Country Studies. Lesson 11. British Meals. Today you’ll get acquainted with typical British food. You’ll learn to express your preferences and go on translating short passages from Russian into English.

Pre-lesson activity: brainstorm. Think of the words that help us express the concept “food” both in Russian and English. Make up a diagram in your copybook.

1. Pronunciation drill + grouping: divide the following names of dishes and products into the given groups and reproduce them.

Bangers Prawn Steak Kidney Cornflakes Muesli Marmalade Youghurt Dessert Pudding Hamburger

Groups: cereals, meat, dairy products, sweets, sea products, others.

2. Match the words in the columns below to make popular British dishes.

1) Bangers - tikka 6) Baked - cocktail

2) Chili - and mash 7) Ploughman’s - pie

3) Cream - breakfast 8) Prawn - potato

4) Chicken - tea 9) Shepherd’s/Cottage - pie

5) Full English - con carne 10) Steak and kidney - platter/lunch

3. Match the names of popular British dishes from the previous assignment with the definitions below and reproduce them.

1. A hot, spicy dish, originally from Mexico. It is made with meat and dark red kidney beans.

2. A large snack traditionally eaten mid-afternoon, consisting of sandwiches, cream cakes and tea.

3. A traditional dish is made of minced meat (either lamb or beef) covered with mashed potato and

cooked in the oven.

4. A traditional dish made of pastry on the outside with pieces of beef and kidneys in a rich gravy in

the middle. It is served hot.

5. A very popular type of curry, originally from India.

6. A traditional dish of fried eggs, bacon and sausages, often accompanied by toast and marmalade.

7. Colloquially known as a ‘jacket spud’ this is a potato cooked whole, in its skin. It is usually served

with a choice of fillings such as butter, cheese, chilli con carne, etc.

8. This dish is usually a starter. It consists of prawns, lettuce and pink mayonnaise sauce.

9. This is a cold meal which consists of fresh bread, salad, cheese (often Cheddar) and pickle.

10. This is the colloquial name for a dish of sausages and mashed potatoes.

Carry out an "investigation": chose 1-3 dishes and find some additional information about them. Be ready to share it with your group mates.

Learn all the new vocabulary by heart to be able to translate recipes both into Russian and English.

4. Read the text "Meals in Britain" (Focus on Britain Today, p. 50-51) and:

a) Enumerate the dishes and products which are also very popular in Britain.

b) Look through the text and say whether the following sentences are true or false.

-Most people have a large breakfast.

-Lunch is a light meal.

-Dinner is smaller than lunch.

-Frozen food is not popular.

-Tea is a drink and a meal.

c) Answer the questions to make up a small speech about British meals.

What meals do people in Britain eat regularly?

What dishes are the most popular for breakfast?

What is lunch? Name popular lunches.

Are snacks very popular in Britain?

Do British children have a sweet tooth?

How many courses does dinner usually have? What are they?

Do people in Britain like the cuisine of other countries?

What is a take-away?

5. Chain Work and Reaction. Study the following table with adjectives that can be used to describe food. Give each other the name of some food or product (in chain) and let your partner characterize it in as detailed way as possible.

Tastes Textures Colour Shape

Sour soft White round

Sweet hard Black oval

Salty chewy Red cylindrical etc.

Bitter crunchy Yellow

Bland crispy Green

Strong smooth Violet etc.

Hot creamy

Spicy flaky

6. One of the most important English traditions is having tea at 5 o'clock. Imagine that your friend is going to England, but he knows very little about English traditions. You are giving a kind of lecture on English traditions to him (one tradition a day). Today the topic of your lecture is "The Ceremony of English Tea". Give a piece of lecture on the topic. Make use of the text “It's Teatime, Mind Your Manners”. But you should communicate your lecture, give pieces of advice how to behave in certain situations. (The questions given after the text may help you.)