1. Comprehension. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the reaction of people to “culinary concerts”?

2. What country does the culinary concert Patatboem come from? What does the performance consist of?

3. What is a kitchen compared to in the article?

4. What is Peter de Bie’s attitude to his work?

5. How many cooking shows are opening in London?

6. What idea was taken as a principle of Soans’s project? What does Soans’s play involve?

7. Do the audience at Soans’s shows taste the food cooked on stage?

8. What dish is considered a special treat in Eritrea?

9. What are Renny O’Shea’s food preferences?

10. What does the name of the show EatEat come from? How many people take part in it?

11. What does the show EatEat consist of? Is this kind of performance easy to choreograph?

12. What is the name of Nessim Zohar’s show? How many people take part in it?

13. What interactive element does Zohar use in his show? How did this idea come to him?

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

1. a Japanese alcoholic drink made from rice

2. a small sharp-tasting plant with green leaves used in salads

3. moving round

4. quarrelling and blaming one another

5. a long thin dark-green vegetable, a type of small marrow

6. a dish of small pieces of meat and vegetables cooked on a stick

7. people who escape from their own country for political, religious or economic reasons or because of war

8. people who leave their country for political reasons and apply for protection given by another country

9. people who come to a different country in order to live there permanently

10. a violent noisy protest

III. Vocabulary. Choose the most appropriate explanation for the following words:

gleeful

1. shining with weak light

2. happy and pleased

3. gloomy and unsatisfied

bemused

1. slightly confused

2. loud and uncontrolled

3. pleasant

ghastly

1. smooth and shiny

2. pale and transparent

3. unpleasant and shocking

murky

1. dark and dirty

2. extremely unpleasant

3. clean and limpid

speciality

1. a profession one gets in the course of education

2. a particularly fine product

3. a peculiarity

huge

1. very small

2. extremely large

3. rather rude

stressful

1. causing worry and anxiety

2. involving risk

3. making sad and unhappy

futile

1. disapproving

2. spoilt

3. unsuccessful

IV. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following words and expressions:

1. мутный настой

2. мята

3. посуда

4. горячая еда

5. съедобный

6. кресс-салат

7. кулинарное варьете

8. кулинарная книга

9. рецепт

10. блюдо

11. фаршированные кабачки

12. подали ей цыплёнка

13. угощение

14. вкусный

15. мальва

16. помойное ведро

V. Discussion. Answer the following questions:

1. What is your attitude to culinary concerts? Have you ever visited shows like that? Would you like to take part in a food show?

2. Do you think you’ll be willing to taste anything they serve at culinary shows? If not, what can prevent you from tasting the food?

3. Do you believe this kind of shows can help examine cultural differences and understand what people from different countries have in common?

4. What do you know about food traditions of other countries?

Part III. Eating Habits vs. Health of the Nation

Text 1

Great Britain is faced with the problem of obesity among children. Look at the headline of the article and say what you think it is going to be about.

Now read the article and do the exercises below.

Now obesity kills child aged three

Youngsters ‘are choking on their fat’

By David Derbyshire

Science Correspondent

A GROSSLY overweight three-year-old child died from heart failure in hospital, a damning report on the scale of the country’s obesity epidemic says today.

The Commons report issues a warning that obese children as young as eight are being diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Others suffer serious sleep disorders because they are “choking on their own fat” at night.

The Government and the National Health Service are severely critisised for failing to tackle the crisis, while the food industry is condemned for cynically promoting junk food to children as young as three.

A voluntary ban on junk food advertisements during children’s television programmes and a simple system of traffic light health labels for food are needed, the report says.

MPs want children to do a minimum of three hours’ physical education a week in school and be given better cookery lessons to help reduce their preference for high salt convenience food. They also want children’s weight to be regularly monitored at school.

The long-awaited report paints a bleak picture of the country’s health. Obesity has risen fourfold in 25 years, it says. Three quarters of adults are overweight, with 22 per cent clinically obese.

Obesity has grown faster in England than anywhere else in Europe, with childhood obesity tripling in 20 years.

Among the evidence collected by MPs was an account of life in a London obesity clinic for children.

Dr. Sheila McKenzie, a consultant paediatrician at the Royal London Hospital, said that waiting lists there were 11 months long and growing.

“In the past two years one child at the age of three has died of heart failure secondary to extreme obesity,” she told the inquiry.

Four other children were being treated for apnoea, a sleep disorder caused when airways are blocked by folds of fat.

“In other words, they are being choked by their fat,” she said. “Were we able to study all severely obese children, I am confident we would identify many more with obstructive sleep apnoea.”

Dr. Tim Barrett, of Birmingham Children’s Hospital, said he had seen a super-obese child aged eight with type 2 adult onset diabetes.

The report says that obesity costs the health service ₤7.4 billion a year in treatment for heart disease, diabetes – which can cause blindness and the loss of limbs – kidney failure, brittle bone disease, tumours and psychological damage. Obesity is now the second biggest avoidable cause of cancer after smoking.

The report says: “Should the gloomier scenarios relating to obesity turn out to be true, the sight of amputees will become much more familiar in the streets.

“There will be many more blind people. There will be huge demand for kidney dialysis. The positive trends of recent decades in combating heart disease, partly the consequence of the decline in smoking, will be reversed.

“Indeed, this will be the first generation in which children die before their parents as a consequence of obesity.”

David Hinchcliffe, the chairman of the Commons health committee, said the report was an urgent warning to the Government.

“The devastating consequences of the epidemic of obesity are likely to have a profound impact over the next century,” he said.

“Obesity will soon supersede tobacco as the greatest cause of premature death. It is staggering to realize that, on present trends, half of all children in England in 2020 could be obese.”

John Reid, the Health Secretary, defended the Government’s record in the fight against obesity.

“We share the committee’s concern about the seriousness of obesity,” he said. “It is one of the key issues which will be addressed in our White Paper on public health this year.

“We recognize that these issues are not just a matter for government; they involve individuals and the choices they make, as well as the food and leisure industry.”

The Department of Health was working closely with other departments to encourage people to eat more nutritious food and take more exercise, he said.

The food and drink industry also defended itself against criticism in the report.

Martin Paterson, the deputy director general of the Food and Drink Federation, said: “The entire food and drink chain, from farmers to caterers, must be a part of the solution.

“However, the obesity problem is complex and multi-faceted; there are no quick fixes.

“Any action taken must be based on sound science and we need Government, industry and all stakeholders to work together with a commitment to achieving real results over the long term.”

(from The Daily Telegraph)

Notes

the Commons – the House of Commons

traffic light health labels – labels that mark foods red for highest calories, amber for medium and green for the most healthy

convenience food – food that is almost ready to eat when it is bought and can be prepared quickly and easily

White Paper – a government report on a particular subject giving information and details of future planned laws