activity of text interpretation, aimed at students in the fifth year of elementary school, on the bottle cap. How did this object come about? Let's find out? So, read the text carefully! Then answer the various interpretive questions proposed!
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SCHOOL: DATE:
PROF: CLASS:
NAME:
Read:
This simple-minded object, invented just over a century ago, was the reason beloved soft drinks could finally be sold and taken home.
It all started with a scientist of Swiss origin named Johann Jacob Schweppe, responsible for creating the first product that would need a cap to be well preserved. After moving to England, he developed the first carbonated drink for commercial use, which was sold in the country in 1782.
Before an efficient method of retaining gas was found, there was only one way to consume this type of beverage: the drinking fountains, those refill machines that serve soft drinks and beers. The idea was that soft drinks were only taken in restaurants and public places. At first, Pemberton, a pharmacist from the United States, tried using bottles with porcelain caps, but soon gave up due to the price and inefficiency of the material.
It was only with the help of engineer William Painter that the first cap was created. It was composed of a sheet of steel coated with another type of metal, usually tin, which received a varnish finish. A sticky product and a small cork disk that worked as a sealing stopper were applied to the inside of the capsule. The disk was essential because it prevented contact between the metal and the liquid, which could lead to oxidation reactions capable of altering the taste of the drink. Cork was the most inert product in terms of taste and, unlike porcelain, it had a good level of resilience. The item was soon adopted in the soft drink market, but would only be incorporated into the brewing world a few years later.
[…]
In Brazil, the story is a little different: at the beginning of the 20th century, caps had not yet arrived, and the bottles were sealed with cork stoppers and even corn cobs, which created a very high risk of Contamination. For a time, the same Pemberton porcelain cap was used to seal some beers, which would earn the nickname “string brand beers”. Soft drinks would only arrive later, in the 1930s, with metal caps.
Marcelo Duarte.
Available in: .
(With cut and adaptations).
Question 1 - Identify the purpose of the text:
Question 2 – Reread the first paragraph of the text. What object is the author referring to?
Question 3 – According to the text, “Pemberton, a pharmacist in the United States, tried using bottles with porcelain caps, but soon gave up.” Why did he give up?
Question 4 – Who, according to the author of the text, developed the first drink that would need a cap to be preserved?
( ) the pharmacist Pemberton.
( ) engineer William Painter.
( ) the scientist Johann Jacob Schweppe.
Question 5 - The passage “It was composed of a sheet of steel coated with another type of metal, usually tin […]” is:
( ) a narration.
( ) a description.
( ) an argument.
Question 6 - Underline below the word that indicates the sum of cork characteristics:
“Cork was the most inert product in terms of taste and […] it had a good level of resilience.”
Question 7 - According to the text, one of the items, used to seal bottles at the beginning of the 20th century in Brazil, “generated a very high risk of contamination”. Point out these items:
( ) cork stoppers.
( ) corn cobs.
( ) Porcelain caps.
Question 8 - In the passage “The soft drinks would arrive only later, in the 30's, already with metallic caps.”, the underlined expression indicates:
( ) place.
( ) mode.
( ) time.
By Denyse Lage Fonseca
Graduated in Letters and specialist in distance education.