Тексты для чтения и упражнения по теме Food / Еда

The Importance of Food in Human Life

Food plays a huge role in our life. In fact, human can’t live without food. Of course, you can argue with me that man can’t live without water, but without food he can live more than two month. I agree with you, but have you ever imagined what his emotional state will be? He will become angry, furious, irritable, and gloomy. And his physical state will also be very poor: he will become very bony, weak, tired. So you see: we need food.

But it’s not only the source of our health and necessary vitamins and calories, it’s also the way to please ourselves. Remember different desserts: we eat them to feel their sweet taste, but not to put our hunger out, though they contain a lot of glucose that helps our brain to work hard, different vitamins (if they are fruit desserts) that help our organism exist and so on and so forth. By the way, all the products we eat are used by our internal organs for their own aims. For example: carrot, cabbage, turnip and other coarse vegetables are very useful for our intestines, fish is useful for bones and brains, meat – for our muscles and so on.

But food can be also very dangerous: too much food makes you fat, too little food makes you dead. This statement of the famous British comedian is very truthful: if you eat too much fat, high-calorie products, you will become very fat, you will have problems with your heart, endocrine system and other organs; if you eat too little, your organism will become depleted and in the end you may die. A man is what he eats. If you eat rather nutritious nourishment, you are lively, cheerful, happy and joyful, but is ration is poor, the consequences are awful.

But why different people eat different food? Why are their tastes so different? There are several causes for it:

• National peculiarities

• Material status

• Habits

• and even Fashion.

For example, if you are Italian, your favorite dish will be pizza and pasta, if you are Russian, you will like pancakes, salted cucumbers and buckwheat. A poor man will never eat oysters and a rich will never eat pearl barley. If you became attached to chocolate from your early childhood, you will never betray your habit. So, these three points are clear, but what about the last one? How can fashion be connected with food? The example can be sushi. This dish containing raw fish, rice and vegetables came to us from Japan, and not by the direct way, but through the USA, where Japanese culture is extremely popular, especially among cellebs. So, their fans tried to copy their manners and the dishes they eat. Sushi spread throughout the world in a very high rate and now the majority of people eat it according to the fashion.

1. Look at the translation of the following words. Write down those in bold.

to play a role – играть роль (в прямом и переносном смысле)

furious – взбешенный

irritable – раздражительный

gloomy – угрюмый

physical state – физическое состояние

emotional state – эмоциональное состояние

source of health – источник здоровья

necessary vitamins and calories – необходимые витамины и калории

dessert – десерт

taste – вкус

to put one’s hunger out – утолять чье-то голод

contain a lot of glucose – содержать много глюкозы

exist – существовать

and so on and so forth – и так далее и тому подобное

internal organs – внутренние органы

aims – цели

intestines – кишечник

high-calorie products – высококалорийные продукты

become depleted – становиться истощенным

nutritious nourishment – питательная еда, пища

consequences – последствия

causes – причины

national peculiarities – национальные особенности

habits – привычки

become attached – становиться привязанным

betray one’s habit – изменить своей привычке

be connected – быть связанным

cellebs – знаменитости (разг. сокр. от celebrities)

2. Make up questions as possible as you can.

Nutritional Value of Food. Healthy and Junk Food. Diets.

Nowadays everyone is crazy about health. That’s why food is divided into health and junk food. Health food is organically grown untreated food, containing no synthetic ingredients and eaten for the health-giving properties. Junk food is processed food that typically has high carbohydrate and fat content but overall low nutritional value.

Junk food is very harmful for us; it contains a lot of chemical substances (stabilisers, emulsifyings, tartaric acid), cholesterol and carbohydrates. Their amounts are accumulated in our organism and act like poison for our internal organs. But helas! It’s very popular with all kinds of people. This event takes place because of our life-style. We exist in a very high rate and we haven’t got enough time to cook or to eat properly, and we eat hamburgers, sandwiches, chips, etc.

