-
Unit 9 Chinese Food
Key to the Exercises
Text
comprehension
I.
Decide which of the following best
states the main idea of the
passage.
B
(This essay is
by and large an illustration of a proposition
raised by Kenneth Lo that
food will determine one's physical
strength and ultimately one's
spiritual
and moral fiber
and well
-
being.
Its aim and conclusion rest with the
philosophy expressed in Chinese
food.)
II.
Judge, according to the text, whether
the following
statements are true or
false.
T (Refer
to Paragraph 1.)
1.
T (Refer to Paragraph 2.)
2.
T
(Refer to Paragraph 6.)
3.
F (Refer to
Paragraph 7. According to Helen Burke, the
cooking itself takes only 10%
the actual
preparation but it is not a simple matter as
indicated by the percentage of
time it consumes.)
5.
T
(Refer to Paragraph 9.)
III.
Answer the
following questions.
1.
Food and
eating, according to Kenneth Lo, determines not
only one's physical health
but also one's spiritual and moral
soundness and his ultimate
well
-
being.
2.
Refer to Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4.
According to
the author, many people in
the West are
gourmets and
gluttons, while a large number of others are
pretty indifferent to food. On the
contrary, Fu Tong, a London
restaurateur, maintains that to
Chinese
people food is of
primary
importance and is one of the ecstasies of life.
Also,
when they go to a restaurant,
Westerners care more about
the table than the food, while the
Chinese aim to eat with a
capital E, or take the food with the
utmost earnest.
3.
Refer to
Paragraph 5. Literally, Chinese food is
ubiquitous. Chinese
restaurants have
sprung up almost everywhere
in the world. At the root of the
phenomenal rise of Chinese
food in the world is a strong interest
in Chinese food in the
West. There is
an increase in
sensuality in the Western world and
coincidentally Chinese
food is very
sensual in its combination of
color, texture and taste.
4.
Refer to Paragraphs 7 and 8. For
Chinese people, the
traditional
high
-
quality Chinese
meal is a serious matter. It is
fastidiously prepared and
fastidiously
enjoyed. Both the preparation
and enjoyment of a Chinese meal can
last hours and make a
shared experience
which is well
planned. The
meal must not only meet the challenge of
the
palate but also that of the
eye.
5.
Refer to Paragraph 9. A good
traditional Chinese meal must
be well
planned and balanced in
order to meet the demand of the palate
and the eye alike. So,
according to
Emily Hahn,
there is moral excellence in good cooking, which
implies the combination of
all life, all
action and all knowledge. So important is a meal
that
it is not simply the product of a
recipe; it expresses the
basic assumptions of life, among which
is harmony
and balance.
IV. Explain in
your own words the following sentences.
1.
Food to us
Chinese is one of the greatest joys in life: it is
thought about before being
prepared; it is
treated with lots of love and care while being
prepared; and when it is ready, a great
deal of time is devoted to
enjoying it.
2.
The main
reason for the sudden and tremendous popularity
of Chinese food throughout the
whole Western world lies in
two facts: one is the increased
desire
for sensual pleasures (which is
abundant in Chinese food) and freedom
from age
-
old customs
in the West; the other is the notion of
physical pleasure provided
by Chinese food, which is always
ready
to satisfy the taste of the eater.
Structural analysis of the
text
Paragraphs
7
-
9 constitute the third
part of the text.
Paragraph 7:
The traditional quality Chinese meal is a serious
matter, fastidiously prepared and
fastidiously
enjoyed.
Paragraph 8: The enjoyment
must match the preparation.
Paragraph 9: The smooth
harmonies and piquant contrasts in
Chinese food are an expression of
basic assumptions about
life itself.
Rhetorical features of the
text
1.
All
these
have
become
much
more
part
and
parcel
of
the
average
person's
life?
(Paragraph 6)
2.
Meat and fish, solids and soups, sweet
and sour sauces?
(Paragraph 8)
Vocabulary
exercises
I.
Explain the underlined part in each
sentence in your own
words.
emotional
strength to do what one believes to be right
1.
2.
material used to produce power; sth.
used to keep the body
functioning
3.
lower
-
class type
4.
a number of
dishes that are served one after another in an
orderly way
themselves
II.
Fill in the blank in each sentence with
a word taken from the
box in its
appropriate form.
1.
fastidious
2. ecstasies
3.
lavish
4. elusive
5.
phenomenal6. proceeding
8.
contrived7. enterprise
III.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate
forms of the given
words.
1.
disregard
2. authoritative
3. ubiquity4. desirable
6. ceremonially5. piquancy
7. gluttonous8. derivation
IV.
Fill in the blank(s) in each sentence with an
appropriate
phrasal verb or collocation
taken from the
text.
1.
come off
2.
conform to
3.
derives/derived, from
4.
attend to
5.
sprung up
6.
came about
7.
proceed with
8.
lavishing ... on
V.
Give a synonym or an antonym of the
word underlined in
each sentence in the
sense
it is used.
1.
Antonym: distantly (indifferently)
Synonym:
epicure
2.
Synonym: fundamental
(primary, principal) 3.
Antonym: produce (make)
4.
Synonym: affirm (state)
5.
Synonym: mix (intermingle, combine)
6.
Synonym: change (modify, adjust)
7.
Synonym: provocative (sharp, pungent)
8.
VI. Explain the underlined phrasal
verbs in your own words.
1.
explains
accidentally found
2.
discuss with
3.
4.
start
played a prominent role in
5.
think about it carefully
6.
consumed part
of 7.
interrupting
8.
Grammar exercises
I.
Combine the
sentences in each set into one, beginning with
the words given.
Lev Tolstoy, a
great Russian writer, was born in 1828 and died
in 1910. 1.
proposal that we should
import more equipment from
abroad is to
be
discussed at the meeting.
3.
The news that
she is invited to
the party is very
encouraging.
The Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman
Bethune, a great
international fighter,
laid down
life
for the Chinese revolution.
5.
In spite of
the fact
that they worked day and night
on the project, they failed to
find
out the mechanism of the
disease.
6.
The announcement that
all
flights were cancelled because of bad weather
greatly
distressed
the waiting passengers.
7.
Mike, the best
mechanic in the