IELTS Reading 練習 義大利麵的起源（含題目+詳解）

The Origins of Pasta

Few foods are as closely associated with a single nation as pasta is with Italy, yet the history of dried wheat noodles is older, broader and more contested than the popular image suggests. The persistent legend that Marco Polo brought pasta back from China after his thirteenth-century travels has been firmly rejected by food historians for nearly a hundred years. Italian documents mentioning maccheroni and vermicelli exist from before Polo's birth, and a will drawn up in Genoa in 1279 lists "a basket of macaroni" among the deceased's possessions — a clear record decades earlier than any plausible date for Polo's return.

What is true is that several civilisations independently developed methods of cooking ribbons or strings of wheat dough in boiling water. Chinese noodles made from millet have been excavated at archaeological sites dating back four thousand years. The Greeks recorded a flat sheet pasta called laganon, the ancestor of modern lasagne, while medieval Arab scholars described an early form of dried, transportable pasta called itriyya that was already being traded across the southern Mediterranean by the tenth century. It was almost certainly through Arab Sicily, rather than Mongol-era China, that the technique of drying long pasta for storage and shipping reached the rest of Italy.

The shape and variety of pasta exploded after the introduction of the mechanical extrusion press in the seventeenth century. Earlier pasta had been cut by hand from rolled sheets; pressing soft dough through perforated bronze plates allowed bakers to produce hollow tubes, screws and ridged shapes in commercial quantity. Naples, with its dry breeze ideal for hanging pasta to cure, became the centre of the new industry, and by the early 1800s ordinary Neapolitans were eating macaroni daily.

Tomato sauce — today inseparable from Italian pasta in the popular imagination — joined the picture only late. The tomato, a New World plant, was not widely accepted as edible in Europe until the eighteenth century, and the first published recipe for pasta with tomato sauce did not appear until 1839.

Do the following statements agree with the information in the passage? 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. The story that Marco Polo brought pasta from China is no longer accepted by food historians.
2. The 1279 Genoese will is the oldest written reference to pasta of any kind.
3. Arab traders carried a dried form of pasta around the southern Mediterranean by the tenth century.
4. The mechanical extrusion press was invented in Naples.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. According to the passage, the technique of drying long pasta most likely reached mainland Italy through:

- A. Marco Polo's expedition to China - B. Greek traders bringing laganon - C. Arab-controlled Sicily - D. monks travelling from northern Europe

1. The writer suggests that tomato sauce became part of Italian pasta cuisine:

- A. as soon as the tomato arrived from the New World - B. only relatively recently - C. before the extrusion press was invented - D. mainly in northern Italy first

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Long before Marco Polo, Chinese cooks were already making noodles from (7) ______, and the Greeks had a flat sheet pasta called laganon. The mechanical (8) ______ allowed bakers to mass-produce hollow and ridged shapes from the seventeenth century onward. The first published recipe combining pasta with tomato sauce appeared as late as (9) ______.

1. TRUE Supporting sentence: "The persistent legend that Marco Polo brought pasta back from China ... has been firmly rejected by food historians for nearly a hundred years". "Firmly rejected" matches "no longer accepted".

2. NOT GIVEN The passage says Italian documents mention pasta "from before Polo's birth" and gives 1279 as one example, but it does not claim 1279 is the oldest reference of any kind. Don't infer — choose NOT GIVEN.

3. TRUE Supporting sentence: "medieval Arab scholars described an early form of dried, transportable pasta called itriyya that was already being traded across the southern Mediterranean by the tenth century". Direct paraphrase.

4. NOT GIVEN The passage says Naples became "the centre of the new industry" but does not say the press was invented there. Centre of production is not the same as place of invention. NOT GIVEN.

5. C — Arab-controlled Sicily Supporting sentence: "It was almost certainly through Arab Sicily, rather than Mongol-era China, that the technique of drying long pasta ... reached the rest of Italy". Direct paraphrase; A is the trap the passage explicitly denies.

6. B — only relatively recently Supporting sentence: "the first published recipe for pasta with tomato sauce did not appear until 1839". 1839 is far later than the rest of the pasta story, so the addition was relatively recent.

7. millet Supporting sentence: "Chinese noodles made from millet have been excavated at archaeological sites dating back four thousand years". Single-word answer.

8. extrusion press Supporting sentence: "The shape and variety of pasta exploded after the introduction of the mechanical extrusion press". Two-word phrase from the text.

9. 1839 Supporting sentence: "the first published recipe for pasta with tomato sauce did not appear until 1839". The number counts as one word.