Advanced Chinese reading: prepared food and evidence

Original Chinese study material with English explanations. Simplified Chinese with pinyin; beginner, intermediate and advanced are editorial difficulty labels.

Read an argument for the claim, supporting evidence and missing comparison. 预制菜 refers to prepared dishes; the scope of the term depends on context.

食堂打算增加预制菜，因为负责人认为这样可以缩短排队时间。

Shítáng dǎsuàn zēngjiā yùzhìcài, yīnwèi fùzérén rènwéi zhèyàng kěyǐ suōduǎn páiduì shíjiān.

The canteen plans to add more prepared dishes because the manager thinks this could shorten queuing time.

有人担心口味，也有人关注配料是否透明。一次试吃只能回答部分问题。

Yǒu rén dānxīn kǒuwèi, yě yǒu rén guānzhù pèiliào shìfǒu tòumíng. Yí cì shìchī zhǐ néng huídá bùfen wèntí.

Some people worry about taste, while others care about whether ingredients are disclosed. One tasting can answer only some of the questions.

如果要判断排队时间是否减少，就需要比较相近条件下的记录，而不是只听几位顾客的印象。

Rúguǒ yào pànduàn páiduì shíjiān shìfǒu jiǎnshǎo, jiù xūyào bǐjiào xiāngjìn tiáojiàn xià de jìlù, ér bú shì zhǐ tīng jǐ wèi gùkè de yìnxiàng.

To judge whether queuing time decreases, records from similar conditions need to be compared, rather than relying only on a few customers’ impressions.

This is an invented practice scenario. It does not report a real canteen study or establish a health claim about prepared food.

Try it

Which evidence would most directly test the manager’s claim?

1. Comparable records of queuing time
2. One person’s favourite flavour
3. A list of restaurant names

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