IELTS Reading Test 3 The Tomato Chaos A

IELTS Reading Test 3

The Tomato Chaos A. Many years ago, just one mustard dominated the U. S. supermarket shelves: the American brand French’s. It was a yellow mustard that came in a plastic bottle. If you looked hard in the grocery store, you might find something in the specialty foods section called Grey Poupon, which was a French-style mustard, light brown in colour. In the early 1970 s, Grey Poupon was no more than a hundred-thousand-dollar-a-year business. Few people knew what it was or how it tasted, or had any particular interest in a different mustard to French’s. Then one day the Heublein Company, which owned Grey Poupon, discovered something: if you gave people a mustard taste test, a significant number of people who tried Grey Poupon switched from French’s yellow mustard. In the food world that almost never happens, which made Grey Poupon special.

B. Heublein put Grey Poupon in a bigger jar, with a new label that made it seem French, even though it was made in Connecticut with Canadian ingredients. The company ran tasteful adverts in upscale food magazines. They put the mustard in little foil packets and distributed them with meals on airlines – which was a brand-new idea at the time. Then they hired the Manhattan advertising agency Lowe Marschalk to do something, on a modest budget, for television. The agency came back with an idea: A Rolls-Royce is driving down a country road. There’s a man in the back seat in a suit with a plate of beef on a silver tray. He nods to the chauffeur, who hands back a jar of Grey Poupon. Another Rolls-Royce pulls up alongside. A man leans his head out the window. ‘Pardon me. Would you have any Grey Poupon? C. In the cities where the adverts were shown, sales of Grey Poupon rose 40 to 50 percent. Grocery stores put Grey Poupon next to French’s and by the end of the 1980 s it was the most powerful brand in mustard. ‘The tagline in the commercial was that this was one of life’s finer pleasures, ’ Larry Elegant, who wrote the original Grey Poupon advert, says, ‘and that, along with the Rolls-Royce, seemed to impart to people’s minds that this was something truly different and superior. ’

D. The rise of Grey Poupon proved that the American supermarket shopper was happy to pay more for a better quality product. Furthermore, its success showed that a consumer’s taste and habits were not fixed: that just because mustard had always been yellow did not mean that consumers would use only yellow mustard. It is because of Grey Poupon that the standard American supermarket today has an entire mustard section. It is also because of Grey Poupon that a man named Gordon Ramsay decided, several years ago, to enter the ketchup business. Gordon Ramsay had a simple vision: build a better ketchup – the way Grey Poupon built a better mustard – and the world will beat a path to your door. If only it were that easy. E. Ramsay runs his ketchup business under the brand World’s Best Ketchup. He starts with red peppers and then adds Spanish onions, garlic and a highend tomato paste. Basil is chopped by hand rather than by machine. He uses maple syrup, not corn syrup, which gives him a quarter of the sugar of the most popular tomato ketchup brand. He then pours his ketchup into a clear glass ten-ounce jar, and sells it for three times the price of other brands.

F. Ramsay then travels around the country selling the product to supermarkets. At the end of one long day, Ramsay had sold 90 jars but he had also got two parking tickets and had to pay for a hotel room, so he was not going home with money in his pocket. And it isn’t just World’s Best that is finding it difficult. In the speciality ketchup world, there is River Run and Uncle Dave’s, from Vermont, and Muir Glen Organic and Mrs Tomato Head Catsup, in California, and dozens of others – and every year Heinz’s huge share of the ketchup market just grows. It is possible, of course, that ketchup is waiting for its own version of that Rolls-Royce commercial – the magic formula that will satisfy an unmet need. It is also possible, however, that the rules which apply to Grey Poupon and to olive oil and salad dressing and almost everything else in the supermarket, simply do not apply to ketchup.

bitter bland robust sweet syrupy I. sour spicy tangy Find words in the pictures that match the definitions 1. containing or having a taste like sugar _____. 2. a pleasantly strong, hot taste _____. 3. a strong sharp taste like black coffee without sugar _____. 4. food that has very little taste _____. 5. a taste or smell that is strong and sharp in a pleasant way _____. 6. having a sharp acid taste, like the taste of a lemon _____. 7. thick and sticky, like treacle or honey _____. 8. food that has a good, strong taste _____.

II. In the Reading test, you will need to find in the text synonyms or paraphrasing of words in the question. In pairs, think of synonyms for these words. 1. a dream or an idea _____. 2. to change _____. 3. a profit _____. 4. to compete _____. 5. explanation _____. 6. a description _____.

III. Read the text and complete Questions 1– 6 The passage has six paragraphs labelled A–F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–F. NB You may use any letter more than once. 1. the first mention of a man with a dream _____. 2. research that showed customers were happy to change brands _____. 3. a description of a time when a salesman failed to make a profit _____. 4. an example of an industry where small businesses are unable to compete with the leading brand _____. 5. an explanation for the success of an advertising campaign _____. 6. a description of how a product is made _____.

IV. Now complete the summary (Questions 7– 12) using words from paragraphs D–F. Questions 7– 12 Complete the summary below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer. Gordon Ramsay was inspired by the success of Grey Poupon mustard to launch his own (7) _____, producing and selling high-quality tomato ketchup. The ingredients include red peppers, high-end tomato paste, hand-chopped basil and maple syrup, with only a (8) _____ of the sugar content of the most popular (9) _____. He then sells his ketchup for three times the price. Unfortunately, he has not been very successful, despite personally travelling around the country trying to sell his (10) _____ directly to supermarkets. Not only does he face stiff competition in the world of (11) _____ ketchup but it seems as though while consumers are happy to pay over the odds for a premium mustard, the same (12) _____ simply don’t apply when it comes to ketchup.

V. Read these sentences from the text. Underline the nouns that the pronouns in bold refer to. 1. Few people knew what it was or how it tasted, … (Paragraph A) 2. In the food world that almost never happens, … (Paragraph A) 3. They put the mustard in little foil packets and distributed them with meals on airlines … (Paragraph B) 4. If only it were that easy … (Paragraph D) 5. In the speciality ketchup world, there is River Run and Uncle Dave’s, from Vermont, and Muir Glen Organic and Mrs. Tomato Head Catsup, in California, and dozens of others … (Paragraph F)