Section 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 28-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Food for thought
A Have you ever eaten a food that might kill you? That's what thousands of Japanese and Koreans do every year when they sit down to a delicious meal of fugu fish.
B Fugu is known in English as puffer fish, and there are over 120 species of puffers in the world's oceans. They are relatively small, generally grey - sometimes with spots - and they have spikes that pop up when they sense danger. Through these spikes they can inject a deadly venom into their attackers, and it is this venom which makes the fugu such a potentially dangerous dish.
C The venom, called tetrodotoxin, is mainly concentrated in the internal organs of the fish, though it is also found in the ovaries and the skin. Ingesting this poison causes damage to the nervous system, leading to symptoms ranging from numbness of the mouth to total paralysis. 'The first sensation is numbness of the tongue and lips', says Dr. Yuko Honda, a biologist at the Kansai Marine Institute. 'This is soon followed by headache and dizziness, and often nausea and fatigue. The next symptom-and the most serious-is difficulty breathing, leading to paralysis'.
D It is in Japan that fugu fish is most prized. Japanese law decrees that it must be prepared by a specially licensed fugu chef, who is legally bound to taste every dish before it is served. The chef is also required to dispose of the poisonous waste in a locked box. However, fugu is not as rare a dish as some people might think-in Tokyo alone it is served in some 3,000 restaurants, and it is also available at many supermarkets, sold in special trays with a security seal guaranteeing its safety.
E Fugu is usually eaten as sashimi, very thinly sliced and accompanied by rice and sake. It can also be eaten in nabe or hotpots-a kind of fish soup-and even battered and fried. 'Fugu is a fish with quite a delicate flavour', says Hiroshi Takamura, fugu chef at the popular Kintatsu restaurant in Tokyo, 'so it's perfect for making sushi, which allows the flavour to be savoured. It needs to be cut very thinly, because it has quite firm flesh-I like to cut it so thin that the light shines right through it, though there are some chefs who cut it thicker'. Asked about the dangers of eating fugu, Takamura becomes quite serious. 'Obviously fugu must be prepared by a chef who knows how to do it', he says. 'If the chef is licensed and careful, then there is no danger at all'. And the poisonings we hear of sometimes? 'That's when people buy the fish and try to prepare it themselves. Sometimes people are even sold fugu disguised as salmon or trout, which is a very dangerous practice'.
F While the poison of fugu is known to be extremely toxic, there are still those who wish to try it. And why do people want to try such a dangerous toxin? Japanese food writer Naotaro Kageyama explains that it is 'because of the sensation they get on their lips and tongue from the poison. It's a kind of tingling numbness that is really quite strange ... not unpleasant at all. This is one of the aspects of fugu that is most attractive to the true connoisseur'.
G While there are those who wish to try the poison, every year many people are sickened or killed by the poison accidentally. Kazuko Nishimura is one such victim. 'Yes, I tried fugu just once. I didn't really want to, but my uncle had caught the fish and prepared it as a special treat, so we all sat down to a meal. At first, it was just my mouth, but then my head started to ache, and then I couldn't breathe. They took me to hospital where I was in intensive care for a few days and they treated me for the poisoning, helping my body to breathe while I was paralysed'. 'Kazuko was very lucky to survive', says Doctor Harumi Matsui at the Kansai University hospital. 'Fewer than 50 per cent of victims of fugu poisoning survive, and it is not a very pleasant death. But Kazuko's family brought her to the hospital immediately, and we were able to keep her breathing while the poison wore off'. Luckily no one else who shared the meal was affected-a single fugu has enough poison to kill up to 30 people, so the situation could have been much worse. It seems that Kazuko was the only one to eat a portion that contained the poison.
H If, after reading all this, you still wish to try fugu, you may have to travel a long way: Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and the US are the only places that allow licensed chefs to prepare the dish. Fugu is completely illegal in Europe and the rest of Asia and America. But if you can't travel that far to try it, you're in good company-the emperor of Japan is not allowed to eat it either, forbidden by royal decree.
Questions 28-32
Look at the following descriptions (questions 28-32) and the list of people below. Match each description with the correct person: A, B, C, D or E. Write the correct letter in boxes 28-32 in your digital test form.
28 fugu chef at Kintatsu
29 victim of fugu poisoning
30 biologist who studies fugu
31 doctor who treated fugu victims
32 food writer
List of People
A Yuko Honda
B Hiroshi Takamura
C Naotaro Kageyama
D Kazuko Nishimura
E Harumi Matsui
Questions 33-36
Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 33-36 in your digital test form, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
33 A fugu chef must taste each dish before serving it to his customers.
34 More than 30 people die each year from fugu poisoning.
35 Fugu is popular because it has such a strong flavour
36 The venom of the fugu is mainly concentrated in its skin.
Questions 37-38
Use the information given in the passage to answer questions 37-38 below. Write the answers in boxes 37-38 in your digital test form. Use ONLY ONE WORD for each space.
37 What are the two types of places you can obtain fugu in Japan? Restaurants and ............... .
38 In which four places are chefs licensed to prepare fugu?
Japan
Hong Kong
...................
US
Questions 39-40
From the list of headings 1-7 below, choose the most suitable heading for Paragraph E and for Paragraph G. Write the appropriate number in boxes 39-40 in your digital test form.
1. Innocent Victims of the Fugu
2. Physical Reactions
3. Medical Treatment
4. Dishonest Fishermen
5. Many Ways to Eat Fugu
6. Fugu Chefs Are Well Trained
7. A Dangerous Practice