The Flavour of Pleasure- IELTS Reading Answers

The Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers, is an IELTS Academic Reading passage that consists of 13 questions. With diligent practice, the IELTS Reading Module can be the top-scoring category for IELTS aspirants. To score well, you must understand how to approach and answer the different question types in the Reading Module.

By solving and reviewing Sample Reading Questions from The Flavour of Pleasure reading passage, you can ensure that your Reading skills are up to the mark. The question types found in this IELTS Reading passage are:

• Note Completion (Q. 1-5)
• Table Completion (Q. 6-9)
• Short Answer Type Question (Q. 10-13)

Reading Passage 

The Flavour of Pleasure 

No matter how much we talk about tasting our favourite flavours, relishing them really depends on a combined input from our senses that we experience through mouth, tongue and nose. The taste, texture, and feel of food are what we tend to focus on, but most important are the slight puffs of air as we chew our food – what scientists call “retronasal smell”.

Certainly, our mouths and tongues have taste buds, which are receptors for the five basic flavours: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, or what is more commonly referred to as savoury. But our tongues are inaccurate instruments as far as flavour is concerned. They evolved to recognise only a few basic tastes in order to quickly identify toxins, which in nature are often quite bitter or acidly sour.

All the complexity, nuance, and pleasure of flavour come from the sense of smell operating in the back of the nose. It is there that a kind of alchemy occurs when we breathe up and out the passing whiffs of our chewed food. Unlike a hound’s skull with its extra-long nose, which evolved specifically to detect external smells, our noses have evolved to detect internal scents. Primates specialise in savouring the many millions of flavour combinations that they can create for their mouths.

Taste without retronasal smell is not much help in recognising flavour. Smell has been the most poorly understood of our senses and only recently has neuroscience, led by Yale University’s Gordon Shepherd, begun to shed light on its workings. Shepherd has come up with the term ‘neurogastronomy’ to link the disciplines of food science, neurology, psychology. and anthropology with the savoury elements of eating, one of the most enjoyed of human experiences.

In many ways, he is discovering that smell is rather like face recognition. The visual system detects patterns of light and dark and, building on experience, the brain creates a spatial map. It uses this to interpret the interrelationship of the patterns and draw conclusions that allow us to identify people and places. In the same way, we use patterns and ratios to detect both new and familiar flavours. As we eat, specialised receptors in the back of the nose detect the air molecules in our meals. From signals sent by the receptors, the brain understands smells as complex spatial patterns. Using these, as well as input from the other senses, it constructs the idea of specific flavours.

This ability to appreciate specific aromas turns out to be central to the pleasure we get from food, much as our ability to recognise individuals is central to the pleasures of social life. The process is so embedded in our brains that our sense of smell is critical to our enjoyment of life at large. Recent studies show that people who lose the ability to smell become socially insecure, and their overall level of happiness plummets.

Working out the role of smell in flavor interests food scientists, psychologists, and cooks alike. The relatively new discipline of molecular gastronomy, especially, relies on understanding the mechanics of aroma to manipulate flavor for maximum impact. In this discipline, chefs use their knowledge of the chemical changes that take place during cooking to produce eating pleasures that go beyond the ‘ordinary’.

However, whereas molecular gastronomy is concerned primarily with the food or ‘smell’ molecules, neurogastronomy is more focused on the receptor molecules and the brain’s spatial images for smell. Smell stimuli form what Shepherd terms ‘odor objects’, stored as memories, and these have a direct link with our emotions. The brain creates images of unfamiliar smells by relating them to other more familiar smells. Go back in history and this was part of our survival repertoire; like most animals, we drew on our sense of smell, when visual information was scarce, to single out prey.

Thus the brain’s flavor-recognition system is a highly complex perceptual mechanism that puts all five senses to work in various combinations. Visual and sound cues contribute, such as crunching, as does touch, including the texture and feel of food on our lips and in our mouths. Then there are the taste receptors, and finally, the smell, activated when we inhale. The engagement of our emotions can be readily illustrated when we picture some of the wide- ranging facial expressions that are elicited by various foods ~ many of them hard-wired into our brains at birth. Consider the response to the sharpness of a lemon and compare that with the face that is welcoming the smooth wonder of chocolate.

