9Th Form Writing Prompts:

~Choose one of the following prompts and write a composition.

1. What does the word ‘leadership’ mean?

   • Why is good leadership important?

   • Have you ever been in a position of leadership?

   • Who in the world do you think possesses the greatest leadership skills?

2. Are arts classes in school, such as music or drawing classes, as important as major subjects, such as math, science and literature?

• Can students learn valuable skills in arts classes? Explain.

• Do all students benefit from arts classes?

• How are arts important (or unimportant) to the world/society? Give an example.

8Th Form Olympiad

8Th form Reading Text #1:

from “Hot chocolate tastes better in an orange cup” from Agence France Presse, 2012

European scientists say they have found further evidence that how you serve food and drink matters hugely in the perception of taste.Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford recruited 57 volunteers and asked them to taste hot chocolate served in plastic cups with four different colours -- white, cream, red and orange with white on the inside.

The chocolate was the same in all the samples, but the volunteers found that the flavour was better when the drink was served in the orange or cream-coloured cups."The colour of the container where food and drink are served can enhance some attributes like taste and aroma," Betina Piqueras-Fiszman of the Polytechnic University of Valencia said in a press release.

The findings could be beneficial to chefs and food manufacturers, Piqueras-Fiszman added. Previous research has found that yellow containers boost the perception of flavour of lemons in soft drinks; beverages with cold colours, like blue, seem more thirst-quenching than warm colours like red; and if drinks are pink, they are perceived as being more sugary.

The study appears in a specialist publication, the Journal of Sensory Studies.

Multiple Choice

1. The cups used in the study were what color on the inside?

   1. Red

   2. Orange

   3. White

   4. Different colors

2. Volunteers found that the flavor of the hot chocolate was better when it was served in:

   1. Only orange cups

   2. Orange or cream cups

   3. Orange or red cups

   4. Cream or red cups

3. According to the article, the information about how the color of a container affects the perception of food is:

   1. Surprising and new information

   3. Will be mostly useless information

   4. Could be useful to chefs and food manufacturers

4. The word “enhance” means:

   1. To

   3. To add to

   4. To worsen

5. Research has shown that beverages that are blue seem:

   1. More thirst-quenching that beverages that are red.

   2. Less thirst-quenching than beverages that are red

   3. More sugary

   4. boost the perception of flavour of lemons in soft drinks