disease may develop resistance to chemical sprays.

Answer: Emile Frison
Supporting sentence: “The state of the banana”, Frison warns, “can teach a broader lesson: the increasing standardization of food crops around the world is threatening their ability to adapt and survive.”
Keywords: threatening their ability, adapt and survive.
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, last sentence

Explanation: Emile Frison works at the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain in Montpellier, France. Emile Frison opined that resistance can be seen due to banana disease against the chemical sprays

A banana disease has destroyed a large number of banana plantations.

Answer: Lauder Gasparotto
Supporting sentence: “Most of the banana fields in Amazonia have already been destroyed by the disease,” says Luadir Gasparotto, Brazil’s leading banana pathologist with the government research agency EMBRAPA. Production is likely to fall by 70 per cent as the disease spreads, he predicts.
Keywords: banana fields in Amazonia, destroyed by the disease
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 2^nd last sentence

Explanation: The majority of banana fields have already died in Amazonia. Luadir Gasparotto is Brazil’s leading banana pathologist with the government research agency EMBRAPA. The disease has already caused a decay in the number of banana plantations in Amazonia. This is a statement given by Lauder Gasparotto.

Consumers would not accept genetically altered crops.

Answer: David Mclaughlin
Supporting sentence: “Biotechnology is extremely expensive and there are serious questions about consumer acceptance,” says David McLaughlin, Chiquita’s senior director for environmental affairs.
Keywords: extremely expensive, serious questions, consumer acceptance
Keyword Location: Paragraph I, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: Customers will not accept genetically altered crops and GM research is therefore scared to involve in research. David McLaughlin is Chiquita’s senior director for environmental affairs. From the buyers’ perspective, it was quite clear that the consumers are not willing to purchase genetically altered products. They are doubtful about the health effects of the crop and this can be a vital reason behind the unacceptance. Plus, this was extremely costly.

Lessons can be learned from bananas for other crops.

Answer: Emile Frison
Supporting sentence: In some ways, the banana today resembles the potato before blight brought famine to Ireland a century and a half ago. But “it holds a lesson for other crops, too”, says Emile Frison.
Keywords: lesson for other crops
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 1^st sentence

Explanation: Frison has warned that the state of the banana will teach a lesson to the other crops. What the banana is going through in the present time, can happen with any other crop, and that’s why Emile Frison opines that other crops, their farmers, and the industry itself should take a lesson from bananas. This will save the crops from disappearing.

Questions 11-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE, if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE, if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this

Banana is the oldest known fruit.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: There is no such information provided in the passage by the author.

Gros Michel is still being used as a commercial product.

Answer: False
Supporting sentence: Until the 1950s, one variety, the Gros Michel, dominated the world’s commercial banana business.
Keywords: Until, 1950, Gros Michel, dominated, commercial banana business
Keyword Location: paragraph D, 2^nd sentence

Explanation: Gros Michel was used as a commercial product only until the 1950s. Still being used signifies the use of Gros Michel as presently being used. It does not go with the passage because it is clearly mentioned in paragraph D that till 1950, this was used as a commercial product. Maybe it is still being used, but it is not mentioned in the passage.

Banana is the main food in some countries.

Answer: True
Supporting sentence: Half a billion people in Asia and Africa depend on bananas.
Keywords: synonymous with food, largest source of calories
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 1^st sentence

Explanation: Yes, Banana is one of the main foods in countries like Africa as it is a rich source of nutrition for them and it is one of the oldest known crops. As per the passage, half a billion people in Asia and Africa depend on bananas. Banana is easily available in these places and this is a nutritious food too.

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