The flavor-sensing system, ever receptive to new combinations, helps to keep our brains active and flexible. It also has the power to shape our desires and ultimately our bodies. On the horizon we have the positive application of neurogastronomy: manipulating flavor to curb our appetites.

Questions 1-5

1 According to scientists, the term……………..characterises the most critical factor in appreciating flavour.

2 ‘Savoury’ is a better-known word for ………………..

3 The tongue was originally developed to recognise the unpleasant taste of ………………

4 Human nasal cavities recognize………………much better than external ones.

5 Gordon Shepherd uses the word ‘neurogastronomy’ to draw together a number of ………………… related to the enjoyment of eating.

Questions 6-9

Questions 10-13

10 In what form does the brain store ‘odor objects?

11 When seeing was difficult, what did we use our sense of smell to find?

12 Which food item illustrates how flavour and positive emotion are linked?

13 What could be controlled in the future through flavour manipulation?

Answer Key

The Flavour of Pleasure IELTS Reading Answer Explanation

1 Answer: (retronasal) smell

Question type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 1, line 3 – line 4

Answer explanation: The selected lines say that “The taste, texture, and feel of food are what we tend to focus on, but most important are the slight puffs of air as we chew our food – what scientists call “retronasal smell”.” This tells us that according to scientists, the term retronasal smell characterises the most critical (important) factor in appreciating flavour. Hence, the answer is ‘(retronasal) smell’.

2 Answer: Umami

Question type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 2, line 1-line 2

Answer explanation: In the quoted lines of Paragraph 2, it is said that “…the five basic flavours: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, or what is more commonly referred to as savoury.” This points to the fact that ‘savoury’ is a better-known word for umami. Hence the answer is ‘umami’.

Tips to Solve the Passage Question Types in the Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers 

Since now you know the answers to ‘Flavour of Pleasure’ Reading Answers, let us check out some quick IELTS General Training Reading tips to answer the passage question types in the Reading Answers of Flavour of Pleasure Reading Answers.

IELTS Reading: Note Completion

Note Completion questions require filling in gaps in a set of notes based on information from the passage. The answers may be words or phrases directly from the text.

Tips to Excel in Note Completion:

• Read Instructions Carefully: Note the word limit for each gap (e.g., “No more than two words”).
• Identify Keywords and Synonyms: Highlight keywords in the notes and look for synonyms in the passage.
• Skim and Scan the Text: Skim for the general idea and scan for specific information related to the notes.
• Use Context Clues: Read surrounding text to understand context and find the precise word or phrase needed.
• Check Grammar and Spelling: Ensure your answers fit grammatically in the notes and check for correct spelling.

IELTS Reading: Table Completion

Table Completion questions require filling in gaps in a table with words or phrases directly from the text.

• Read Instructions Carefully: Note word limits for gaps.
• Identify Keywords: Highlight keywords in the table and passage.
• Skim and Scan: Skim for general ideas and scan for specific details.
• Use Context Clues: Pay attention to context around gaps for accuracy.
• Check for Consistency: Ensure answers fit grammatically and logically into the table.

IELTS Reading: Short Answer Questions

Short Answer Questions require test takers to provide brief responses (usually one or two words) based on information from the passage.

• Read Instructions Carefully: Note word limits for gaps or answers.
• Identify Keywords: Highlight key phrases in both the table/questions and the passage.
• Skim and Scan: Skim for general ideas and scan for specific details.
• Use Context for Accuracy: Ensure answers fit the context of the passage.
• Check Grammar and Spelling: Make sure answers are grammatically correct and accurately spelled.

Also Check:

• The Dead Sea Scrolls – IELTS Reading Answers

• Barbie Around The World – IELTS Reading Answers

• IELTS Academic Reading test papers with answers pdf

• Finches on Islands Reading Answers

• Emergency Procedures Reading Answers