Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: Chocoholics…
2024
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Chocoholics no longer need to feel guilty about their desire for chocolate. They are simply the victim of the genes, scientists have found. The so called “sweet-tooth gene” has been identified by separate teams of researchers and helps explain why some find it harder to resist chocolate bars and cream cakes. It also raises the possibility of designing a drug which could “switch off” the gene and help people resist sugary foods. Children, in particular, risk their health by eating too many sweets and chocolates.
To identify the gene, research teams conducted almost identical experiments using mice which have differences in their ability to taste sweet foods. One of the team members said “A sweet taste receptor recognises the sweet content of food and initiates a cascade of events which signals to the brain that a sweet food has been eaten.” He further added, “The same gene exists in humans, so it means that if your parents have a sweet tooth then you probably will as well”.
He said, “We have always known that some people have a sweeter tooth than others. But it has also been proved that if you are gradually exposed to less sugar, then the body becomes accustomed to less. They will be satisfied with a lower level of sweetness. Doctors warn against any form of gene therapy which seeks to deactivate the sweet gene. “We have produced this gene through evolution because sweet foods in nature are not poisonous, they give us energy. We all need to have some sugar in our diet,” claim scientists. US researchers are using this discovery to develop artificial sweeteners without any after-taste.
According to doctors, sweet foods are:
Answer: B. energy boosters — In a passage-based ‘according to X’ question, the answer is fixed by the specific claim the passage attaches to the named subject — not by any other…
- A.
dangerous
- B.
energy boosters
- C.
poisonous
- D.
deactivated genes
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
In a passage-based ‘according to X’ question, the answer is fixed by the specific claim the passage attaches to the named subject — not by any other true-sounding idea found elsewhere in the text. This is literal comprehension, so the method is fixed:
Locate the sentence in which the passage actually states what the thing being asked about is.
Match the meaning of that sentence to an option, without importing ideas from other parts of the passage.
The question asks what sweet foods are. Only one sentence in the passage says this directly, and it comes in the closing discussion of gene therapy: doctors caution against any therapy that would deactivate the sweet gene, and the quotation given there — which the passage attributes to scientists — reads, ‘We have produced this gene through evolution because sweet foods in nature are not poisonous, they give us energy. We all need to have some sugar in our diet.’ It makes two linked claims about sweet foods: they are not poisonous, and they supply energy. Together these describe sweet foods as a source of energy.
Value offered | What the passage attaches to it |
|---|---|
dangerous | the warning that children in particular risk their health by eating too many sweets and chocolates |
energy boosters | the closing quotation that sweet foods in nature give us energy, and that everyone needs some sugar in the diet |
poisonous | the same closing quotation, which states that sweet foods in nature are not poisonous |
deactivated genes | the gene therapy that seeks to deactivate the sweet gene, which doctors caution against |
Only one of these matches a statement about what sweet foods themselves are: the passage describes them as giving us energy. Sweet foods are therefore best described as energy boosters.