INSTRUCTION: Answer questions 56 to 60 in relation to text 2. 

TEXT 2 

Chinese thirst for formula spurs rationing
By Amie Tsang, Louise Lucas and Neil Hume,

1. Supermarkets as far afield _______ the UK and
2. Australia have been forced to ration infant formula
3. due to rampant Chinese demand for foreign-made
4. baby milk. Mainland Chinese buyers have been
5. snapping up cans of formula across the globe following
6. safety scandals in the domestic market, starting with
7. the melamine-spiked milk of 2008 that killed six babies
8. and left 300,000 sick.
9. Voracious demand for overseas-manufactured
10. formula – Chinese babies are expected to slurp
11. their way through $14.5bn worth of milk powder this
12. year – has prompted a wave of smuggling rings and
13. entrepreneurial escapades: cans are available online
14. for Rmb150-Rmb200 ($24-$32).
15. Production of formula is _______ under pressure,
16. as a severe drought in New Zealand – the biggest
17. provider in the global dairy trade – forces up the cost
18. of raw milk powder. The New Zealand price, a proxy
19. for Asia-Pacific, was 30 per cent higher month-onmonth
20. in March. The frenzy for formula has forced
21. governments to step in. Hong Kong, ________
22. shelves of formula are regularly cleared by mainland
23. visitors, introduced curbs at customs in February.

Adapted from Financial Times June 22nd 2013, from the Internet edition

Glossary:

bn = billion
Rmb = Ren Min Bi (The official currency of China)

The approximate translation for the expression “snap up”, according to its usage in the passage “Mainland Chinese buyers have been snapping up cans of formula ...” (lines 04-05), is