Episode 20

EPISODE 20
LEVEL A1.2/A2.1

 

 

READING COMPREHENSION

 

 

A HEALTHY DIET   

A healthy diet is not only about the food we eat, but also about preparation. There are many ways to cook food and we are going to look at them now.
For dinner we often prepare some meat with potatoes and some salad. We usually peel potatoes (= take their skin off) and boil them (= cook them in water). Boiled meat is not the tastiest, so we fry it (= cook it in oil), roast it (= cook it in the oven with oil) or grill it. When we prepare a salad we often chop onions (= cut them into very small pieces) and slice cucumbers and tomatoes (= cut them into regular, flat pieces). For dessert, we can for example bake a cake (= cook it in the oven without any extra oil).
These words are important not only for those who are interested in cooking and a healthy diet, but many of them can be found on the menu in a restaurant, so I think it’s a good idea to get used to them.

 

 

More contexts for the new words:

• Leave the vegetables to simmer for a few minutes.
  (= We simmer something when we cook it in sauce, in a temperature slightly below 100 degrees)
• Stir the soup until it begins to boil.
  (= We stir something when we move a spoon inside it in circles)

 

 

EXERCISE 1

Decide if the sentences are true of false.

 

1. You usually chop bread when you want to make a sandwich.
2. We usually peel potatoes before boiling them.
3. If you don’t stir food while cooking, it might get burnt.
4. Frying is very healthy because we don’t use oil.
5. We bake cakes in the oven.
6. We usually roast salads.

 

ENGLISH IN USE 

 

… it’s a good idea to get used to them …

is the part of the sentence we are going to analyze today. We can see that it is connected with „used to”, yet it is not the same as in our previous lesson. When we say :

I used to travel a lot

we talk about an action which was our habit in the past, but when we say:

I’m getting used to driving my new car

we talk about a situation when we start to be familiar with driving this car; we start to know a lot about it and we start to like it.

After „used to” we have the basic form of the verb, after „TO GET USED TO” we use a gerund (verb + ing).

 

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP

 

A/ Do you like your new car?

B/ I absolutely love it! It’s THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!

 

If you say that something is the best thing since sliced bread, you think it is excellent.

 

 

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

 

 

We often use the food preparation verb with ‘off.’

1. If you PEEL something OFF, you remove the skin of fruit/ vegetables.

 

She peeled the skin off the apples for the fruit salad.

Peel off all the stickers before giving the toy to your child.

 

2. If you SLICE something OFF, you divide or cut something from a larger piece.

 

He sliced the meat off the bone.

Before you put away the bread, please slice off a bit for me.

 

 

 

EXERCISE 2

Rewrite the sentences keeping the same meaning and using the word in capitals. Use the idiom and phrasal verbs you have learned in this lesson.

 

1. Remove the skin from the bananas.

OFF …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

2. Cut the fact away from the meat.

OFF …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

3. This computer is fantastic.

SLICED ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

 

 

NEWS

 

FUSION CUISINE

 

Fusion cuisine is a way of cooking which is becoming more and more popular nowadays. The basic idea is very simple: to combine elements characteristic of food from different traditions. For example, you take the Italian pizza and you serve it with Mexican salsa sauce. Or, you take the Polish pierogi and you put sea food into them. Surprised? For some, the results are inedible, while for others they epitomize what’s best in global food.

 

 

GLOSSARY

– cuisine – a style of cooking

– to combine – to mix

– inedible – impossible to eat

– to epitomize –to symbolize

 

 

 

download lesson (pdf)