2016SHSAT_English

51015202530354045When you eat an orange, your perceptionof its flavor comes from the combinationof its aroma and its taste. Taste buds, thesensory receptors on the tongue, conveyinformation to the brain about chemicals infood while the food dissolves in saliva. Thesense of smell comes into play when theolfactory nerve in the nasal passages senseseven very low concentrations of food chemicalsin gaseous form. The sense of smell hasa larger role in tasting flavors than mostpeople realize—that is, until they have astuffy nose and nothing tastes good.If taste and smell depend on our detection offood chemicals, one might expect that chemistswould be able to duplicate the flavorsof foods. In fact, a surprising number ofpopular food flavors can now be reproducedin the laboratory, and even more are on theway. Orange, perhaps the most popularflavor worldwide, has been reproduced successfully.So have some national favorites,including cashew (Latin America), paprika(Hungary), and fruit-flavored “Jamaica”(Mexico). Synthetic flavors are not limitedto flavoring food; they are also added tomouthwashes, toothpaste, beverages, andother consumer products.Only a small proportion of the chemicalcomponents occurring naturally in foodsactually contribute to their flavor. To identifythese critical components, scientistsuse a gas chromatograph to separate a foodinto its basic chemical constituents. Flavorexperts, called flavorists, then attempt toisolate those chemicals that are essential tothe distinctive flavor of a food. Mechanicaltechniques have been developed to capturethe aromas of food as it is being prepared—such as bread while it bakes—and distill theessential chemicals from these essences. Ifsuccessful, flavorists use their highly developedsenses of taste and smell to attemptto produce acceptable flavorings that arechemically identical to, but purer than,flavors that are naturally present in unprocessedfood.510152025303540455055606570Although American consumers claim towant “natural” flavors in their food, tastetests demonstrate that they often prefertheir synthetically produced counterparts.Artificial flavors tend to be stronger and lesssubtle than natural flavors. For example,many Americans prefer a soft drink createdwith artificial flavors, such as orange soda,over an “all-natural” soda flavored withreal oranges, which may taste weak in comparison.In fact, some flavorists worry thatconsumers will develop such a strong tastefor artificial flavors that natural flavorings,usually more expensive than their artificialcounterparts, will become scarce.Researchers have not always been successfulin their efforts to duplicate natural flavors.Some popular flavors, such as coffee, strawberry,and chocolate, have proven virtuallyimpossible to reproduce. The difficulty increating a flavor like chocolate, experts say,is its complexity—a mysterious combinationof sweet and bitter that excites the tastebuds in an unusual and satisfying way.27. Which of the following best tells what thispassage is about?A. how the sense of smell affects tasteB. the science of how taste buds workC. the analysis and creation of flavorsD. why some flavors cannot be reproducedE. the search for the perfect aroma28. What is the principal goal of the scientificresearch described in the third paragraph?F. to predict consumer taste preferencesG. to develop artificial foods with strongflavorsH. to monitor the use of artificial foodadditivesJ. to produce synthetic equivalents tonatural food flavorsK. to invent entirely new flavors 5055606570FORM A42CONTINUE ON TO THE NEXT PAGE