GM Food: Reading Comprehension

Read the text on the left and answer the questions.

Choose the best answer for each question.

GM Food

It is hard to be a farmer. Cold weather can kill your crops. Bugs can eat your crops. Weeds can hurt your crops. Your crops may need more rain than they get. Fruits and Vegetables can go bad before they are sold. Some people say farmers can fix all of this with GM food.

What is GM food? All living things have DNA. DNA tells living things how to grow. These days, people can change the DNA that tells food how to grow. When people change the DNA of food, it is called GM food.

Some GM food can grow in cold weather. GM food can stop bugs from eating it. GM fruits and vegetables can stay good longer. One day, GM food may be able to grow in dry land in Africa. It will feed people who do not have much food.

But there is a lot we do not know about GM food. Will GM companies help poor people grow food? Or do GM companies just want to get rich? Does GM food kill bugs we need, like butterflies? Does GM food make birds sick? Does GM food make people sick? We do not know. There have not been many tests on GM food.

Do you think farmers should grow GM food?

Credits:
Story by Shantel Ivits at BC Open Textbooks
Adapted under Creative Commons license
Adaptations and exercises by Douglas Rodger, English Language Centre
Audio version performed by Cam Culham, English Language Centre
Public Domain images from WPClipart

What can bugs do that make it hard to be a farmer?
1. They make your crops too dry.
2. They make your food go bad.
3. They can eat your crops.
4. They can make your food GM.
What is DNA?
1. It is something everyone needs to change.
2. Something about life that cannot be changed.
3. Something that is only in GM foods.
4. DNA is the part of every living thing that tells it how to grow.
According to the reading, what is something that GM food can NOT do?
1. It can make food grow in cold weather.
2. It can make food grow faster.
3. It might help grow food in dry parts of Africa.
4. GM food will help foods stay good longer.
What is the main reason we do not know enough about GM foods?
1. Famers don't like GM foods.
2. Scientists need to do more testing to understand GM foods.
3. Insecticides proves that GM foods will survive bug infestations.
4. Companies just want to get rich.
What is the writer's main purpose for writing about GM foods?
1. To convince the reader that GM food is good.
2. To educate the reader about GM food and help the reader make an opinion about whether it is good or bad.
3. To convince the reader that GM food is bad.
4. To convince the reader that farmers need to work harder so we don't use GM food.