Sugar and Other Sweeteners Reading Answers

Aug 10, 2022

Sugar and Other Sweeteners Reading Answers contains 14 questions which are to be answered in 20 minutes. Sugar and Other Sweeteners Reading Answers consists of two types of questions including- match the paragraph, and no more than three words. Candidates are required to choose the correct paragraph that matches the description. In no more than three words, candidates are required to answer based on the given cue within a word limit of three words. Candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question. In the IELTS Reading Section, the candidates are presented with different question styles with specific instructions. It is important that candidates abide by the word limit as well as answer accurately for what is asked.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Sugar and Other Sweeteners Reading Answers

The sweetness of a substance results from physical contact between that substance and the many thousand taste buds of the tongue. The taste buds are clustered around several hundred small, fleshy protrusions called taste papilla which provide a large surface area for the taste buds and ensure maximum contact with a substance.

Although there are many millions of olfactory cells in the nose, taste is a more intense experience than smell; food technologists believe this is because of the strong pleasure relationship between the brain and food. And it is universally acknowledged that sweetness is the ultimate pleasurable taste sensation. For example, the French writer Marcel Proust is famous for using this idea in his work: eating a particular cake by chance one day brings back extremely vivid memories of childhood for the narrator of his epic In Search of Past Time. The words ‘sugar’, ‘honey’ and ‘sweetie’ are used by lovers as terms of endearment. Pregnant women can often ward off morning sickness by eating something sweet. In Tudor times*, to have teeth blackened by decay from eating too much sugar was seen as a desirable characteristic open only to the rich and aristocratic upper class. Even recently, with the harm sugar can do much more widely known, advertisers have managed to create demand for sweet-tasting cakes with the catch-phrase ‘naughty but nice’. Despite the attraction of all things sugary, however, no-one is sure what exactly makes a substance sweet.

Nature is abundant with sweet foodstuffs, the most common naturally occurring substance being fructose, which is found in almost all fruits and berries and is the main component of honey. Of course, once eaten, all foods provide one or more of the three basic food components - protein, fat and carbohydrate - which eventually break down (if and when required) to supply the body with the essential sugar glucose. Nature also supplies us with sucrose, a naturally occurring sugar within the sugar cane plant, which was discovered and exploited many centuries BC. Sucrose breaks down into glucose within the body. Nowadays, this white sugar is the food industry standard taste for sugar - the benchmark against which all other sweet tastes are measured. In the U.S.A. a number of foods, and especially soft drinks, are commonly sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), derived from corn starch by a process developed in the late 1960s. And man has further added to nature's repertoire by developing a dozen or so artificial sweetening agents that are considered harmless, non-active chemicals with the additional property of sweetness (see Figure 1), to cater for his sweet tooth.

There is, indeed, an innate desire in humans (and some animals) to seek out and enjoy sweet-tasting foods. Since sweet substances provide energy and sustain life, they have always been highly prized. All food manufacturers capitalise on this craving for sweetness by flavouring most processed foods with carefully measured amounts of sugar in one form or another. The maximum level of sweetness that can be attained before the intrinsic taste of the original foodstuff is lost or unacceptably diminished is, in each case, determined by trial and error.

Furthermore, the most acceptable level of sweetness for every product -that which produces the optimum amount of pleasure for most people - is surprisingly constant, even across completely different cultures. This probably goes a long way towards explaining the almost universal appeal of Coca-Cola. (Although the type of sugar used in soft drinks differs from group to group, the intensity and, therefore, pleasure invoked by such drinks remains fixed within a fairly narrow range of agreement.)

Artificial sweeteners cannot match the luxurious smoothness and mouth-feel of white sugar. Even corn syrup has a slightly lingering after-taste. The reason why food technologists have not yet been able to create a perfect alternative to sucrose (presumably a non-kilojoule-producing substitute) is simple. There is no molecular structure yet known that predisposes towards sweetness. In fact, there is no way to know for certain if a substance will taste sweet or even taste of anything at all. Our currently available artificial sweeteners were all discovered to be sweet purely by accident.

* The Tudor time is the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-5:
Refer to Reading Passage "Sugar and Other Sweeteners", and look at Questions 1 - 5 below.

Question 1 & 2. There are TWO naturally occurring sugar substances mentioned in the article other than sucrose. What are they?

Answer 1: Fructose
Supporting Sentence: Nature has provided us with many sugar substances, one of them is fructose. ‘The most common naturally occurring substance being fructose, which is found in almost all fruits and berries.’ (Line 1)
Keywords: Fructose, Sugar, and Fruits.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 1.
Explanation: There are so many elements present in Nature that are naturally sweet and without any artificial components. Thus, fructose is one of those sweet substances which are found to be in fruits, berries and it is the main element in making honey.

Answer 2: Glucose.
Supporting Sentence: Glucose is another component that is present in protein, fat, and carbohydrate. ‘Protein, fat, and carbohydrate - which eventually break down (if and when required) to supply the body with the essential sugar glucose.’(Line 4-5)
Keywords: Glucose, Food, and Body.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 4.
Explanation: When the body receives protein, fat, and carbohydrate from the food we eat, then these components break into simpler forms to secrete sugar glucose into the body.

What does the food industry consider to be the perfect sweetener?

