2024 HCI Prelim P2 Insert

HWA CHONG INSTITUTION PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION Higher 1 Candidate Name CT Group Index Number INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES This 2-page Insert contains the reading passages for comprehension. Please detach it and fill in your particulars in the boxes above. Please retain this Insert at the end of the examination. Passage 1. An author explains what food and commensality have to offer. 1 A miracle occurs thrice in France every day. At breakfast, lunch and supper, millions of people gather round a table to share a meal. Like their French cousins, the other Europeans are creatures of habit who favour fixed mealtimes and relish sharing food and good company. Once the related labour – shopping, cooking and washing – is taken into consideration, the centrality of commensality in Europe becomes even clearer. Social practice varies across communities and for the Americans, eating is about satisfying bodily needs and they eat when they want to. No one can be judged for insisting on healthy food or liking food that requires no preparation. 5 2 Choice may be desirable but anyone who undervalues commensality is denied its benefits. After my mother passed away and my brother left for university, my father and I started eating separately. We ate sandwiches and pizzas in front of our computers or dined with friends. We rarely spoke. A few weeks before I was to return to university, my father suggested, “We should have dinner together again. Your mother would’ve wanted that.” We did and, somehow, the same food tasted better. We missed Mum and Brother and it was therapeutic to know we still have each other. Our chats about the trivial – of sports and Netflix – led to discussions of the serious – of economics and politics, of memories and the future. Dinner together meant a little less time for distractions, but it was invariably a very fulfilling part of my day. 10 15 3 The significance of food as a catalyst for conversation and connection is evident in many other settings. Each June, millions in the United Kingdom chat over sandwiches, cake and tea at street parties under the auspices of The Big Lunch, a project to spread good cheer in the belief that neighbourly communities look after their members. This is a welcome outcome for any society. In competitive cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, workers fatigued by their daily grind crowd late-night eateries and are revived by a shared supper and gossip. The desire for shared experiences is so deeply rooted that, marooned at home during the pandemic, many signed up for virtual cooking classes and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 20 4 For migrants and refugees displaced by force of circumstance, the taste of the familiar eases homesickness and makes life bearable. It also leads them to fellow diaspora who share their hopes and fears. The potential of food to be a conduit for achievement is even more impressive. For ent