So, that’s the one trend in eating nowadays. But there is another one. In Europe and America (and in big cities in Russia) everyone is addicted to health food that is grown without chemical fertilizers, but with the organic ones. These products are sold in special eco-shops and cost rather big deal of money. Healthy meal by itself cannot be harmful, but an excessive passion for it can lead to painful personality changes and eating disorders.

And all these things starts with following different diets. They can be light or hard. For example, here is the “Turkish diet”, very popular now among young people. It contains five levels.

I level: you should weekly reduce amount of in-taken food.

II level: 1) Breakfast: a handful of prunes, a cup of black coffee or tea without sugar;

2) Lunch: a glassful of fresh-squeezed juice or one big persimmon or other juicy fruit;

3) Dinner: a piece of fat-free steamed meat, steamed vegetables.

III level: 1) Breakfast: the same;

2) Lunch: a cup of pulped juice;

3) Dinner: a cup of tea without sugar.

IV level: 1) Breakfast: the same;

2) Lunch: a cup or a glass of fresh water;

3) Dinner: the same.

V level: 1) Breakfast: a handful of nuts (not peanuts!);

2) Lunch: water;

3) Dinner: 2 handful of nuts.

Of course, this diet is extremely effective if you need to lose weight quickly to get into your favorite dress. But if you eat like this all the time, then at least you are guaranteed constant headaches, and in the worst case anorexia.

1. Find the English equivalents to the following Russian words and phrases.

Здоровая еда; органически выращенная; необработанная еда; искусственные ингредиенты; полезные свойства; обработанная пища; высокое содержание углеводов и жиров; низкая пищевая ценность; быть очень вредным; холестерин и углеводы; накапливаться; действовать как яд; быть популярным у большого количества людей; происходить (иметь место); быть зависимым от здоровой еды; выращиваться без химических удобрений; продаваться в специальных эко-магазинах; стоить довольно больших денег; вести к болезненным изменениям личности и расстройствам пищевого поведения; следовать разным диетам.

2. Answer the questions.

1. What is health food?

2. What trends in eating are the most popular nowadays?

3. Why is junk food so popular?

4. Can you give any examples when healthy food can be dangerous for us?

5. Why do people follow diets?

6. How do you consider diets are effective?

7. What diet, in your opinion, is the most effective?

8. Is it helpful to be on a diet?

3. Read how health food and junk food are defined in some English dictionaries and give some examples of these kinds of food. Translate the definitions into Russian.

junk food (informal) food that is not very good for you but that is ready to eat or easy to prepare: junk food like crisps & sweets (Oxford Elementary Learner’s Dictionary, OUP, 2010).

junk food [C, U] infml bad quality unhealthy food, esp. chemically treated food containing a lot of sugar, fat and carbohydrates (Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Longman, 2010)

junk food processed food (e. g. hot dogs or candyfloss) that typically has a high carbohydrate content but overall low nutritional value (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)

health food [C, U] food that is believed to be good for health, esp. food that is in the natural state, without added chemicals (Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Longman, 2010)

health food organically grown untreated food containing no synthetic ingredients and eaten for the health-giving properties, credited to it (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)

wholefood (e. g. pulses and grains) food in a simple and natural form that has undergone minimal processing and refining (Longman New Universal Dictionary, 2015)

4. Read the list of different products. Which of them can be called junk food, health food and wholefood?

Soda pop, hamburgers, fresh fruits and vegetables, Wheaties or other whole-grain, low-sugar cereals, ice-cream, chocolate bars, pizza, chips, whole milk, extra-lean ground beef, frozen yoghurt, carrot sticks, oranges, hot dogs, whole wheat crackers, skim or 1% milk, low-fat hot dog, vegetarian burgers, crisps, frozen lasagna, fat-free corn or potato crisps, strawberries.

5. These are Mike and Sam. Mike is lean and Sam is fat. You should compose two diets to make Mike more fatty and Sam – more slim.

6. What do you think of vegetarian diets? Write pros and cons.

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