Machines, processes and cycles

Reading Passage 3
1 You should spend 20 minutes on questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 3.

Technique
Survey the title, the reading passage and the questions. Read the title and skim the text and
then the questions. Decide what features the reading passage contains: historical information,
description, problem, solution. Notice the order of these features. For example do you expect
to find the description of something at the end or do you expect to find (a) solution(s) there?
This helps you to navigate the reading passage.

Coffee rust
Why do the British drink so much tea? The answer
to this question can be traced back, unexpectedly,
to a humble fungus, hemileia vastatrix, which
attacks the leaves of coffee plants causing a disease
5 popularly known as coffee rust. The appearance of
this disease was first reported in the British colony
of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1867. Over the next
twenty years, coffee production in Asia and Africa
was virtually wiped out Following a period of severe
to economic and social upheaval, planters in British r".etk:Va" ,
aer0re.
, 1".4 Akin
colonies shifted to planting tea, and the British were
gradually transformed into a nation of tea drinkers.
Under British rule, the island of Ceylon was stripped of its forests to turn over every available acre
to coffee production. By the 1870s, Ceylon was exporting nearly 100 million pounds of coffee a year;
15 much of it to England. This empire, however, was swiftly devastated by the arrival of the coffee
rust fungus. The rust organism can be recognized by the presence of yellowish powdery lesions
on the undersides of the leaves of the coffee plant. Occasionally, green shoots and even the green
coffee berries can be infected. The infected leaves drop prematurely, leaving long expanses of bare
twigs. This defoliation causes shoots and roots to starve and consequently to die back, reducing the
20 number of nodes on which coffee can be produced the following season.
The rust fungus is dispersed by both wind and rain. By observing the patterns of infection on individual
leaves, it can be deduced that splashing rain is the most important means of local, or short-range
dispersal. Dispersal over wider areas is primarily by wind, although insects such as flies and wasps may
also play a small part How the fungus first made its way from its native Ethiopia to Ceylon is unknown,
25 but human intervention seems to be the only plausible explanation. Insects as carriers can be ruled out,
and it is doubtful whether the fungus could have been blown so far.
The coffee growers probably hoped at first that the disease would disappear as quickly and
unaccountably as it had begun. By 1879, however, it was clear that it was not going away, and the Ceylon
government made an appeal for someone to be sent to help. The British government responded by
30 sending Harry Marshall Ward, whose brief was to investigate the coffee rust phenomenon and hopefully
come up with a cure.
Ward recommended that to effectively protect the plant from invasion, the leaves should be treated
with a coating of fungicide (lime-sulfur). Unfortunately; in the case of the Ceylon plantations, the rust
epidemic was too well established for this prcitective measure to save the coffee trees. He also pointed
35 out the risks of intensive monoculture. The continuous planting of coffee trees over the island, without

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 Unit 3

even the benefit of windbreaks, had created a perfect environment for a fungus epidemic to spread.
Despite Ward's warning, when the coffee trees were replaced with tea bushes, they were planted at the
same density. It was only by good fortune that no similar fungus arrived to invade the tea bushes and
that improved fungicides were soon available to protect the crop.
40 With the destruction of the coffee plantations in Ceylon and subsequent arrival of coffee rust in
Java and Sumatra, the world's coffee production shifted to the Americas. Plantations were swiftly
established in the tropical highlands of Brazil, Colombia and Central America. Brazil soon became the
world's major coffee supplier, closely followed by Colombia.
Coffee rust was successfully excluded from the Americas for over 100 years by careful quarantine
45 measures. However, in 1970, the fungus was discovered in Brazil, again probably brought in
accidentally by humans. Once the barrier of the oceans had been breached, wind dispersal came
into play. Infected trees were isolated by creating an 80 km coffeeless 'safety zone' around the
infected area, but within eighteen months the rust had jumped the gap in the direction of the
prevailing winds. Today, the fungus has spread throughout all the coffee-growing areas, including
so Colombia and the countries of Central America
Fungicide applications are now part of the routine production practices on coffee plantations, despite the
expense for small growers. Good cultural management taking into account the density of planting and
the climate, is also paramount. Rust-resistant strains of coffee have also been developed but the crop is
of poorer quality. Unless a truly rust-resistant variety with more desirable genetic traits can be produced,
coffee rust will have to be managed as a continuous epidemic on a perennial crop.

Questions 1-7
Complete the diagram below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 3 for each answer

Number of coffee 7 Technique

reduced
Labelling a diagram
1 Study the diagram and
identify the type of word
for each gap.
2 Underline scan words.
Try to predict some of the
answers.
Rust on 2 and 3 Scan the reading passage
3 berries to identify which section
describes the information
4 in the diagram. Is it likely
falling
to be at the beginning, in
Appearance of 1 on the prematurely leads to
the middle or at the end
underside of coffee leaves twigs becoming
of the reading passage?
5
4 Read the section carefully
Starving roots caused and complete the gaps,
by 6 using the scan words to
guide you to the answers.
5 Remember the sequence
will probably follow
the same order as the
numbers on the diagram.

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 Machines, processes and cycles
Questions 8 and 9
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or!).
8 The most important means of long-range dispersal is
A rain.
wind.
•
C wasps.
flies.
9 Coffee rust spread easily in Ceylon
A due to the density of the coffee trees.
due to the windbreaks.
C because the fungicide didn't work.
because it was well established.

Questions 10-14
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G.
10 The move of coffee production to the Americas was triggered by
11 Before 1970, American plantations were protected through
12 Attempts in the Americas to isolate the infected trees failed due to
13 The coffee trees now have to be protected continuously by
14 In the management of the coffee crops, it is also important to consider

A the density of planting and the climate.

Technique
the application of fungicide. Choose 5-7 words or
phrases from the reading
C the coffee rust devastation in Ceylon. passage and the questions
for future use in all skills.
the increased demand for coffee in Europe.
Record the words according
careful quarantine measures. to theme and/or function
and with a context, e.g.
F the genetic traits of the coffee tree. Question 10 was triggered
by, which can be recorded
the prevailing winds. under cause and effect.

2 Choose 5-7 words or phrases from the reading passage and the questions that you think
will be useful to remember. Keep a record of them.

3 Make a list of the text features in this reading passage, e.g. description, historical
information and problem. Then do the same with Reading passages 1 and 2.

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