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In these modern times of fast food lunches, take-away dinners and ready-to-eat breakfasts, we often reminisce about the dishes that our mothers made when we were young. The aromas and flavours of those dishes are still fresh in our minds, though several years have passed since we last had these. Is it the flavour that actually makes us remember these dishes? Or is it that these dishes are connected to other pleasant memories of those times and of our younger selves, which have left an indelible impression on our minds?
If we think about how our mother’s garden used to be, there was nothing remarkable about it, at least at first glance. What did stand out was that everything—flowers, fruits and vegetables—was neatly laid out and pleasing to the eye. Widely contrasting fruits and vegetables such as strawberries and cucumber, poppies and potatoes, turnips and tomatoes grew in perfect harmony in mother’s garden.
One group of plants that one particularly remembers among this eclectic mix is the “sweet” herbs placed just outside the kitchen. These are items that we never see on the table and that never play leading roles in the dramatic act that is mother’s cooking. Nonetheless, these are absolutely essential ingredients of mother’s food, just like members of the cast who play small but important roles and without whom the act would lose a lot of its colour and charm. It is these performances that one remembers long after one has forgotten the names of the leading cast members. The herbs in mother’s garden are no different.
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1. The author compares herbs in mother’s garden with members of ‘the cast’ primarily in order to:(A) describe the supporting role played by these herbs in preparing a dish.
(B) identify a similarity between these herbs and other fruits and vegetables.
(C) analyse the relationship between herbs and cooking.
(D) explain how these herbs play a vital role in providing flavour to a dish.
(E) point out the key differentiating ingredients in mother’s dishes.
The author brings in the comparison to show that these herbs play a small but vital role, without whom the act loses a lot of colour and charm. She says that we remember the performance of these cast members.
The focus is on how vital their role is. She doesn't use the comparison to say that they play a supporting role, not the main role. The idea is to tell how important their role is.