Question

Explain whether the author successfully supports the claim made in the title of the excerpt. Support your answer with relevant and specific details from the excerpt.

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Answer 1

Read the article. Then, answer the questions.

Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof Is Scant
by Barry Meier
1 Energy drinks are the fastest-growing part of the beverage industry, with sales in the United States reaching more than $10 billion in 2012—more than Americans spent on iced tea or sports beverages like Gatorade.

2 Their rising popularity represents a generational shift in what people drink, and reflects a successful campaign to convince consumers, particularly teenagers, that the drinks provide a mental and physical edge.

3 The drinks are now under scrutiny by the Food and Drug Administration after reports of deaths and serious injuries that may be linked to their high caffeine levels. But however that review ends, one thing is clear, interviews with researchers and a review of scientific studies show: the energy drink industry is based on a brew of ingredients that, apart from caffeine, have little, if any benefit for consumers.

4 “If you had a cup of coffee you are going to affect metabolism in the same way,” said Dr. Robert W. Pettitt, an associate professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato, who has studied the drinks.

5 Energy drink companies have promoted their products not as caffeine-fueled concoctions but as specially engineered blends that provide something more. For example, producers claim that “Red Bull gives you wings,” that Rockstar Energy is “scientifically formulated” and Monster Energy is a “killer energy brew.” Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has asked the government to investigate the industry’s marketing claims.

6 Promoting a message beyond caffeine has enabled the beverage makers to charge premium prices. A 16-ounce energy drink that sells for $2.99 a can contains about the same amount of caffeine as a tablet of NoDoz that costs 30 cents. Even Starbucks coffee is cheap by comparison; a 12-ounce cup that costs $1.85 has even more caffeine.

7 As with earlier elixirs, a dearth of evidence underlies such claims. Only a few human studies of energy drinks or the ingredients in them have been performed and they point to a similar conclusion, researchers say—that the beverages are mainly about caffeine.

8 Caffeine is called the world’s most widely used drug. A stimulant, it increases alertness, awareness and, if taken at the right time, improves athletic performance, studies show. Energy drink users feel its kick faster because the beverages are typically swallowed quickly or are sold as concentrates.

9 “These are caffeine delivery systems,” said Dr. Roland Griffiths, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has studied energy drinks. “They don’t want to say this is equivalent to a NoDoz because that is not a very sexy sales message.”

10 A scientist at the University of Wisconsin became puzzled as he researched an ingredient used in energy drinks like Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy. The researcher, Dr. Craig A. Goodman, could not find any trials in humans of the additive, a substance with the tongue-twisting name of glucuronolactone that is related to glucose, a sugar. But Dr. Goodman, who had studied other energy drink ingredients, eventually found two 40-year-old studies from Japan that had examined it.

11 In the experiments, scientists injected large doses of the substance into laboratory rats. Afterward, the rats swam better. “I have no idea what it does in energy drinks,” Dr. Goodman said.

12 Energy drink manufacturers say it is their proprietary formulas, rather than specific ingredients, that provide users with physical and mental benefits. But that has not prevented them from implying otherwise.

13 Consider the case of taurine, an additive used in most energy products.

14 On its Web site, the producer of Red Bull, for example, states that “more than 2,500 reports have been published about taurine and its physiological effects,” including acting as a “detoxifying agent.” In addition, that company, Red Bull of Austria, points to a 2009 safety study by a European regulatory group that gave it a clean bill of health.

15 But Red Bull’s Web site does not mention reports by that same group, the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that claims about the benefits in energy drinks lacked scientific support. Based on those findings, the European Commission has refused to approve claims that taurine helps maintain mental function and heart health and reduces muscle fatigue.

16 Taurine, an amino acidlike substance that got its name because it was first found in the bile of bulls, does play a role in bodily functions, and recent research suggests it might help prevent heart attacks in women with high cholesterol. However, most people get more than adequate amounts from foods like meat, experts said. And researchers added that those with heart problems who may need supplements would find far better sources than energy drinks.

17 A spokeswoman for Red Bull did not respond directly to the European marketing claims report but said that the company did “not make claims for individual ingredients but rather for the product in its entirety.”

18 To woo consumers, companies have also used another tactic—including huge amounts of well-known nutrients that make for eye-catching numbers on labels.

19 For example, a two-ounce bottle of 5-Hour Energy contains 500 micrograms of Vitamin B12, or 8,333 percent of the recommended daily allowance. The energy shot also has 20 times the recommended intake of Vitamin B6.

20 B-group vitamins serve many functions, such as in the digestion of food. But several experts said that healthy people get adequate amounts of them from food and that huge added dosages do not provide benefits.

21 “They are not going to increase energy levels,” said Paul R. Thomas, a scientific adviser with the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.

22 Elaine Lutz, a spokeswoman for the distributor of 5-Hour Energy, Living Essentials of Farmington Hills, Mich., said the amounts of B vitamins used were safe and effective. “The body is going to use what it needs and it is going to excrete what it does not absorb,” said Ms. Lutz.

23 The sugar found in some drinks does provide a quick source of energy. But as for glucuronolactone, the additive that made rats swim better, the authors of a recent report in a scientific journal, Nutrition Reviews, said they were clueless as to why it was used in the products or what it did.

24 “Certainly, this is one ingredient for which evidence-based studies are needed to justify its popularity,” wrote the researchers. That same review, which examined all published energy drink studies, also concluded that there was an “overwhelming lack of evidence to substantiate claims” that drink ingredients, apart from caffeine and sugar, provided any benefits.

25 The roots of the energy drink phenomenon—and the claims surrounding ingredient mixes— can be traced to Japan. Those origins appear tied to the emergence of supposed cure-alls after World War II, a time when drugs there were in short supply.

