University Tips

Food for thought

By Ajarn Helen Jandamit, Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post

University Tips is here to help you prepare for the English exams and tests that are coming your way. It gives you practise answering questions similar to those you may have at school and also on the university entrance examination.

SECTION 1

Read the story. Then, answer the multiple-choice questions that follow.

Snack time

Unless people live in a Muslim community or are born to an old-fashioned family with bayia-eating grandparents, very few young people these days have ever heard of bayia, let alone had a chance to sample it. A street snack that is rarely found nowadays, bayia is, however, one of the most common and authentic Muslim snacks in Thailand.

The treat looks like crispy, tiny balls in a yellowish gold colour, the size of a grown-up�s thumb. Its key ingredient is crushed mung bean, so the treat may be best described as mung bean fritter. And just like any tord mun fritter, bayia is always enjoyed with its own special dipping sauce.

The main thing that makes bayia different from other local snacks is that it usually has a very hard texture, which may be enjoyable for some but is a real challenge for others.

Typically bayia is made with ground mung bean, pepper, turmeric, cloves and salt. All the ingredients are well mixed and moulded into small balls before being deep-fried in boiling oil to create a treat that�s crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Its sweet, sour, salty and spicy dipping sauce is a blend of tamarind puree, palm sugar, dried chilli and vinegar. The snack is often served with deep-fried dried chilli.

1. Why haven�t many young people tried bayia?

a. They don�t live in a Muslim community.
b. Their grandparents don�t eat bayia.
c. Their families are not old-fashioned.
d. All of the above.

2. Bayia are not �

a. Yellowish gold.
b. Crispy.
c. Soft on the outside.
d. Eaten with a special dipping sauce.

3. Which of the following ingredients is not included in the bayia recipe?

a. Ground mung bean.
b. Rice.
c. Salt.
d. Turmeric.

4. The dipping sauce tastes ...

a. Sweet and sour.
b. Salty and spicy.
c. Sweet, spicy and sour.
d. Sweet, sour, salty and spicy.

5. How big are bayia?

a. About the size of an adult�s thumb.
b. Small.
c. Large.
d. Extra large.

6. What are bayia cooked in?

a. Dipping sauce.
b. Tamarind puree.
c. Vinegar.
d. Boiling oil.

SECTION 2

Fill in the blanks in the text with the correct words from the choices that follow.

Just doing her job

Police in Austria are looking for a robber ........ 7 ........ ran off after a shopkeeper ignored the gun that he ........ 8 ........ at her.

Ingrid Kassel, 27, thought that the gun was ........ 9 ........ fake, told the man off for jumping the queue ....... 10 ....... told him to go to the back.

The robber ...... 11 ..... burst into the shop in Vienna, pushed to .....12 ...... front of the queue, pulled out the hand gun .... 13 ..... demanded money.

�I thought he was joking ....... 14 ....... something, so I told him to get to the ....... 15 ....... of the queue. I was just doing my ........ 16 ........,� Kassel said.

The shocked robber fled empty-handed and police are still .......17 ....... for him.

SECTION 3

Fill in the table below with the correct percentages from the following news story.

Bad breakfast

Almost half of young adults in Britain don�t know how to boil an egg properly, according to a new survey. A poll to mark Farmhouse Breakfast Week found that 51 percent of young adults knew that it took three minutes to soft-boil an egg.

One in 20 thought that it took 10 minutes, while 15 percent said they simply had no idea.

British chef Brian Turner said that preparing a healthy cooked breakfast is a basic skill, and the findings of the survey are a cause for concern.

�This survey shows that many aren�t capable of boiling an egg, grilling bacon or cooking sausages correctly,� he said.

SECTION 4

Read the story. Then, answer the true or false questions that follow.

Disappearing elephants

According to the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, the Asian elephant is the world�s second-largest land mammal after the African elephant and is the most significant animal in the ecosystem of the tropical forests they live in. They create salt-licks by digging up minerals, which serve as a source of nutrition for other animals. They also spread plant seeds.

In Thailand, white elephants are symbols of the royal power of the King and of the nation itself.

Around 5,000 Asian elephants are estimated to exist in Thailand, 2,000 in the wild and 3,000 domesticated. The number of wild elephants has fallen as a result of being hunted for their ivory, being captured as calves for sale to tourist attractions or hotels and being captured to work in the logging industry. The elephant�s habitat is also being destroyed.

21. The Asian elephant is the world�s largest land mammal.

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22. The African elephant is the world�s largest land mammal.

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23. There are 3,000 wild elephants in Thailand.

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24. In Thailand, white elephants symbolise the royal power of the King.

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25. There are more elephants in Thailand now than there used to be.

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26. One of the causes for the fall in the number of elephants in Thailand is tourists.

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SECTION 5

Rearrange the following letters to spell words from the stories. Then, match the words with the correct meanings.

	authentic (adj): known to be real and genuine and not a copy fritter (n): a piece of fruit, meat or vegetable that is covered in batter and fried texture (n): the way food feels in your mouth, for example whether it is rough or smooth mould (v): to shape a soft substance into a particular form by pressing it puree (n): food in the form of a thick liquid made by crushing fruit or cooked vegetables in a small amount of water poll (n): the process of questioning people who are representative of a larger group in order to get information about the general opinion findings (n): information that is discovered as a result of research into something ecosystem (n): all the plants and living creatures in a particular area considered in relation to their physical environment domesticated (adj): used to living with or working for humans ivory (n): a hard yellowish-white substance like bone that forms the tusks of elephants habitat (n): the place where a particular type of animal or plant is normally found