PSSA ELA Reading: Good Taste

PSSA ELA Reading: "Good Taste"

Reading Strategies to Use
1. Always go back to the text.
2. Summarize paragraphs/sections into their key ideas/points.
3. Explain your answers.

Reading Passages

• Questions are multiple choice

• Questions reference a reading passage

Test Taking Strategies

• Preview questions before you read.

• Use tools to highlight key details, and summarize what you read.

• Think of an answer before looking at answer choices.

• Eliminate answers you know are incorrect.

• Go back to the text. Reread. Do not answer from memory.

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Multiple Choice

Which word is a synonym for the word savory?

• common

• unhealthy

• flavorful

• inexpensive

Multiple Choice

How has discovering the properties of the protein miraculin affected people?

• It led people to try growing the plant that produces the protein in colder climates.

• It led people to find ways of using the protein to make sour foods taste sweet.

• It helped people explain how the sense of taste developed over time. It led people to find ways of using the protein to make sour foods taste sweet.

• It helped people understand how taste buds work.

Multiple Choice

Which detail from the passage best supports the claim that the tongue senses tastes through more than just T1 receptors?

• the fact that cats lack T1R2 receptors

• the fact that T1 receptors help detect sweet foods

• the study with mice that lack T1R3 receptors

• the discovery of two types of T1 receptors

Multiple Choice

Read the sentence from the passage.

“Have you ever eaten something very sugary, such as a piece of pecan pie, and felt as though you couldn’t look at another sweet dessert?”

What is the purpose of the author’s word choice in the sentence?

• to introduce an unexplained problem

• to give an example that connects with the reader

• to make an argument that persuades the reader

• to emphasize the unhealthy qualities of certain foods

Multiple Choice

How does the section “Why Are Sweet Foods So Appealing?” fit into the development of the author’s ideas?

• It shows that children tend to like sweet foods more than adults do.

• It explains specific workings of taste cells in different parts of the body.

• It offers an explanation for the origin of human sensitivity to sweets.

• It highlights a difference in the sense of taste between humans and animals

Multiple Choice

Part One: Which statement best represents central ideas of the passage?

• Children tend to like sweet foods more than adults do, and the human body turns food into sugars.

• Different taste molecules fit perfectly into certain receptors on the tongue, and a banana’s sugar molecules fit into sweet receptors.

• A tomato has molecules of several different tastes, and umami is one kind of taste.

• Different receptors on the tongue help people to taste different things, and the ability to taste sweetness helps people eat what they need.

Multiple Select

Part Two: Which evidence from the passage supports the answer in Part One? Choose two answers.

• “When a food molecule from the banana drops into the taste bud, it fits into its matching receptor, like a key into a lock. This starts a process that sends a signal to the brain, which then tells you there is something sweet on your tongue.”

• “Monell scientist Dr. Danielle Reed found a connection between periods of bone growth in young people and their desire for very sweet foods. As bone growth slows and the need for extra calories declines, so does fondness for highly sweet foods.”

• “Our understanding of taste has advanced rapidly in the last ten years. One breakthrough was the discovery that sweet receptors in some mammals combine two proteins, labeled T1R2 and T1R3.”

• “They see miraculin as a tool for reducing world hunger. If it were available in large enough quantities, it could make plants that are unpleasantly sour seem tasty to people who need the calories.”

Multiple Choice

What is the author’s main purpose in the passage?

• to explain how the sense of taste works

• to argue that the human sense of taste has changed over time

• to compare different types of taste receptors

• to show that the scientific understanding of taste is incomplete