LET'S READ ABOUT COOKING AND BAKING

A PANDEMIC HOBBY
Reading: Why was baking sourdough bread a pandemic hobby?

Adapted from an article by Stella Em

^[1] 2020 was the year of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic. This made everybody stay home in order to stay healthy. And so everybody started new hobbies. They needed a way to stay busy. They did not want to worry about the pandemic. One of the most popular hobbies during the pandemic was making sourdough bread. Baking sourdough bread became popular during the pandemic for several reasons.

^[2] First, sourdough takes a long time. In the past, people did not have a lot of time to make their own bread. They were very busy with work, school, and family. But many people had to stay home during the pandemic. They could not go to work. They could not go to restaurants. They could not travel. So they had a lot of time. They finally had time to make their own bread at home.

^[3] Second, sourdough bread does not require anything special. The recipe is simple. The ingredients are only flour, salt, and water. Regular bread usually requires yeast, but sourdough does not. And that was a good thing because yeast was not always available in 2020.

^[4] Third, baking bread at home helped people to feel better. The pandemic was not easy. Things felt out of control. Baking bread is a challenge. However, making your own food made a person feel good — and it tasted good, too!

^[5] In conclusion, sourdough bread is nothing new. Bakers have been making sourdough bread for many years. But the COVID-19 pandemic gave people many reasons to try making it at home. Now they know how to do it, and they will probably continue to make sourdough bread in the future.

Practice / Luyện tập

Read the article. Then make some notes:

Đọc lại bài viết. Sau đó ghi chú:

Title: Why was baking sourdough bread a pandemic hobby?

Author's name: Stella Em

Main idea:

Sourdough bread + Why did it become a big hobby during the pandemic?

(topic: subject of the story) (claim: what the writer wants to say about the topic)

Most important supporting details to explain or prove the main idea:

Answers will vary. For example: people had more time; did not require more utensils; made people feel good.

Now use the information above to complete this summary of the story on page 80:

Bây giờ sử dụng thông tin trên để hoàn thành bản tóm tắt này của câu chuyện ở trang 80:

In the article "" (title) the author describes reasons why some people started to bake sourdough bread during the pandemic in .

People had more . They had all of the at home. And baking bread at home made them feel .

Sample Answers / Câu trả lời gợi ý

✔ Title: Why was baking sourdough bread a pandemic hobby?
✔ Author: Stella Em
✔ Number of reasons: three
✔ Year: 2020
✔ People had more time. They had all of the ingredients at home. And baking bread at home made them feel better.