B. Customs of Having Meals Active Vocabulary

appetiser

bite, to have a bite

bitter

bolt

canteen

to have smth. for a change

chew

choice, a wide / poor choice

to clear the table

to have for the first / second course

cuisine

What have you decided on?

delicious

dessert

devour

digest

eatable / uneatable

eater, a big / good / hearty eater

fattening

fatty

full up

garnish

gnaw

gobble

gorge oneself on/with

guzzle

heavy, heavy dinner / meal, etc.

help, to help/treat oneself to smth.

juicy

to lay the table

lick

There is nothing like fried potatoes.

menu / What’s on the menu?

nourishing

parched

peck at

peckish

pick at / out

polish off

ravenous

revolting/nasty

ripe

What do you say to some

ice-cream?

seasoning

service, good service

snack, to have a snack

spicy

square, a square meal

stale

starter

starve/die of hunger

substantial

suck

swallow

tender

thirsty

tough (meat)

Vocabulary exercises

Exercise 1. Give (a) synonyms and (b) opposites to the following:

a) hungry – to die of hunger – thirsty – to have a snack – a heavy meal – spices – starter – very tasty – a big eater –

b) to have a snack – edible – eatable – dessert – fresh – to starve – fatty – delicious – sweet – dry –

Exercise 2. Match the words from column A with the appropriate definitions from column B.

A B

Dessert - suitable for eating

Diet - style of cooking

Dish - any of the several parts of a meal

Course - sweet food us. served at the end of

Meal a meal

Edible - the science of preparation of food

Cuisine - an amount of food eaten at one time

Cookery - the sort of food and drink us. taken

by a person or a group

- cooked food of one kind

Exercise 3. Use the right word: meal, food, course, dish.

1) We have three _____ a day: breakfast, dinner and supper. 2) I like to cook my ______ myself. 3) This ______ tastes bad. 4) Breakfast in England is generally a bigger _______ than they have on the continent. 5) Why don’t you eat? Your ______ is getting cold. 6) The most common third ______ at our canteen is compote. 7) I hate to have my ____ at a restaurant. 8) Why don’t you take a _____ of meat and vegetables? 9) You ought to take the pills before _____ three times a day. 10) The _____ in the restaurant is always fresh and tasty. 11) Dinner consists of several ___. 12) I like to have a nice hot _____ in the evening. 13) Which _____ is more fattening: boiled or fried? 14) Yesterday I tried to prepare a very special _____ from a French cookery book. 15) The English are fond of good plain _____.

Exercise 4. Put each of the following verbs into its correct place in the sentences below.

chew digest

gnaw bolt

polish off gorge

peck at consume

swallow lick

1. The children have no appetite. They just ______ their food. They hardly eat anything.

2. My mother always used to say to me, “Now make sure you _____ meat carefully before you ______”.

3. In Britain people ________ four million tons of potatoes every year.

4. He has an enormous appetite. I’ve seen him _______ four hamburgers and a pile of chips at a sitting.

5. As children we used to ______ ourselves on ice-cream, chips and chocolate, and then feel very sick.

6. The starving prisoners were so desperate they would _______ any meat bones they could find.

7. It’s not good for your body to _______ your food so quickly. Eat slowly so that you can ______ it properly.

8. He was so hungry that when he’d finished his food, he began to ___ the plate!

Exercise 5. Put the verbs from the exercises above into the appropriate boxes below.

	With a lot of appetite	Without appetite	Neutral
Solid Food
Liquid or near-liquid

Exercise 6. Explain the difference between the words or phrases in each of the following pairs.

1. starving and parched

2. a snack and a square meal

3. stale and mouldy

4. peckish and ravenous

5. uneatable and inedible

6. a beer-bottle and a bottle of beer

7. a starter and a dessert

8. a restaurant and a cafe

• SPEAKING

1. How would you describe the following using the words and expressions from the list of the active vocabulary?

1. a lion eating a large piece of meat

2. a bird trying to eat a piece of bread

3. a small girl eating a large packet of potato crisps

4. a Sumo wrestler eating a huge bowl of noodles

5. a horse drinking water after a long gallop

6. a fat man eating his third ice cream

7. a dog trying to eat a large bone

8. a hungry person eating an apple.

2. Discuss these questions with a partner.

1. What time(s) of day (and night) do you feel hungriest?

2. How do you feel physically and emotionally when you are really hungry?

3. What activities make you feel particularly hungry or thirsty?

4. How do you feel after eating and drinking?

Read the abstracts and be ready to discuss the customs of having meals in Britain and Belarus.