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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.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Judge,
according to the text, whether the following
statements are true or false.
T (Refer
to Paragraph 1.)
T (Refer to Paragraph
2.)
T (Refer to Paragraph 6.)
F (Refer to Paragraph 7. According to
Helen Burke, the cooking itself takes only 10% of
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.
6)
2.
Meat and fish, solids and soups, sweet
and sour sauces? (Paragraph 8)
All
these have become much more part and parcel of the
average person's life? (Paragraph
Vocabulary exercises
I.
1.
Explain the underlined
part in each sentence in your own words.
emotional strength to do what one
believes to be right
2.
3.
4.
5.
material
used to produce power; sth. used to keep the body
functioning
lower-class type
a number of dishes that are served one
after another in an orderly way
by
themselves
II.
Fill
in
the
blank
in
each
sentence
with
a
word
taken
from
the
box
in
its
appropriate
form.
2. ecstasies
4. elusive
6. proceeding
8. contrived
1. fastidious
3. lavish
5. phenomenal
7. enterprise
III. Fill in the blanks
with the appropriate forms of the given words.
1. disregard
2.
authoritative
3. ubiquity
4.
desirable
5. piquancy
6.
ceremonially
7. gluttonous
8. 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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Antonym: distantly (indifferently)
Synonym: epicure
Synonym:
fundamental (primary, principal)
Antonym: produce (make)
Synonym: affirm (state)
Synonym: mix (intermingle, combine)
Synonym: change (modify, adjust)