Question

You may never think a documentary film could have aroused so much public enthusiasm in Chinese history. Nowadays everybody is talking about a new 7-part documentary called A Bite of China which was recently broadcast late at night on CCTV I. The documentary describes various gourmet items across the vast Chinese culinary landscape.

According to Taobao, China’s biggest online retail website, just five days after the series began to air, nearly 6 million people went to the site in search of various local specialties, particularly those mentioned in the documentary. More than 7.2 million deals were concluded. A ham producer from Yunnan Province saw his sales grow 17-fold in five days.

However, one can’t help but believe that the documentary’s popularity is probably linked to the endless stream of terrible food security issues that have emerged in recent years. In one well-received article, a netizen wrote, “I wonder how many felt so empty-hearted and sighed after watching the film. Blue-vitriol watered chive, formaldehyde sprayed cabbage, Sudan Red colored salty eggs, restaurants using gutter oil. The list is long…”

How will a varied and ancient food culture that is famous worldwide and which should have made the Chinese proud end? Food is the most vital thing in people’s lives. Yet China’s food industry has made people a little worried due to some severe food safety crisis. The market is huge while the cost of faking and cheating is so low for immoral businessmen; and the punishment is too light. Take the milk industry as an example. Although Sanlu, the company that sold the melamine-adulterated milk powder, was punished, thousands of other dairies didn’t work hard to improve the quality. Therefore, food safety problems should be an important concern of Chinese government so that our ancient food culture can be preserved.

As the documentary shows, people are attracted not to gourmet items like matsutake, a species of rare mushroom grown naturally in remote forests, but to common Chinese dishes like barley, lotus root or tofu. They are what meet our basic needs. This explains why people are so excited about A Bite of China---it is a reminder that there is still a world out there where food is excellent and safe.

1.The underlined word “gourmet items” probably means_______.

A. delicious food B. latest technology

C. beautiful clothes D. great inventions

2.The second paragraph mainly talks about_______.

A. the content of the documentary

B. the producer of the documentary

C. the popularity of the documentary

D. the history of Chinese gourmet

3.We can infer from what a netizen wrote in one well –received article that _______.

A. the price of food is too high for many common people

B. the documentary was made by a world-famous Chinese director

C. there is a huge contrast between the ancient food culture and the reality

D. none of the television viewers have a knowledge of the Chinese food culture

4.According to the passage, China’s food industry has a problem of faking and cheating because_______.

A. there are still so many poor people at the present time

B. the punishment for unscrupulous businessmen isn’t serious enough

C. the Chinese government encourages it to do so

D. the food technology is not so advanced as in developing countries

Answer 1