Grade 10 ESL
Topic: READING: Taking Notes 12 Marks
Name: _____________________________________ Date: _________________________________-
Read the passage and answer all the questions below.
Passage - Chocolates
1. It’s hard to pin down exactly when chocolate was born, but it’s clear that it was cherished from
the start. For several centuries in pre-modern Latin America, cacao beans were considered
valuable enough to use as currency. One bean could be traded for a tamale, while 100 beans
could purchase a good turkey hen, according to a 16th-century Aztec document.
2. Both the Mayans and Aztecs believed the cacao bean had magical, or even divine, properties,
suitable for use in the most sacred rituals of birth, marriage and death. According to Chloe
Doutre-Roussel’s book The Chocolate Connoisseur, Aztec sacrifice victims who felt too
melancholy to join in ritual dancing before their death were often given a gourd of chocolate
(tinged with the blood of previous victims) to cheer them up.
3. Sweetened chocolate didn’t appear until Europeans discovered the Americas and
sampled the native cuisine. Legend has it that the Aztec king Montezuma welcomed the
Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet that included drinking chocolate,
having tragically mistaken him for a reincarnated deity instead of a conquering invader.
Chocolate didn’t suit the foreigners’ tastebuds at first –one described it in his writings as
“a bitter drink for pigs” – but once mixed with honey or cane sugar, it quickly became
popular throughout Spain.
4. By the 17th century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe, believed to
have nutritious, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties (it’s rumored that Casanova
was especially fond of the stuff). But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the
invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s. In 1828,
a Dutch chemist found a way to make powdered chocolate by removing about half the
natural fat (cacao butter) from chocolate liquor, pulverizing what remained and treating
the mixture with alkaline salts to cut the bitter taste. His product became known as
“Dutch cocoa,” and it soon led to the creation of solid chocolate.
5. The creation of the first modern chocolate bar is credited to Joseph Fry, who in 1847
discovered that he could make a moldable chocolate paste by adding melted cacao
butter back into Dutch cocoa.
6. By 1868, a little company called Cadbury was marketing boxes of chocolate candies in
England. Milk chocolate hit the market a few years later, pioneered by another name
that may ring a bell – Nestle. In America, chocolate was so valued during the
Revolutionary War that it was included in soldiers’ rations and used in lieu of wages.
While most of us probably wouldn’t settle for a chocolate paycheck these days, statistics
show that the humble cacao bean is still a powerful economic force.
7. Chocolate manufacturing today is a more than 4-billion-dollar industry in the United
States, and the average American eats at least half a pound of the stuff per month.
8. In the 20th century, the word “chocolate” expanded to include a range of affordable
treats with more sugar and additives than actual cacao in them, often made from the
hardiest but least flavorful of the bean varieties (forastero). But more recently, there’s
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been a “chocolate revolution,” Leaf said, marked by an increasing interest in high-
quality, handmade chocolates and sustainable, effective cacao farming and harvesting
methods. Major corporations like Hershey’s have expanded their artisanal chocolate
lines by purchasing smaller producers known for premium chocolates, such as Scharffen
Berger and Dagoba, while independent chocolatiers continue to flourish as well.
9. “I see more and more American artisans doing incredible things with chocolate,” Leaf
said. “Although, I admit that I tend to look at the world through cocoa-tinted glasses.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-chocolate-21860917/
Notes taking
Identify and write down the points in the passage that tell us the uses and popularity of chocolate in
former & Modern times. (Minimum 6 each)
At this stage you do NOT need to use your own words. To help you get started, the first point of the
notes is done for you.
MAIN POINTS
The uses and popularity of chocolates in former times [6]
Used as currency
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The uses and continuing popularity of chocolate in modern times [6]
Is a multi-billion dollar industry
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Grade 10 2
