Put verbs into Present Perfect Continuous.

He __________ (work) in this company since 1985. I ________(wait) for you since two o'clock. Mary_____ (live) in Germany since 1992. Why is he so tired? He ____(play) tennis for five hours. How long _______ (learn / you) English? We ___ (look for) the motorway for more than an hour. I _____(live) without electricity for two weeks. I smell tobacco. _____you ____(smoking)? It _____(not, snow) here since 2010. Do you like this cake? I _____(cook) it since morning. She _____(write) the report for two hours. I ______(walk) here at the park all morning. He ________(fix) our old car all day! They ______(discuss) this problem since one o’clock. We ______(listen) to the President’s speech for 3 hours now. The researcher _________(explore) new territories since last May.

The politicians _____(debate) the project of a new law for more than 2 hours.

The Prime Minister ________(analyze) the data, ministers gave him at the meeting.

Source: http://www.ego4u.com/

Food

Comment on these statements.

“One should eat to live, not live to eat”

“One man’s eat is another man’s poison”

On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners”

Discuss the following questions with your partner.

Do you like food from other countries? If yes, which do you like the most?

Do you think that food defines a culture? If so, how?

Does your family have any special recipes that are passed down from generation to generation?

What is the most unusual thing you've ever eaten. Did it taste good or bad?

milk, strawberry, garlic, trout, onion, beef, lemonade, cherry, cabbage, herring, lettuce, orange, tea, coffee, prawns, peach, salmon, coconut, wine, cod, ham, pork, water, veal, lamb, raspberry, sweet corn, beetroot, juice

Fill all words from the box in the correct column.

Fruit Drinks Vegetables Fish Meat

Read the text. Write a retelling using the scheme.

The British and food

A. It is natural that the best way to experience another culture is to try the local (national) food of the country. Visitors to Britain generally agree about one thing – British cooking. “It’s terrible!” they say. “You can cook vegetables in so many interesting ways. But the British cook vegetables for too long, so they lose their taste”. But we can’t say these statements are right.

B. British tastes have changed a lot over the past years. If you go back to the time of Queen Elisabeth I (1558-1603), people really knew how to eat and drink. Country houses had special herb gardens full of rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic and basil. Chefs used to travel around Europe to get new ideas and ingredients. The reign of Elisabeth I was also time when British explorers sailed all over the world. They brought back all sorts of exotic foods: rice and tea from China, spices such as cumin and cardamom from India, coffee from Arabia. In the Americas they found tomatoes, maize, peanuts, pineapples, sugar cane, hot chillies and vanilla. In the 1990s the national average for each person was 352 grams of “red” meat each week, but now it is less than 250 grams. People prepare chicken and fresh fish. More people are interested in healthy eating these days. The British have a “sweet tooth”, they love cakes, chocolates and sweets.

C. Today many people want food to be quick and easy, when both parents are working, they can’t cook large meals in the evenings. “Ready – made” meals from supermarkets and “take-away” meals from fast food restaurants are very popular. Twenty years ago, British people usually ate at home. They only went for a meal at special times, like somebody’s birthday. But today, many people eat out at least once a week. In the past, traditional steakhouses were very popular places, but now many people prefer foreign food. Every British town has Indian and Chinese restaurants. Pubs are also very popular. There are over 60 000 pubs in the UK, more than 80 % of beer is drunk in pubs.

D. The British and tea …The British population drinks about 2 000 000 000 cups of tea a day! This is an average of nearly 1, 040 cups of tea a year for each person. Tea – mostly green tea from China – came to Britain in the late 1500s, but it was only for very rich. It became cheaper about three hundred years later, when it was planted in India and later in Ceylon. People from all classes started drinking it. But some people thought that too much tea was bad for your health, so they started putting milk in it, to make it healthier. Afternoon tea is a small meal, not a drink. Now most ordinary British families do not have time for afternoon tea at home, but in the past it was a tradition. It became popular about hundred and fifty years ago, when rich ladies invited their friends to their houses for an afternoon cup of tea. They started offering their visitors sandwiches and cakes too. Soon everybody was enjoying this exciting new meal.

E. But the British working population did not have afternoon tea. They had a meal at about midday, and a meal after work, between 5 and 7 o’clock. This meal was called “high tea”, or just “tea”. Today, most people have a meal between 12 and 2 p.m. In the past, this meal was called “dinner” in working families. But now most people call it “lunch”. Dinner has become a bigger meal in the evenings.

F. If you ask foreigners to name some typically English dishes, they will probably say “Fish and chips”. It is known that fish and chips were developed separately. The French invented chips and in 1839 Charles Dickens referred to a “fried fish warehouse” in Oliver Twist. But it was not until the 1860s that the trade began to develop as we know it now.

Vocabulary

Local [ ] – местный