TOEFL iBT Practice Test 8

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Instructions: Easy tomato soup 1. Heat two spoonfuls of oil in a large pan and cook one chopped onion for five minutes. 2. Add two crushed garlic cloves and stir for one minute. 3. Pour in a can of chopped tomatoes and 500 ml of vegetable stock. 4. Simmer gently for twenty minutes, then blend until smooth. 5. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with fresh bread. Tip: the soup can be frozen for up to three months.

Fermentation, the metabolic process by which microorganisms convert sugars into other compounds in the absence of oxygen, predates written history as a method of food preservation and flavour transformation, though the underlying biochemistry was not understood until the nineteenth century, when Louis Pasteur demonstrated that living yeast, rather than a purely chemical reaction, was responsible for converting sugar into alcohol during brewing. Different microorganisms produce different fermentation products depending on which metabolic pathway they use: yeast typically performs alcoholic fermentation, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide, the latter responsible for bread's rise and beer's carbonation, while certain bacteria perform lactic acid fermentation, producing the sour flavour and preservative acidity found in yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Because fermentation lowers a food's pH or introduces alcohol, both of which inhibit the growth of many harmful microorganisms, it historically extended the shelf life of perishable foods well before refrigeration existed, allowing communities to preserve seasonal harvests through winter months. Beyond preservation, fermentation frequently improves nutritional value: it can break down compounds that otherwise interfere with nutrient absorption and, in some fermented foods, increases the concentration of certain vitamins produced as microbial byproducts. Modern food science has also exploited fermentation industrially, engineering specific microbial strains to produce consistent, large-scale batches of products ranging from soy sauce to particular pharmaceutical compounds.