Listening Comprehension

Listen to the following excerpt and fill in the gaps:

GOT MILK? HOW TO MAKE A YOGURT

Directions for making your own at home. Also, Italy moves to rescue its king of cheeses. Transcript of radio broadcast. Source: VOA

http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2009_01/audio/Mp3/se-dev-yogurt-making-19jan09_0.Mp3

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Yogurt is a healthy _____ that can be made at home. One way to make it is to first buy some yogurt from a store or purchase dry yogurt culture. Add two _____ spoonfuls of the yogurt to two cups of milk. This will be the starter for your own yogurt. A cup in the United States is two hundred forty milliliters.

When making yogurt, it is very important to have clean equipment, clean _____ and good temperature control.

Pour eight cups of milk into a large cooking _____. Heat the milk to eighty-five degrees Celsius. Then cool the milk quickly to forty-three degrees. To do this, you can put the cooking pot in cool water.

Keep the yogurt at forty-three degrees and add one-half cup of the starter. The remaining starter can be kept for later use. If you want a _____ yogurt, you can also add one-third of a cup of dry milk.

Cover the pot and keep it at a temperature of forty to forty-five degrees Celsius for four to six _____ . After that, your homemade yogurt is ready. It can be left at room temperature for up to twelve hours if you like a stronger taste.

You can add _____ , nuts, honey or spices.

Yogurt can be made with milk from _____ or other animals including goats, sheep, water buffalo and camels. It can be spelled y-o-g-u-r-t or y-o-g-h-u-r-t. More information on yogurt making can be found at Web sites such as practicalanswers.org.

Now, from yogurt, we move on to another ancient and related food -- cheese.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is the king of Italy's cheeses. People worldwide use it on _____ and other foods. The traditional Italian cheese is produced on several hundred _____ around the northern city of Parma.

Cheese makers age it for at least twelve months in large rounds called wheels.

Parmigiano-Reggiano producers say now they are struggling with the financial crisis. Sales of the cheese and a lower-priced _____ , Grana Padano, are down in Italy. Prices for producers have dropped. And low-priced copies are on the _____.

Now comes a rescue plan for the industry. Italy's government has made available enough money to buy two hundred thousand wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Charitable organizations then will give the cheese -- more than sixty million dollars' worth -- to _____ people.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Karen Leggett with additional reporting by Sabina Castelfranco in Parma
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