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BONUS BSAT Material -- do you like coffee? Read this OUT-TAKE Reading Passage from The BSAT Official Study Guide!...
If you like coffee (and maybe especially if you don't!) here's some stuff that didn't make it into the book. Some people thought it tasteless, I guess. What do you think??? Let us know if you really need to know the answers!
A READING PASSAGE
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. It is made from coffee berries that have been digested and excreted by the little Palm Civet, a sort of Indonesian raccoon. With less than 1000 pounds available worldwide each year, a single pound of Kopi Luwak sells for hundreds of dollars and as much as fifty dollars per cup. But it has a taste so exotic that enthusiasts seem to mind neither its price nor its gross provenance.
It was Herman Smill’s dream to devise a low-cost substitute for Kopi Luwak and bring it to the masses.
Systematically, Smill ran every type of coffee bean through all kinds of digestive tracts: Sumatra Arabica through cows, Kilimanjaro Robusta through chickens, and Columbian Bucaramanga through cats, frogs and even salamanders.
Unfortunately, after nearly two years of failed experiments – frenzied cows with ulcers and chickens running around like, well, crazed chickens -- nothing worked. His tasters were exhausted because the brew tasted like shit and test animals were dying of caffeine-fueled sleep deprivation.
Worse, Smill’s efforts had caught the attention of the press, and between the front-page derision and the animal-rights protesters, no one would have blamed him had he quit. But he persisted.
In the end, determination and serendipity saved the day. His lemur wrangler’s eighteen month old child accidentally ingested some Java Robustas that had fallen into her Gerber’s Tropical Fruit Dessert. No one noticed until the baby next needed a change. Hearing the mother’s cry at the appearance of the beans, Herman Smill, in an inspired insight, seized the soiled diaper and had its contents processed, lightly roasted and then brewed. The rest is history.
Beginning that day, a vast cottage industry grew, a network of now more than 100,000 homes and day-care centers with an elaborate computerized transport system doing daily runs of coffee bean deliveries and diaper pickups. Today, for around ten dollars at any Starbucks in the world, you can order a grande “Kaka PupuTM”, Herman Smill’s savory triumph, proof of the value of perseverance.
In the first paragraph, what does the author mean by the “rather gross provenance” of Kopi Luwak?
a) Palm Civets aren’t very cute and they slobber.
b) Paying 50 bucks for a cup of coffee could make you throw up.
c) Kopi Luwak comes from the provenance of Ontario.
d) The very idea of a drink made from rat shit is disgusting.
e) “rather” suggests that the author doesn’t know the meaning of
“provenance”.
What is the least disturbing part of this story?
a) Starbuck customers really might mindlessly pay 10 bucks for a cup of
coffee.
b) It’s actually possible to imagine people drinking coffee made from
baby feces.
c) Human infants could be exploited as tiny little chemical processing
plants.
d) They’ve finally figured out a way to recycle baby food and maybe
diapers.
e) The jobs of poor little Palm Civets are being outsourced.
What does the author mean by “serendipity”?
a) It’s the name of a stomach acid found only in babies.
b) It’s a synonym for unbridled, ruthless and unaccountable greed.
c) It’s a combination of “serene” and “dippy” and refers to Herman’s
outlook.
d) It’s the ancient Mayan name for the god of coffee beans.
e) It means accidental good luck.
If there can be said to be a theme to the passage, what could it be?
a) People will buy anything with a fancy name.
b) Garbage-in/Garbage-out.
c) Herman Smill has some weird body-process fetishes.
d) Perseverance and a positive attitude overcome all obstacles.
e) Freakazoid obsessives sometimes create great success.
Even though his success is surely hard-earned, in what ways can Herman Smill also be said to be lucky?
a) No smart-alek came up with the nickname “Chock Full o’Shit”.
b) If the baby hadn’t swallowed the beans he might never have
discoved Kaka Pupu.
c) He lives in an idiotic age.
d) His bizarre mania didn’t happen to lead to its most likely result:
disaster.
e) No one stalked and killed him.
A READING PASSAGE
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. It is made from coffee berries that have been digested and excreted by the little Palm Civet, a sort of Indonesian raccoon. With less than 1000 pounds available worldwide each year, a single pound of Kopi Luwak sells for hundreds of dollars and as much as fifty dollars per cup. But it has a taste so exotic that enthusiasts seem to mind neither its price nor its gross provenance.
It was Herman Smill’s dream to devise a low-cost substitute for Kopi Luwak and bring it to the masses.
Systematically, Smill ran every type of coffee bean through all kinds of digestive tracts: Sumatra Arabica through cows, Kilimanjaro Robusta through chickens, and Columbian Bucaramanga through cats, frogs and even salamanders.
Unfortunately, after nearly two years of failed experiments – frenzied cows with ulcers and chickens running around like, well, crazed chickens -- nothing worked. His tasters were exhausted because the brew tasted like shit and test animals were dying of caffeine-fueled sleep deprivation.
Worse, Smill’s efforts had caught the attention of the press, and between the front-page derision and the animal-rights protesters, no one would have blamed him had he quit. But he persisted.
In the end, determination and serendipity saved the day. His lemur wrangler’s eighteen month old child accidentally ingested some Java Robustas that had fallen into her Gerber’s Tropical Fruit Dessert. No one noticed until the baby next needed a change. Hearing the mother’s cry at the appearance of the beans, Herman Smill, in an inspired insight, seized the soiled diaper and had its contents processed, lightly roasted and then brewed. The rest is history.
Beginning that day, a vast cottage industry grew, a network of now more than 100,000 homes and day-care centers with an elaborate computerized transport system doing daily runs of coffee bean deliveries and diaper pickups. Today, for around ten dollars at any Starbucks in the world, you can order a grande “Kaka PupuTM”, Herman Smill’s savory triumph, proof of the value of perseverance.
In the first paragraph, what does the author mean by the “rather gross provenance” of Kopi Luwak?
a) Palm Civets aren’t very cute and they slobber.
b) Paying 50 bucks for a cup of coffee could make you throw up.
c) Kopi Luwak comes from the provenance of Ontario.
d) The very idea of a drink made from rat shit is disgusting.
e) “rather” suggests that the author doesn’t know the meaning of
“provenance”.
What is the least disturbing part of this story?
a) Starbuck customers really might mindlessly pay 10 bucks for a cup of
coffee.
b) It’s actually possible to imagine people drinking coffee made from
baby feces.
c) Human infants could be exploited as tiny little chemical processing
plants.
d) They’ve finally figured out a way to recycle baby food and maybe
diapers.
e) The jobs of poor little Palm Civets are being outsourced.
What does the author mean by “serendipity”?
a) It’s the name of a stomach acid found only in babies.
b) It’s a synonym for unbridled, ruthless and unaccountable greed.
c) It’s a combination of “serene” and “dippy” and refers to Herman’s
outlook.
d) It’s the ancient Mayan name for the god of coffee beans.
e) It means accidental good luck.
If there can be said to be a theme to the passage, what could it be?
a) People will buy anything with a fancy name.
b) Garbage-in/Garbage-out.
c) Herman Smill has some weird body-process fetishes.
d) Perseverance and a positive attitude overcome all obstacles.
e) Freakazoid obsessives sometimes create great success.
Even though his success is surely hard-earned, in what ways can Herman Smill also be said to be lucky?
a) No smart-alek came up with the nickname “Chock Full o’Shit”.
b) If the baby hadn’t swallowed the beans he might never have
discoved Kaka Pupu.
c) He lives in an idiotic age.
d) His bizarre mania didn’t happen to lead to its most likely result:
disaster.
e) No one stalked and killed him.
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