I. Comprehension. Decide whether these statements are true or false, according to the story:

1. On the Continent they prefer instant coffee to ground.

2. Because the British are too fussy about what they drink they usually make ‘proper coffee’.

3. 11 per cent of the French drink ground coffee.

4. Most Germans refuse to drink instant coffee.

5. On the whole the British are not great connoisseurs of ground coffee.

2. Vocabulary. Find in the text the words that mean:

1. blasphemous

2. fastidious

3. intricate, complicated

4. something causing difficulty or trouble

5. full of activity, busy and fast

6. to think over

7. a person who buys goods or services

3. Grammar.

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… the British have too hectic a lifestyle…

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There are a few attributes in English which affect the place of the article in the sentence. The indefinite article is placed after an adjective if it is preceded by so, as, too, how, however:

Youth lasts so short a time.

You have too modest an opinion of yourself.

This house is as good a place as any for staying in it.

How honest a man is he?

I can’t miss the chance, however big a risk to run.

Combine the sentences using the structure too / so /as / how / however + adj. + a + noun.

Example: He is a very fussy man. He won’t eat anything you offer.

He is too fussy a man to eat anything you offer.

1. The room is too small. A family of four can’t live here.

2. He is a very rude man. Still, she will never leave him.

3. The bill was extremely large. She doubted the exactness of it.

4. The task was too difficult. She wasn’t able to cope with it.

5. I know your daughter is going to school next year. How good is it?

6. He’s got a wife. She is so young.

7. She has brought a child with her. He is so lovely.

8. It was a really good chance. It couldn’t be missed.

Text 2

French clash over value of spuds they like

From Adam Sage

In Paris

THE HUMBLE potato is at the centre of a virulent debate between French gastronomes, with prices for the most highly prized variety reached €10 a kilo (about ₤3.30 per pound) this week, smashing all previous records.

In so doing, La Primeur de l’Ile de Ré – a new potato grown in the sandy soils of Ré island, off the Atlantic coast – became a mustering point for the country’s food snobs and a cause of consternation at markets across the country.

Its supporters say the 3,000 tonnes produced each spring by 35 of the island’s farmers are of a quality unmatched by any other tuber. They have created a brotherhood to worship the Ré potato in an annual ritual held each May in the spud’s home town.

Once dismissed as unworthy of Gallic cuisine, the potato has enjoyed a transformation over the past decade and La Primeur de l’Ile de Ré in particular is now an essential ingredient at Parisian dinner parties.

However foodies, who agree on the quality of the variety, are divided as to whether any potato is worth the current prices. “This is a wonderful new potato. It has a slight hazelnut taste and an iodized flavour that makes it so good,” said Clémentine Virault, a cookery writer and the author of Ten Ways to Prepare Potatoes.

But the spiraling cost of the Ré potato has provoked uproar from Paris to its native western France. Many commentators argue that the popularity and prices are insufferably bound in snobbery.

Jean-Paul Thorez, a potatoes specialist who writes books about them and grows them, was in no doubt. “It’s all about snobbery. The Ré potato is of very good quality, that’s obvious. But if I was to plant the same varieties in my garden, they would probably be just as good. At the moment, when I go to the market I buy new potatoes from Morocco. They cost €2 a kilo and I find them excellent.”

Such talk would verge on heresy on the island, where 200 members of the Confrérie de la Pomme de Terre Primeur march through Ars-en-Ré, one of the biggest towns on the island, every year and pledge allegiance to their favourite vegetable.

They say it is best boiled and eaten with a sprinkling of salt from the island. They have even persuaded the French Government to award their potato the coveted appellation d’origine controlée status.

(from The Times)

Notes

€ - euro (the unit of money used in most European Union countries)

mustering point – (in this context) an integral part, necessary product

La Primeur de l’Ile de Ré – (фр.) новый обитатель острова Ре

Confrérie de la Pomme de Terre Primeur – (фр.) братство молодого картофеля

appellation d’origine controlée – (фр.) сертификат качества

Gallic – French (or typically French)