READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on pages 2 and 3

The History of the Chicken

The story begins 10,000 years ago in a jungle in Asia and ends today in kitchens all
over the world

Chicken as the universal food of our era, crossing cultural boundaries with ease.
With its mild taste and uniform texture, chicken presents a blank canvas for the
national flavours of almost any cuisine. However, until the introduction of large-scale
industrial production in the 20th century, the economic and nutritional contribution of
chickens was small. Chickens were considered as domestic birds that were useful to
humanity, but unlike other animals such as the horse or the ox, they did little to
change the course of history. Nonetheless, the chicken has inspired contributions to
culture, art, cuisine, science and religion over the millennia. Chickens were, and still
are, a sacred animal in some cultures. The hen is a worldwide symbol of nurturing
and fertility. The rooster is a universal sign of masculinity.

The domesticated chicken has a complicated family tree, stretching back 10,000
years. Recent DNA testing has shown that the chicken's wild ancestor is the red
junglefowl. The bird's resemblance to modern chickens is seen in the red feathers on
top of its head, the red flesh around its mouth, and its distinctive call in the morning.
The females of this breed protect their eggs in the same way modern-day chickens
do, and they make the same clucking sounds. In its habitat, which stretches from
northeastern India to the Philippines, the red junglefowl looks on the forest floor for
insects, seeds and fruit and flies up to nest in the trees at night. That's about as
much flying as it can manage, a trait that made it relatively easy for humans to
capture and domesticate it. But the red junglefowl is not the sole ancestor of the
modern chicken. Scientists have identified three closely related species that might
have bred with the red junglefowl. Precisely how much genetic material these other
birds contributed to the DNA of domesticated chickens is unknown. However, recent
research suggests that modern chickens inherited at least one trait, their yellow skin,
from the grey junglefowl of southern India.

Once chickens were domesticated, cultural contacts, trade, migration and territorial
conquest resulted in their introduction to different regions around the world over
several thousand years. Chickens arrived in Egypt in around 1750 BC, as fighting
birds and additions to zoos. Drawings of the birds decorated royal tombs, which
contained the treasures that the kings and queens would take to the afterlife. Yet it
would be another 100 years before the bird became popular among ordinary
Egyptians.
It was in that era that Egyptians mastered the technique of artificial incubation, which
freed hens to lay more eggs. This was not easy. Most chicken eggs will hatch in
three weeks, but only if the temperature remains at around 38 degrees Celsius. The
eggs must also be turned three to five times a day, and the humidity must remain
stable at about 55 percent, otherwise physical deformities can result, or the eggs
won't hatch. The Egyptians constructed vast complexes of large rooms, which were
essentially ovens, and these were connected to a series

of corridors and vents that allowed attendants to regulate the heat from fires. The
egg attendants kept their methods a secret from outsiders for centuries.

Around the Mediterranean, archaeologists have uncovered chicken bones from

about 800 BC. Chickens were a delicacy among the Romans, whose culinary
innovations included the...

omelette, and the practice of stuffing birds for cooking. European farmers began
developing methods to fatten the birds, such as feeding them bread which had been
soaked in wine. But the chicken's status in Europe appears to have diminished with
the collapse of Rome. In the period after the fall of the Roman Empire, chicken farms
vanished and the birds returned to the size they had been 1,000 years earlier.

Well into the 20th century chickens, although valued as a source of eggs, played a
relatively minor role in diet and the economy. Long after cattle had entered the
industrial age of centralized and mechanized large-scale production, chicken
production was still mostly a small-scale local enterprise. The breakthrough that
made today's huge bird farms possible was the inclusion of antibiotics, along with a
mixture of different vitamins, in the food chickens ate. This allowed chickens to be
raised indoors and be protected from cold temperatures and heavy rain as well as
predators. This factory farming represents the chicken's final step in its
transformation into a big protein-producing business.

Factory farms turning out an increasing amount of chicken have resulted in an

increasing demand. Modern chickens are cogs in a system designed to convert grain
into protein with staggering efficiency. It takes less than 1 kilogram of feed to produce
400 grams of chicken. By comparison, around 3 kilograms of feed are required to
produce 400 grams of beef. A day-old chick can be turned into a 2 kilogram bird in
six weeks - half the time it took two generations ago.

Chickens also make wonderful pets, as breeders will tell you. They are as colourful
as tropical fish but more affectionate, as cute as guinea pigs and better at catching
mice than cats. In the USA, exotic and heritage breeds of chicken are being sold for
considerable sums of money as the fashion for keeping chickens in the backyard
becomes more popular.
All in all, the globe-spanning chicken is an epic story of evolutionary, agricultural and
culinary success, outnumbering human beings on the planet by nearly three to one.

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, 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

1 Chicken is globally popular because it can be used for different styles of cooking
2 Chickens have poor capacity for flight compared to junglefowl
3 Scientists believe that the domestic chicken has more than one ancestor
4 A modern chicken has the same skin colour as the grey junglefowl
5 After the Roman Empire ended, chicken consumption in Europe declined
6 Some people criticise the methods involved in factory farming chickens
7 In the USA, fewer people are keeping expensive breeds of chicken at home

Questions 8–13

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet.

8. Chickens were seen as………… in some ancient societies, such as in religious or

symbolic contexts.
9. The red junglefowl sleeps in trees at night and eats ………… and small animals
during the day.
10. In Egypt, chickens were used as both zoo animals and ………….
11. The Roman method of cooking chicken included stuffing and making an
………….
12. The use of antibiotics and vitamins helped chickens survive ………… and
predators.
13. Chicken meat is more efficient to produce than beef, requiring less ………….