7. Name three food items which can be

a) peeled; b) scaled;

c) scraped; d) grated;

e) stuffed; f) seasoned;

g) plucked; h) cracked;

i) skinned; j) sliced;

k) simmered; 1) fried;

m) baked; n) steamed;

o) stewed; p) poured.

8. Read the text, make up 10 questions to cover the text and give a short summary of the text. Mealtimes

Two things never fail to confuse foreigners when they come to Britain: cricket and British meals. However, whereas the visitor can live without understanding cricket (indeed, most British people have little grasp of the rules of the game), it is almost impossible to survive without an understanding of British eating habits.

Understanding British meals is one of the great mysteries to the foreign visitor. Over the centuries, the British have shown a tendency to name and rename their meals, and to move them about the day in an apparently random fashion. Further to confuse outsiders, we give different names to each meal depending on our social class and part of the country we live in.

Breakfast, which was once taken at 5 o’clock in the morning, can now be at any time before 11.30. It has thus overtaken dinner. In Norman times – the 12^th century – dinner was at 9 am; by the 15^th century it had moved to time between noon and 2.30 in the afternoon and is called lunch by a large proportion of the population, especially the middle and upper classes and people form southern Britain. Many farm labourers, however, who start work at sun-rise and have their breakfast before they go to work, still stop for a lunch break at about 9 o’clock.

In the 14^th century, supper was at 4 o’clock – which is now called teatime. But outside the south-east of England, working families have tea or high tea at about 6 in the evening while the rest of their fellow-countrymen have dinner, which is often also called supper, at about 7.30 pm.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY 2

Kinds of meat. Seafood. Fish. Vegetables. Dairy products. Cereals & pasta.

1. pork, beef, veal, mutton, venison, ham, gammon, bacon, poultry, game, offal, a joint of beef, beefsteak, a fillet of beef, a cutlet, a chop, pheasant, partridge, grouse;

2. seafood, shellfish, crab, lobster, shrimp, prawn, oyster, cockle, mussel, squid, crayfish;

3. cod, hake, plaice, mackerel, herring, sardine, trout, salmon, eel, carp, perch, pike

4. cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, courgettes /zucchini/, aubergines /egg plants/, beans, spring onions, asparagus, turnip, beetroot, lettuce, chicory, leek, artichoke, marrow, radish, fig, date;

5. parsley, fennel, dill, rosemary, thyme, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, curry;

6. dairy products: whole / low-fat / pausterized milk, condensed milk, butter, cream, sour cream, kefir, yoghurt, cottage cheese, margarine, mayonnaise, hard / soft cheese

7. cereals & pasta: barley, buckwheat, oats / oatmeal (AE), porridge / oatmeal, rice, cornflakes, semolina, muesli, macaroni, noodles, spaghetti, vermicelli, to drain pasta in a colander

white / wheat bread brown / rye bread (with bran) a roll / bun a ring roll, a bagel a croissant a muffin

pastry, biscuits / cookies (AE) a wafer / a waffle a sponge cake a doughnut a rusk bread crumbs a loaf of bread

a slice of bread to keep bread in a bread bin an apple pie a pancake meat, cheese, cherry dumplings