Article 01

Pizza has been pleasing taste buds for a very long time. In prehistoric times, people baked
16 large pieces of bread on flat cooking stones. Later, in Italy, these flat pieces of bread were seasoned
34 with herbs and called focaccia bread. To this day, many people like to eat focaccia bread as an
52 appetizer or snack.
55 When Europeans came to the New World, they were introduced to tomatoes, which they then
69 took back to their home countries. The Italians needed something to add to their bread-filled diet.
85 The people of Naples, Italy, were the first to put tomatoes on focaccia bread. At first, people were
103 hesitant to use tomatoes. They thought this red fruit may be poisonous.
116 The world’s first pizzeria, Port’ Alba, opened in 1830. Pizzas were baked in an oven lined
132 with lava from a local volcano. The first pizza delivery occurred in 1889 when an Italian restaurant
149 owner was asked to create a special dish for the guest of honor, Queen Margherita Giovanni.
165 He wanted to include the colors of the Italian flag in his dish for the queen. He added
183 tomatoes (red), mozzarella cheese (white), and basil (green) to focaccia bread. He named the meal
198 the Margherita Pizza, using part of the guest of honor’s name along with part of the name of the
217 restaurant – Pietro Il Pizzaiolo. The pizza was delivered to the palace because the queen did not
233 want to go all the way to the restaurant.
242 In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in the U.S. It still stands in New York
259 City today. Pizza did not become popular until after World War II. War veterans who had been
276 stationed in Italy returned home craving the pizza they had eaten there.
288 Soon, pre-made pizza mixes, frozen pizza, and pizzeria chains appeared around the country.
301 Today, pizza is one of the most popular foods in the world. Some interesting pizza facts include:
318 • Pizza Hut is the largest pizza company in the world.
328 • The world’s largest pizza measured 37.4 meters in diameter. It was baked in South
342 Africa in 1990.
345 • Kids between the ages of 3 and 11 prefer pizza over all other foods for dinner.
361 • Three out of the top ten weeks of pizza consumption occur in January. More pizza is
377 consumed during Super Bowl week than any other week of the year.
389 • 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings on their pizza.
398 • Mozzarella cheese was originally made from the milk of water buffalo.
409

Article courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, www.michigan.gov/md

 Understanding

1. What is the article about? (2 lines)

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2. Make a resume with your own words? (4 lines)

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3 What is the contribution of the Peruvian food to the world? (4 lines)

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4. References
 ARTCILE 02

Directions: Read the passage. Then answer questions about the passage below.

Chocolate –– there’s nothing quite like it, is there? Chocolate is simply delicious. What is chocolate?
Where does it come from?
Christopher Columbus was probably the first to take cacao beans from the New World to Europe in around
1502. But the history of chocolate goes back at least 4,000 years! The Aztecs, who lived in America, thought that their
bitter cacao drink was a divine gift from heaven. In fact, the scientist Carolus Linnaeus named the plant Theobroma,
which means “food of the gods.”
The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez went to America in 1519. He visited the Mexican emperor
Montezuma. He saw that Montezuma drank cacao mixed with vanilla and spices. Cortez took some cacao home as
a gift to the Spanish King Charles. In Spain, people began to drink Cortez’s chocolate in a drink with chili peppers.
However, the natural taste of caocao was too bitter for most people. To sweeten the drink, Europeans added sugar
th
to the cacao drink. As a sweet drink, it became more popular. By the 17 century, rich people in Europe were
drinking it.
Later, people started using chocolate in pastries, like pies and cakes. In 1828, Dutch chocolate makers
started using a new process for removing the fat from cacao beans, and getting to the center of the cacao bean.
The Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten made a machine that pressed the fat from the bean. The
resulting powder mixed better with water than cacao did. Now, some call van Houten’s chocolate “Dutch
chocolate.”
It was easy to mix Dutch chocolate powder with sugar. So other chocolate makers started trying new recipes that
used powdered chocolate. People started mixing sweetened chocolate with cocoa butter to make solid chocolate
bars. In 1849, an English chocolate maker made the first chocolate bar. In the
19th century, the Swiss started making milk chocolate by mixing powdered milk with sweetened chocolate.
Milk chocolate has not changed much since this process was invented.
Today, two countries - Brazil and Ivory Coast - account for almost half the world’s chocolate. The United
States imports most of the chocolate in the world, but the Swiss eat the most chocolate per person. The most
chocolate eaten today is sweet milk chocolate, but people also eat white chocolate and dark chocolate.
Cocoa and dark chocolate are believed to help prevent heart attacks, or help keep them from happening.
They are supposed to be good for the circulatory system. On the other hand, the high fat content of chocolate can
cause weight gain, which is not good for people’s health. Other health claims for chocolate have not been proven,
but some research shows that chocolate could be good for the brain.
Chocolate is a popular holiday gift. A popular Valentine’s Day gift is a box of chocolate candies with a card
and flowers. Chocolate is sometimes given for Christmas and birthdays. Chocolate eggs are sometimes given at
Easter.
Chocolate is toxic to some animals. An ingredient in chocolate is poisonous to dogs, cats, parrots, small
rodents, and some livestock. Their bodies cannot process some of the chemicals found in
chocolate. Therefore, they should never be fed chocolate

Answer the questions

1. What is the article about? (2 lines)

2. Makes a resume with your own words (4 lines)

3. Two information from the text that you consider important

4. References