Fair Trade: Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test

Go into a UK supermarket, and you’ll probably (0) A a logo marking out certain items as 'fair trade’. The first labels (1)________ on brands of coffee. Today, fair trade products include rice, cotton and fresh fruit. Yet, as you stand in the supermarket (2)________ examining the two (3)________ bananas, one with a label and one without, you may ask yourself, "What’s the difference?”

To see the difference, we have to look at where our money goes. Most produce from South America and Africa is brought to the UK by large multinational companies. Worldwide trade in bananas, for example, is almost entirely (4)________ by five brands. These companies (5)________ cheap bananas on their plantations and most of the (6)________ ends up in the owners’ pockets, while workers are paid the lowest possible wage. As a result, the local economy can’t (7)________ and small farms struggle.

In (8)________ against this, fair trade organisations are now purchasing produce at the (9)_________ reasonable prices. Farmers can consequently afford to use environmentally friendly farming (10)________ rather than the harmful pesticides used on plantations. So, when comparing the two bananas in the supermarket, telling the difference is (11)________. The unlabelled one may be cheaper, but that doesn’t make it a better purchase. Fair trade products give farmers in developing countries a fair chance in life. With fair trade on the increase, it seems more UK shoppers believe the goal of fair trade is worth the (12)________ pennies.

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