7-2 My life as a pet food tester When I tell people that I work as a pet food tester， I get a lot of different responses. Some people laugh， some look disgusted， and others ask me what the food tastes like and how much of it I have to eat. It certainly is an interesting job. However， it’s also a job which needs a high level of skill and qualifications. I have a degree in nutrition， so I know about the kind of food that pets need to stay healthy. An important part of my job is writing reports about the food I taste and making suggestions about how it can be improved. Tasting the food is just one part of what I do. How do I go about tasting the pet food? First of all， I smell it carefully. The food has to smell nice， otherwise the animals won’t want to eat it. Also， pet owners don’t want bad-smelling food in their homes! After smelling the food， I taste it. I keep it in my mouth for a few minutes， taking notes on how it tastes and how it feels in my mouth. It’s really important the food tastes good. If I don’t like it， then probably the animals won’t like it either. The food isn’t the best part of my job， but there are other perks—like the salary. I earn $50， 000 a year. Now that leaves a good taste in my mouth! 68. When doing his/her job， what does the writer do first?