Reading. Food

Read the text and choose if these sentences are true or false.

Today the British drink more tea than any other nation – about 1650 cups of the tea a year. They drink in bed in the morning, round the fire in winter afternoon and out in the garden on sunny summer days.

What exactly is tea? It`s a drink made from dried leaves of a plant that only grows in hot countries. The British first heard of tea in 1598, and first tasted it about 1650.

We like to begin every morning with tea. We drink a few cups of tea during the day. But only 300 years ago most people in Europe didn`t know anything about tea.

This is a story of an English sailor who brought home some tea-leaves as a present for her mother. She told her friends about the present and asked them to dinner to try “tea”. When her friends came, the old woman brought in a dish and put it on the table. There were brown leaves on it, they were boiled. The guests began to eat those boiled leaves. Of course, nobody liked them.

At that moment the sailor came in. He looked at the table, smiled and said, “Mother, what have you done with those tea leaves?”

“I`ve boiled them as you told me to do?”

“And what have you done with the water?”

“I threw it away, of course.”

“Now you may throw away the leaves, too”, said the son.

Perhaps, this story never took place, but it shows that people in England at that time knew very little about tea.

The Chinese were the first people in the world to grow tea. More than 2000 years ago Chinese people knew about tea and liked it. Nowadays most people in the world like tea very much.

Are the sentences true or false?

1. Today the Chinese drink more tea than any other nation.       [True, False]

2. Tea is a drink made of yellow leaves.       [True, False]

3. This plant grows in warm countries.       [True, False]

4. The sailor`s mother asked her friends to dinner to try “tea”.       [True, False]

5. All the guests liked the leaves.       [True, False]

6. The Chinese began to grow tea more than 2000 years ago.       [True, False]

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

Today the British drink more tea than any other nation – about 1650 cups of the tea a year. They drink in bed in the morning, round the fire in winter afternoon and out in the garden on sunny summer days.

What exactly is tea? It`s a drink made from dried leaves of a plant that only grows in hot countries. The British first heard of tea in 1598, and first tasted it about 1650.

We like to begin every morning with tea. We drink a few cups of tea during the day. But only 300 years ago most people in Europe didn`t know anything about tea.

This is a story of an English sailor who brought home some tea-leaves as a present for her mother. She told her friends about the present and asked them to dinner to try “tea”. When her friends came, the old woman brought in a dish and put it on the table. There were brown leaves on it, they were boiled. The guests began to eat those boiled leaves. Of course, nobody liked them.

At that moment the sailor came in. He looked at the table, smiled and said, “Mother, what have you done with those tea leaves?”

“I`ve boiled them as you told me to do?”

“And what have you done with the water?”

“I threw it away, of course.”

“Now you may throw away the leaves, too”, said the son.

Perhaps, this story never took place, but it shows that people in England at that time knew very little about tea.

The Chinese were the first people in the world to grow tea. More than 2000 years ago Chinese people knew about tea and liked it. Nowadays most people in the world like tea very much.

Choose the correct answer

1. The British drink tea round the       [table, fire, tree] in winter afternoons.

2. They first        [tried, grew, bought] tea in about 1650.

3. The guests began to eat        [dried, fried, boiled] leaves.

4. The sailor came in, looked at the table and          [cried, smiled, sat down]

5. Mother threw            [the leaves, the table, the water] away.

6. At that time British knew            [not much, everything, a lot] about tea.

Read the recipe of mashed potatoes and fill in the words from the box

     3 or 4 potatoes.      them. Then      them carefully. If the potatoes are very big,     them into smaller pieces. Then     them into cold water,     some salt and      till they are ready.      the water out and     some milk and butter. Wait till the milk starts boiling.      everything carefully.