Unit 3. Leisure activities. Family travelling

Travelling

Modern life is impossible without travelling. Thousands of people travel every day either on business or for pleasure. They can travel by air, by rail, by sea or by road.

Of course, travelling by air is the fastest and the most convenient way, but it is the most expensive too. Travelling by train is slower than by plane, but it has its advantages. You can see much more interesting places of the country you are travelling through. Modern trains have very comfortable seats. There are also sleeping cars and dining cars which make even the longest journey enjoyable. Speed, comfort and safety are the main advantages of trains and planes. That is why many people prefer them to all other means.

Travelling by sea is popular mostly for pleasure trips. On board large ships and small river boats people can visit foreign countries and different places of interest within their own country Many people prefer travelling by car. They think it's very convenient. You can stop wherever you wish and spend at any place as much time as you like.

The seaside is one of the most wonderful places which attract holiday-makers all over the world. There are many rest-homes, sanatoriums and tourist camps there. But it is also possible to rent a room or a furnished house for a couple of week there. Sometimes people place themselves in a tent on the sea shore enjoying fresh air and the sun all day long. As a rule it's easy to make new friends there. In the daytime you can play volleyball, tennis, swim in the warm water of the sea and sunbathe. In the evening you can sit on the beach watching the sea and enjoying the sunset. If you are fond of mountaineering you can do a lot of climbing.

Unit 4. Food. Shopping for food

Meals and Cooking

When we cook, we boil, roast, fry or stew our food. We boil eggs, meat, chicken, fish, milk, water and vegetables. We fry eggs, fish and vegetables. We stew fish, meat, vegetables or fruit. We roast meat or chicken. We put salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar and mustard into our food to make it salted, sweet, sour or simply tasty. Our food may taste good or bad or it may be tasteless.

The usual meals in England are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner or, in simpler houses, breakfast, dinner, tea and supper.

For breakfast English people mostly have porridge or corn-flakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade with buttered toast and tea or coffee. For a change they can have a boiled egg, cold ham, or fish.

English people generally have lunch about one o'clock. At lunch time in a London restaurant one usually finds a mutton chop, or steak and chips, or cold meat or fish with potatoes and salad, then a pudding or fruit to follow.

Afternoon tea can hardly be called a meal. It is a substantial meal only in well-to-do families. It is between five and six o'clock. It is rather a sociable sort of thing, as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea, cake or biscuit.

In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. But in great many English homes, the midday meal is the chief one of the day, and in the evening there is usually a much simpler supper — an omelette, or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.

 

Meals and cooking

Living in Russia one cannot but stick to a Russian diet. Keeping this diet for an Englishman is fatal. The Russians have meals four times a day and their cuisine is quite intricate.

Every person starts his or her day with breakfast. Poor Englishmen are sentenced to either a continental or an English breakfast. From the Russian point of vew, when one has it continental it actually mans that one has no breakfast at all, because it means drinking a cup of coffee and eating a bun. A month of continental breakfast for some Russians would mean starving. The English breakfast is a bit better, as it consists of one or two fried eggs, grilled sausages, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. The English have tea with milk and toast with butter and marmalade. As a choice of one may have corn flakes with milk and sugar or porridge.

In Russia people may have anything for breakfast. Some good-humoured individuals even prefer soup, but, of course, sandwiches and coffee are very popular. One can easily understand that in Great Britain by one o’clock people are very much ready for lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. It may be a meat or fish course with soft drinks followed by a sweet course.

The heart of a Russian person fills with joy when the hands of the clock approach three o’clock. His or her dinner includes three courses. A Russian will have a starter (salad, herring, cheese, etc.), soup, steaks, chops, or fish fillets with garnish, a lot of bread, of course, and somethink to drink. The more, the better. At four or five Russians may have a bite: waffles, cakes with juice, tea, cocoa, or something of the kind.

In Great Britain they have dinner at five or six. Soup may be served then, but one should not be misled by the word “soup”. British soup is just thin paste and a portion is three times smaller than in Russia. A lot of British prefer to eat out. “Fish and Chips” shops are very popular with their take-away food. The more sophisticated public goes to Chinese, Italian, seafood and other restaurants and experiments with shrimp, inedible vegetables and hot drinks.

Supper in Russia means one more big meal at seven. The table groans with food again. In England it is just a small snack – a glass of milk with biscuits at ten.

Most Russians have never counted calories and they are deeply convinced that their food is healthy. Some housewives may admit that it takes some time to prepare all the stuff, including pickles, home-made preserves and traditional Russian pies and pancakes. But they don’t seem to mind too much and boil, fry, roast, grill, broil, bake and make. Paraphrasing a famous proverb one can say: “What is Russian man’s meat is a British man’s poison”.  

 

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