The following extract is from food writer Sophie Egan's book, Devoured. In the extract, Egan explores the connection between the working and eating habits of the ‘millennial' generation – people reaching adulthood in the early twenty-first century. The Millennial Food Psyche Wednesday, 7:00 A.M. An alarm clock blares, and a guy we'll call Josh bolts out of bed. The noise is definitely alarming because he has the alarm set to the one that sounds like bad things are happening on a submarine. Ambling into the kitchen, Josh finds his neatly lined rows of coffee pods and goes for the southern pecan flavour. Autumn has just begun, and at that particular moment, he's in the mood for something comforting. Josh is a thirty-one-year-old hardware operations quality engineer at Google. At six feet tall with pale, freckled skin, brown hair, and blue eyes, he's got somewhere between a cross-country runner's build and a 'dad-bod'¹ the latter thanks to a slight paunch that's developed since taking the Google position three years earlier (surely a small price to pay for finally having landed his dream job at the best company to work for in the country). 7:08 A.M. Josh opens his laptop and plunges deep into the Internet. With seven different windows open, his screen flashes with a whirl of activity. The number of e-mails waiting for him this morning is massive. It's not so much that the deluge has already begun, but that it never really ends. Every minute he sleeps, the more behind he gets at work. So now he takes a sip of coffee and starts firing e-mails back. Josh is a member of the millennial generation. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he's among the 61 percent of his cohort with a college degree, 15 percent higher than his parents'. He's among the 62 percent who prefer to live in mixed- use urban areas, according to a successful consumer insights firm. Work, nightlife, shopping - all at their doorsteps. Also like other millennials, he was raised on cereal, computers, and a congratulations every time he put his socks on straight. Josh scrolls through his Facebook feed and sees that his friend from a summer internship in Austin a few years back is on a two-week liquid diet. She has posted a photo of herself sipping a kale smoothie at Starbucks. Josh also sees that his sister in Portland made homemade pizza last night with gluten-free dough, topped with poached eggs from the chickens in her backyard. And Josh's former college roommate has posted from a CrossFit² box in New York, bragging about his WOD, which means 'workout of the day'. He's eating a strawberry coconut breakfast bar he got from the gym. 7:55 A.M. Josh has an 8:30 A.M. meeting, so he grabs a roasted jalapeño almond protein bar because it is non-genetically modified and gluten-free and has 10 grams of protein. He takes the keys with his other hand and heads out the door. While driving to work – which he does because he can leave when he wants, and listen to his favourite NFL podcast as loudly as he wants, because it takes five minutes longer by bus, and, well, because every minute counts these days – he remembers he's out of toilet paper and plain, non-fat Greek yogurt. When he doesn't have an early meeting, he eats Greek yogurt at home before work because one time at the airport he read in Men's Fitness that Greek yogurt is one of those foods that 'Fill You Up While You Trim Down.' Given his hectic schedule that day, he doesn't know when he'll have time to get groceries. So, at a stoplight, he takes out his phone (even though he promised his sister he'd stop doing that), opens his Instacart app, and quickly places an order. Before checkout, the page reminds him about grocery items he has purchased in the past, so he throws in some sour cream and onion ‘Popchips’, which he eats a few times a week because the label says 'all the flavour, half the fat.' Their absence of evil means it's totally fine to eat the whole bag after dinner. ¹dad-bod: a slang term in popular culture for a male physique that is not slim or toned ²CrossFit: an exclusive fitness programme in a private gym
- (a)Comment on the language and style of the passage.[15]
- (b)After reading the extract, you decide that Josh and his fellow 'millennials' need to make some changes regarding what, where and how they eat. You explain your views on the subject in your personal blog. Basing your writing on the material of the original passage, and using between 120 and 150 of your own words, write a section of text for your blog.[10]
Mark scheme
Marking points from the official mark scheme (Feb/Mar 2019). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.
- [13-15] (a) Shows perceptive appreciation of content and ideas. Fluidly relates content to structure, form, audience, purpose, genre, style. Shows keen awareness of intentions of passage. Analyses text with sensitive and discriminating awareness of how language creates effects. Moves with ease between part and whole in discussing specific examples of language use and the effect of the whole passage. Strong structure; may be concise; quotation is used fluently, 'embedded' in the argument.
- [10-12] (a) Shows consistent appreciation of content and ideas. Able to relate content to structure, form, audience, purpose, genre, style, main aims of passage. Analyses text, with awareness of the effects created. Able to relate part to whole in discussing specific examples of language use and the effect of the whole passage. Strong structure used to convey clear argument.
- [8-9] (a) Shows steady engagement with content/ideas of piece. Shows general understanding of structure, form, audience, purpose, genre, style of passage. Thorough analysis of passage is made, correctly identifying a range of features of language, giving examples, and showing ability to explain how they create effects with some relation of part to whole. Clear structure, sustained focus.
- [6-7] (a) Shows some engagement with content/ideas of piece. Shows general, overall understanding of structure, form, audience, purpose, genre, style of passage. Appropriate points are made, correctly identifying some features of language use, giving examples, and showing some ability to explain how they create effects. May be a fragmented approach. Clear structure; may be 'line-by-line'; essay may drift in and out of focus.
- [3-5] (a) Makes some relevant points about content. Shows some understanding of some aspects of structure, audience, form, purpose, genre, style of passage, but with some failures to identify key features and or misunderstanding. Some relevant points made, identifying a restricted range of examples of language use. Some examples are not related to the effects created. Some examples may be listed without development. Much generalisation. Little structure. Points may be rather disconnected.
- [0-2] (a) Comments on content of passage. May be confused. Very few, if any, points made about language of passage. May be unclear. Expression breaks down at times. Very short work. Unstructured.
- [8-10] (b) A perceptive recognition of context, audience, form, and purpose supported by a good range of appropriate vocabulary and expression suitable for the task. Responses at the top of this band will be persuasive and confident, supported by a consistent, and at best personal, engagement with context and purpose, using fluent and accurate expression accompanied by a strong sense of audience.
- [6-7] (b) A clear and informed sense of purpose, context, form and relevance supported by a reasonable attempt to use language appropriate for the task.
- [4-5] (b) An adequate attempt, but marked by an inconsistent and uneven sense of purpose, form, context and style. Generally sound expression and accuracy.
- [2-3] (b) The beginnings of an answer, but limited by an inappropriate sense of style, form, purpose and language. Expression and accuracy may be limited.
- [0-1] (b) Confused and unfocused sense of purpose, form, context and audience. Wholly inappropriate language and style. Work may be brief or fragmented and expression very limited.
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