REVIEW UTBK 2019

Bahasa Inggris
KE-5
Questions 1—5 are based on the following passage.
A huge study, published this summer in the British Medical Journal, seemed to indicate that a diet filled with
spices - including chillies - was beneficial for health.A team at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences tracked
the health of nearly half a million participants in China for several years. They found that participants who said they
ate spicy food once or twice a week had a mortality rate 10% lower than those who ate spicy food less than once a
week. Risk of death reduced still further for hot-heads who ate spicy food six or seven days a week.
Chilli peppers were the most commonly used spice among the sample, and those who ate fresh chilli had a
lower risk of death from cancer, coronary heart disease and diabetes.One of the authors of the study, Lu Qi - who
confesses that he is very keen on spicy food - says there are likely to be many reasons for this effect."The data
encourages people to eat more spicy food to improve health and reduce mortality risk at an early age," says Qi, a
nutritionist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
While the health-promoting properties of chillies may not be fully understood, at least we have a good idea
where to look to find the source of them. Cut a chilli open and you will see yellow placenta-like fronds that attach
the seeds to the inside of the fruit. In most types of chilli, this is the location of the spice's secret weapon - capsaicin.
It is capsaicin that makes chillies hot. The heat is measured in Scoville heat units, which is the number of times a
sample of dissolved dried chilli must be diluted by its own weight in sugar water before it loses its heat. For a green
bell pepper this is zero. However, the Aztec codices also tell us that they put chilli on their teeth to kill toothache
pain, and the use of capsaicin as an analgesic also continues to this day.
Several studies have also indicated that capsaicin has powerful anti-cancer properties. It has been found to be
helpful in fighting human prostate and lung cancer cells in mice, and there are also indications that it could be used
as a treatment for colon cancer. It may also improve drug resistance for bile-duct cancer sufferers. Capsaicin creams
and patches are available in chemists to ease pain. But it's only in the past 20 years that we have come to understand
the contradiction of how something that causes pain can ease it too. Capsaicin binds to the pain receptor TRPV1,
which our brains also use to detect changes in temperature - that's why we think chillies are hot.
Adapted from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34411492

1. To whom is the text intended? 4. Based on the text, which of the followings
(A) Chilli lovers. statement is true?
(B) Readers in general. (A) People can gain benefit of chillies when
(C) Non chilli lovers. they are made into cream.
(D) Doctors. (B) People should keep eating chilies as their
(E) Cancer patients. major consumption in order to avoid the
risk of death.
2. How can chillies in form of capsaicin substance (C) Chilies can be used as a painkiller due to
ease pain? its capsaicin content as an analgesic .
(A) By consuming them as much as possible. (D) Some experts believe that chillies have
been the best medication over years.
(B) By putting them directly into the wound.
(E) Some researchers suggest that consuming
(C) By making them into delicious food.
chillies everyday in our diet can prolong
(D) By applying capsaicin creams and patches. our life twice better than those who never
(E) By detecting capsaicin subtance changes in take them in their diet.
temperature.
5. With the sentence ‘They found that participants
3. What is the main idea of the passage? who said they ate spicy food once or twice a
(A) Why chillies are popular. week had a mortality rate 10% lower than those
(B) The studies about the benefits of chillies. who ate spicy food less than once a week’ in
(C) The studies about how chilies can make paragraph 1, the writer intends to ...
people addicted. (A) suggest people eating spicies as their
(D) The overview of the effects that chillies routine choice of food.
can give to living things. (B) report that consuming spicy food could
(E) The theories about misconception of decrease the number of death.
chilies from prehistoric time until today (C) conclude that spicy food was declined due
dealing with the use of capsaicin as an to the lower rate of mortality.
(D) inform people that food low in spicies
analgesic.
benefitted people’s risk of death.
(E) cite that the research finding needed to be
confirmed whether to lower death risk or not.

Ganesha Operation 1