Table and note completion: keeping food before fridges
You can use a table's rows and columns to find the right part of a passage and copy the exact words a gap needs.
A table in the Reading paper is part of the passage, summarised, with some cells left empty. Notes work the same way, as a list of short points.
This passage is about how people kept meat, fish and vegetables for months before refrigerators. Your answers are words copied from it, so a spelling mistake loses the mark.
Warm-up
One word too many
The instructions say NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS. Read the sentence, then look at the table cell: fish hung on ______.
Read thisOn some northern coasts, fish was hung on wooden racks, where cold, dry winds did the work over two or three months.
Which answer would lose the mark?
How it works
Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
| Method | How it was done | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Drying | fruit left in the sun; meat cut into 1 | without water, bacteria and moulds cannot grow |
| Salting | food packed in dry salt or soaked in 2 | salt draws water out of food and bacteria |
| Smoking | food hung over a slow fire, often after 3 | smoke slows bacteria and delays fat turning 4 |
| Pickling | vegetables kept in vinegar or mixed with salt | acid from vinegar, or 5 made by bacteria |
Each row points you to one part of the passage, and each column says what kind of information to find there.
The same passage can be tested with notes as well. Notes are shorter than a table, and like a table they usually cover one part of the passage.
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Keeping food cold
•ice collected every 6 from frozen lakes and rivers
•ice houses were often partly 7
•straw or 8 kept out warm air
•cellars used for vegetables and apples
The method
- 1Read the table before the passage
The printed cells are a short summary of the passage. The column headings tell you what each gap needs: here, a way of doing something or a reason.
- 2Decide what fits the gap
Read the words around it. Cut into ______ needs a noun. Delays fat turning ______ needs an adjective. After the word after, you may need a word ending in -ing.
- 3Find the place with the row label
Scan the passage for a row label such as Salting. A table usually covers one part of the passage, but the answers may not come in the same order as the table.
- 4Match the meaning, then copy
The table often says the passage's ideas in other words. Find the sentence that matches the cell in meaning, and copy the answer from it letter for letter.
- 5Read the cell with your answer in it
Your answer should make sense in the cell and fit its grammar. Count the words too: a word with a hyphen, such as sun-dried, counts as one.
The passage
Keeping food without a fridge
A For most of history, food was plentiful at some times of the year and scarce at others. A good harvest or a large catch of fish had to last through the winter or the dry season. Left alone, however, food is soon spoiled by bacteria, yeasts and moulds. These tiny organisms need water to grow, and they grow fastest in warm conditions. Most of the old ways of preserving food work by making it too dry, too salty or too acidic for them to grow.
B Drying is probably the oldest method. In hot, sunny places, grapes, figs and apricots were spread out in the sun, and meat was cut into thin strips so that it dried before it could go off. On some northern coasts, fish was hung on wooden racks, where cold, dry winds did the work over two or three months. Fish dried in this way could be kept for several years, but it became as hard as wood and had to be soaked in water for days before it could be cooked.
C Where the weather was too damp for drying, salt did a similar job. Salt draws water out of food, and out of any bacteria on it, so that most of them cannot grow. Meat and fish were either packed in layers of dry salt or soaked in brine, a mixture of salt and water. For centuries, salted meat and fish fed soldiers and sailors, because they could be carried on long journeys without spoiling. Most salted food, however, had to be soaked in fresh water before cooking, or it was too salty to eat.
D Smoking was often the next step after salting. The food was hung above a slow, smoky fire for hours or even days. The heat and smoke dried its surface, and chemicals in the smoke slowed the growth of bacteria. They also slowed the change that makes fat rancid, which gives oily fish and fatty meat an unpleasant taste. In cold smoking, the food was kept away from the heat so that it did not cook. In hot smoking, it was cooked at the same time.
E Pickling works differently: it makes food too acidic for harmful bacteria. Vegetables were either kept in vinegar or mixed with salt and left for several weeks, while helpful bacteria turned the natural sugars in the vegetables into lactic acid. This second process, known as fermentation, is how cabbage, cucumbers and many other vegetables were kept through the winter in cold countries, and it is what gives them their sour taste.
F Cold, the method a refrigerator uses, was harder to come by. In places with hard winters, blocks of ice were cut from frozen lakes and rivers each winter and stored in ice houses, which were often partly underground. Packed in straw or sawdust, which kept out the warm air, much of the ice lasted until the following summer. Families without ice kept potatoes, carrots and apples in cellars, where they stayed cool for months. The home refrigerator, which became common only in the twentieth century, made most of these methods unnecessary. Dried fruit, salted fish, smoked meat and pickles are still eaten everywhere, though, now mainly for their taste.
