Answer Close-Reading Questions
Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.
• Why do you think the authors started the story by describing the world’s fair in 1876? (Author’s Craft)
The authors might have wanted readers to imagine the event to create interest. It also gives the authors an opportunity to explain part of the story about how the burger came to be, as well as set context by mentioning other innovations of the time, such as a British bicycle, a Japanese garden, and the telephone.
• What does it mean to domesticate something? When did people domesticate cattle and the potato? (Domain-Specific Vocabulary)
To domesticate something means to tame it or grow it for human use. The process adapts something in the wild (such as a plant or animal) to provide food, work, or companionship for humans. According to the article, people domesticated cattle in Mesopotamia around 8000 B.C. and domesticated the potato in the Andes Mountains around 8000 B.C.
• Choose one of the four sections about a food and summarize it.(Summarizing)
Responses will vary.
• How does the world map support the article? (Text Features)
The map supports the article by showing the journeys of four foods—burgers, buns, ketchup, and fries—to the United States. Different colored arrows show how each one traveled from various parts of the world.