26 In the late 1940s, Taisho Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese drug maker, began selling taurine extract, apparently drawn to it by accounts citing its wartime use by the Japanese Imperial Navy to reduce fatigue among sailors and sharpen their vision at night, a history of the drug company states. “A formula that is so effective in treating unexplained fevers, neuralgia, fatigue, whooping cough and other conditions for which there is no drug is very rare indeed,” an advertisement for the extract declared.

27 But around 1960, Taisho executives decided to use taurine in a new product, one that helped start the energy drink industry—Lipovitan D.

28 Lipovitan D, which was sold in a small vial, contained 50 milligrams of caffeine, 1,000 milligrams of taurine, various B vitamins and flavorings. The product, which was sold cold in drugstores, was a huge success during Japan’s economic boom years, particularly with overworked office employees.

29 However, 50 years and 34 billion bottles later, Taisho officials acknowledged they had not run a single clinical study involving Lipovitan D.

30 “Taurine is added to Lipovitan D not so much for specific medicinal benefits but for its multifaceted functions,” said Dr. Takanori Kouchiwa, a Taisho executive.

31 It was also in the 1960s that a product appeared in Thailand that was similar to Lipovitan D in its ingredient mix. It was called Krating Daeng (pronounced grating deng), or Red Bull. An Austrian businessman named Dietrich Mateschitz reportedly discovered it when trying to cure a case of jet lag and, in 1987, he and the drink’s Thai creator founded Red Bull.

32 Red Bull quickly became popular in Europe with truck drivers and students and as a mixer for alcoholic drinks. It arrived in the United States in the late 1990s and soon inspired hundreds of competitors. In 2002, for example, Monster Energy was marketed in a 16-ounce can, twice as large as Red Bull’s 8-ounce can and with twice as much caffeine.

33 Over the years, some producers have financed scientific studies to try to bolster performance claims. A British researcher, Dr. Chris Alford, said that Red Bull approached him about a decade ago while he was doing work on the ability of stimulants to reduce fatigue in drivers.

34 In 2001, Dr. Alford, a psychologist at the University of the West of England in Bristol who has received financing from Red Bull, published a study that found test participants given the energy drink had better reaction times, were more alert and showed increased physical endurance than test subjects given a placebo like flavored water. But studies like Dr. Alford’s, researchers say, only underscore caffeine’s known benefits. And more recent attempts to tease out the impacts of drink ingredients have produced mixed results.

“Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof Is Scant” by Barry Meier, from The New York Times (January 1, 2013). Copyright 2013 by The New York Times. Reprinted by permission of The New York Times.

Answer 2

@cathrinerose23

Answer 3

wassup

Answer 4

this wassup

Answer 5

ight hang on mike

Answer 6

oka so u see how they talking bout different kinds of drinks in the article

Answer 7

i think so

Answer 8

@umm

Answer 9

oka so what theyre tryna manipulate

Answer 10

i lost it, i can't really answer i'm doing math problem could you help me with it

Answer 11

sure

Answer 12

it does support the claim because its saying bout the different energy drinks can do harmful damage to people who drink too much of it

Answer 13

dont ya think so

Answer 14

yes pretty much

Answer 15

@cathrinerose23

Answer 16

Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist who had escaped slavery and helped many other slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. She often worked with fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a public speaker and author who, earlier in his life, had also escaped slavery. When Harriet Tubman reached out to Frederick Douglass requesting he speak to her accomplishments for an upcoming book that was soon to be published about her life, he responded with this letter.



Dear Harriet:



I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendation. I need such words from you far more than you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt, “God bless you,” has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable to those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great privilege to bear testimony for your character and your works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy.



Your friend,

Frederick Douglass



1. Which of the following statements BEST express the main idea of Douglass's letter?

Question 1 options:

A. Tubman made important contributions to the abolitionist movement, but they were mostly unrecognized by the public.


B. Frederick Douglass is upset that more people do not know about Harriet Tubman and her contributions.


C. Contributions that go unrecognized are more important than those that are recognized and appreciated by the public.


D. Harriet Tubman's contributions to the abolitionist movement are unparalleled by anyone.

Answer 17

@bill533 i would have to say for the nixon resignation speech it would be d because on his resignation speech he had said that he wasnt a quitter and he had tried everything in his power to make sure the country was safe and had justice

Answer 18

Which of the following TWO supporting details from the text best support your response in question 1?

Question 2 options:

A. "I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published."


B. "I need such words from you far more that you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them."


C. "...the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondsmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt, 'God bless you,' has been your only reward."


D. "The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism."


E. "I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you."

Answer 19

for harriett tubman i would say

Answer 20

a

Answer 21

just a, i can choose more than 1

Answer 22

well exactly 2 it says on the top

Answer 23

well yea u already have a so what do u think the other answer is

Answer 24

probably E ?

Answer 25

i would say so

Answer 26

you think ?

Answer 27

yea

Answer 28

could you check

Answer 29

yea hang on

Answer 30

OK

Answer 31

yea i would say e because he was saying that no one had to do more than what you did when you encountered the underground railroad

Answer 32

3. Douglass first responds to Tubman's request by writing:



"You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendations. I need such words from you far more than you can need them from me..."



What is his reason for stating that Tubman has no need for his words of praise?

Question 3 options:

A. He suggests her contributions to the abolitionist cause have been even greater than his own.


B. He believes truly good deeds do not require recognition.


C. He implies that he is in greater need of public support than she.


D. He believes Harriet Tubman's public reputation is so strong that it needs no further accolades.