Watch me do one
I'll take question 5, in the last row: acid from vinegar, or ______ made by bacteria.
The column is Why it works, and the gap needs a noun, something bacteria make. It sits next to acid from vinegar, so it is probably another acid.
The row label is Pickling. Scanning for it takes me to paragraph E.
That paragraph names vinegar, salt, helpful bacteria, natural sugars and lactic acid. Natural sugars is a two-word noun, but the bacteria don't make the sugars. They turn them into acid.
So I write lactic acid: two words, inside the limit, copied as printed.
Then I read the cell with it in: acid from vinegar, or lactic acid made by bacteria. It makes sense, so I move on.
Practice with Elita5 questions
I did question 5. Questions 1 to 4 show you the paragraph, and for questions 6 to 8 you find the place in the passage yourself.
Question 1: drying meat
Complete the cell with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the paragraph.
Read thisDrying is probably the oldest method. In hot, sunny places, grapes, figs and apricots were spread out in the sun, and meat was cut into thin strips so that it dried before it could go off. On some northern coasts, fish was hung on wooden racks, where cold, dry winds did the work over two or three months. Fish dried in this way could be kept for several years, but it became as hard as wood and had to be soaked in water for days before it could be cooked.
Drying: fruit left in the sun; meat cut into
Write no more than 2 words.
Question 2: salting
Two phrases in this paragraph come after soaked in. Only one describes how food was salted.
Read thisWhere the weather was too damp for drying, salt did a similar job. Salt draws water out of food, and out of any bacteria on it, so that most of them cannot grow. Meat and fish were either packed in layers of dry salt or soaked in brine, a mixture of salt and water. For centuries, salted meat and fish fed soldiers and sailors, because they could be carried on long journeys without spoiling. Most salted food, however, had to be soaked in fresh water before cooking, or it was too salty to eat.
Salting: food packed in dry salt or soaked in
Write no more than 2 words.
Question 3: before smoking
The gap follows the word after. Choose a word from the paragraph that fits that grammar.
Read thisSmoking was often the next step after salting. The food was hung above a slow, smoky fire for hours or even days. The heat and smoke dried its surface, and chemicals in the smoke slowed the growth of bacteria. They also slowed the change that makes fat rancid, which gives oily fish and fatty meat an unpleasant taste. In cold smoking, the food was kept away from the heat so that it did not cook. In hot smoking, it was cooked at the same time.
Smoking: food hung over a slow fire, often after
Write no more than 2 words.
Question 4: what smoke does to fat
The gap needs a word that describes fat. Two adjectives in the paragraph look possible.
Read thisSmoking was often the next step after salting. The food was hung above a slow, smoky fire for hours or even days. The heat and smoke dried its surface, and chemicals in the smoke slowed the growth of bacteria. They also slowed the change that makes fat rancid, which gives oily fish and fatty meat an unpleasant taste. In cold smoking, the food was kept away from the heat so that it did not cook. In hot smoking, it was cooked at the same time.
Smoking: smoke slows bacteria and delays fat turning
Write no more than 2 words.
Questions 6 to 8: the notes
No paragraph this time. Find the part of the passage these notes come from, then fill all three gaps with ONE WORD ONLY each.
Keeping food cold: ice collected every from frozen lakes and rivers; ice houses were often partly ; straw or kept out warm air.
Write no more than 1 word in each gap.
Words to keep
Available in large amounts. Fish was plentiful in autumn and hard to find in winter.
Available only in small amounts, so hard to get. Fresh vegetables were scarce in the cold months.
(Of food) Go bad, or make food go bad. Bacteria and moulds spoil food left in a warm room.
Water with a lot of salt in it, used for keeping food. Olives are often sold in brine.
(Of fat or oil) Old and bad, with an unpleasant taste. Nuts go rancid if they are kept too long.
A slow change in food caused by bacteria or yeast. Fermentation gives pickled cabbage its sour taste.
Before you go
Read the table's headings and printed cells before the passage. They summarise it and tell you what each gap needs.
Use the row label to find the right paragraph, then look for words that mean the same as the cell.
Copy the answer exactly as the passage spells it, and make sure the cell still reads as correct English.
When a passage names a thing and then explains it, the name is usually the answer that fits the limit.
Next: Next, you listen to a caterer taking an order for a club dinner, and complete a table as you listen.