Answer: White sugar is considered to be the perfect sweetener.
Supporting Sentence: Yes, white sugar has been put as a standard of perfect sweetener in recent times. ‘This white sugar is the food industry standard taste for sugar - the benchmark against which all other sweet tastes are measured.’
Keywords: White sugar, Food, and Sweet.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 8.
Explanation: It has been witnessed that white sugar is set as a standard to measure the sweetness of other sweet components in recent times.

Question 4 & 5. Name the TWO most recent artificial sweeteners listed in Figure 1.

Answer 4: Aspartame (NutraSweet)
Keyword Location: Figure 1
Explanation 4: Aspartame (NutraSweet)

It gives strength and energy to the body up to 200.
The taste of NutraSweet is close to that of sucrose, but it is softer and thinner.
It was discovered in the USA in 1965.

Answer 5: High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Keyword Location: Figure 1.
Explanation 5: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

It gives strength and energy to the body up to 1.0.
It tastes like a slight after-taste.
It was also discovered in the USA during the 1960s.

Question 6-15:

The following paragraphs summarise the reading passage. Choose the ONE most appropriate word from the box below the paragraphs to complete each blank space.

Sugar tastes sweet because of thousands of receptors on the tongue that connect the substance with the brain. The taste of sweetness is universally ......(Ex:) accepted...... as the most pleasurable known, although it is a (6)........ why a substance tastes sweet. ......(7)..... is the most naturally occurring sugar, sources of which include ......(8)...... and honey. Sucrose, which supplies ......(9)...... to the body, is extracted from the sugar-cane plant, and white sugar (pure sucrose) is used by food ......(10)...... to measure sweetness in others ......(11)...... . Approximately a dozen artificial sweeteners have been ......(12)......; one of the earliest was Sorbitol from France. Manufacturers often add large amounts of sugar to foodstuffs but never more than the ......(13)...... required to produce the optimum pleasurable taste. Surprisingly, this amount is ......(14)...... for different people and in different cultures. No one has yet discovered a way to predict whether a substance will taste sweet, and it was by chance alone that all the man-made ......(15)...... sweeteners were found to be sweet.

Question 6:

Answer 6: Mystery
Supporting Sentence: ‘Despite the attraction of all things sugary, however, no-one is sure what exactly makes a substance sweet.’
Keyword: Sweet, and Sugary.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, Line 12.
Explanation: There are many reasons found that sugar is sweet and people feel good after tasting sugary-sweet items. But it is still not known what makes sugar sweet.

Question 7:

Answer 7: Fructose.
Supporting Sentence: Fructose is one of the naturally sweet substances. ‘The most common naturally occurring substance being fructose, which is found in almost all fruits and berries.’ (Line 2)
Keywords: Fructose, Fruits, Berries, and Sweet.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 2.
Explanation: In Nature, there are many sweet substances present. But amongst them, fructose is one of those substances which is naturally sweetened.

Question 8:

Answer 8: Fruit.
Supporting Sentence: ‘Fructose, which is found in almost all fruits and berries and is the main component of honey.’ (Line 2)
Keywords: Fruits, and Berries.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 2.
Explanation: Fructose can be found in fruits and berries, and it is also the main component of honey.

Question 9:

Answer 9: Glucose.
Supporting Sentence: ‘Sucrose breaks down into glucose within the body.’ (Line 7)
Keywords: Glucose, and Sucrose.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 7.
Explanation: It is clearly written that sucrose breaks into simpler forms to provide glucose to the body.

Question 10:

Answer 10: Technologists.
Supporting Sentence: ‘This white sugar is the food industry standard taste for sugar - the benchmark against which all other sweet tastes are measured.’ (Line 8)
Keywords: Sugar, and Food industry.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 8.
Explanation: The food technologists used to measure the sweetness of other items based on white sugar standards.

Question 11:

Answer 11: Substances.
Supporting Sentence: Same as Ans 10.
Explanation: Same as Ans 10.

Question 12:

Answer 12: Discovered.
Supporting Sentence: There are several artificial sweeteners discovered. ‘Developing a dozen or so artificial sweetening agents that are considered harmless, non-active chemicals with the additional property of sweetness. (Line 12)
Keywords: Sweetness, and Harmless.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 12)
Explanation: Humans have discovered several other artificial sweeteners for the sweet lovers on the planet.

Question 13:

Answer 13: Maximum.
Supporting Sentence: ‘All food manufacturers capitalize on this craving for sweetness by flavoring most processed foods with carefully measured amounts of sugar in one form or another.’ (Line 3-4)
Keywords: Maximum, and Processed food.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Line 4.
Explanation: It has been seen that food manufacturers only add that exact amount of sugar, which can be suitable for people's taste buds.

Question 14:

Answer 14: Similar.
Supporting Sentence: ‘The optimum amount of pleasure for most people - is surprisingly constant, even across completely different cultures.’ (Line 2)
Keywords: Culture, and Constant.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, Line 2.
Explanation: It has been observed that whether in different cultures around the world, the level of sweetness has similarities among different persons.

Question 15:

Answer 15: Chemical.
Supporting Sentence: It has still not been discovered how artificial sweeteners are sweet. ‘Our currently available artificial sweeteners were all discovered to be sweet purely by accident.’ (Line 6)
Keywords: Sweet, and Sweeteners.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, Line 6.
Explanation: The molecular structure of sucrose is still not known. That is why it is still not discovered how artificial or chemical sweeteners are sweet in taste, it tastes like sweet purely by chance.

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