Practice 1. Reread the text again to find out which of the following statements are true and which are false.

1. Carbohydrates and proteins are the most important nutrients found in food.

2. Food processing combines various activities.

3. People do not eat raw food.

4. Ethnic foods include various taboos according to the national traditions.

5. The Russian cuisine never happens in other countries.

6. Standard food is the most common human food consumed by people.

Practice 2. Reread the text to answer the following questions. Note that some of the questions have answers in the text and some don’t.

1. Give all necessary definitions for food, food processing, cuisine, etc.

2. What is the background of food processing history?

3. Is there any difference between food preparation and food processing?

4. What ways of preparing (cooking) food have you learnedfrom the text?

5. What are historical and social reasons for cuisines’ peculiarities?

6. Can you suggest the simplest recipe to prepare ameal?

Practice 3. Reread the text to find out which of its paragraphs deals with:

1) the definitions of the food processing terms;

2) the stages of food processing;

3) the traditional meals’ origin;

4) the peculiarities of cuisines

5) the history of food processing

 

Practice 4. Sum up the content of the text.

Practice 5. Does this text give you sufficient information about the basics of food processing? What questions would you like to ask the author of the text?

Practice 6. Discuss in groups. Do you think that this text gives you a chance to discuss peculiarities of food processing in this country?

Text B

Real Bread

Consider the headline of the text. Then read the text to find out:

- the main concept of the Lammas festival

- the importance of bread and its place in a human’s diet today

- the ingredients which are not used in the traditional bread making recipe

- the aim of The Real Bread Campaign in Lammas

- the solution of the problem suggested by the author

As Lammas Day approaches Bee Wilson ditches sliced bread for a real baker’s loaf.

On 1 August it is Lammas Day¹,the festival of bread. In medieval times country folk used the first grains of the summer to bake great plaited loaves shaped like wheat sheaves. Unlike harvest festivals, which are a form of gloating over a successful haul of food, Lammas was more of a desperate prayer: please, God, let us harvest enough to keep us in bread for another year…

To day bread has become a much smaller part of our diet. Without it we wouldn't exactly suffer from carb deprivation², thanks to all the pasta, couscous, cereal, quinoa and what not at our disposal, not to mention chips. However, most of what is for sale in supermarkets doesn't count as bread at all in the medieval sense; it is sad flabby stuff that has not been given time to prove³, filled with too much industrial yeast, flour “improvers” and hidden enzymes.

The Real Bread Campaign is a lobbying group of volunteers who are trying to wean us off industrially produced bread. What they mean by “real bread” is loaves made using nothing but flour, salt, water and leavening agent⁴. No processing aids. No fortification with unnecessary vitamins. No hardened fat. No mould-delaying chemicals. Just yielding crumb and a crisp crust. The group is currently promoting “local loaves for Lammas”, encouraging us to bake or buy a local loaf shaped byhand. If you don't live near a good baker, the campaign suggests making your own bread. In Cambridge, where I live, there's a new tiny bakery called Dovecote, making glorious light rye punctured with deep skewer holes.

Should you find some “real bread”, expect to pay about £3 to £4 a loaf. This may sound pricey, but bear in mind how it can transform your whole way of eating. With a decent loaf in the house, meals get simpler. You find yourself happily supping off an omelette, or a bowl of vegetable soup – a summery minestrone, green with basil, or a thick gazpacho ⁵ with a wedge of cheese on the side. Even bread and butter becomes a feast. You start to feel just a little of the gratitude of our ancestors for the grains of the Lammas’s bread loaves.

(“The Telegraph”, 20 July 2010)

¹ Lammas Day название праздника по месту его проведения

² carbdeprivation (зд.) нехватка углерода

³ prove (зд.) время подойти (о тесте)

⁴ leaveningagent разрыхлитель теста

⁵ gazpacho название супа (исп.)

Text C

It Is Interesting To Know