Lesson 4

1. Read the text and define the meaning of new words. Translate the text.

Gastronomical Revival in the Feudal Courts

Around 1200 AD, life in the courts became less difficult, commerce and social life resumed, and the feudal lords organized frequent celebrations, feasts, and tournaments. However, important meals had no variety or cohesion. Endless dishes of roast meats were seasoned with a sauce made of garlic, herbs, sweetmeats, and almonds. The dinner ended with cheese and fruit. There was little change from the Roman cuisine; however, spices made their appearance from the East in greater quantity. Their exotic aroma was used to scent the food - a prelude to future cuisine refinements.

2. Read the micro text and define the main idea of the text.

Although there had been a spice trade during the Early Middle Ages, it really intensified after the Crusades with the direct contact of Europeans in the Arab world. Spices were very much in demand for cooking and medicine. They  had other more practical and important qualities: the preservation of meat and fish, and the flavoring of otherwise bland foods.

The Crusades

The Spice Trade

The bland foods

3. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

Italian cooking, daily meal, game in vinegar, the fertile region, food excellence and the pleasures of dining, sober people of frugal dietary habits, boiled cereals, cold dishes, sweets with a honey base, stuffed pastries, the general tendency, the monasteries, oven-baked pies.

4. Give English equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

здоровье, аппетит, блюдо, жаркое, население, свежие фрукты и овощи, турецкий горох, мед, обильный, уксус, ритуальный, зерновые, телятина, мясо домашней птицы, бедный, фаршированный, диета, кулинария.

5. Open the brackets using the correct tense form.

1. The daily meal (to be) simple and sober: pork, salted fish, chickpeas, lentils, lupins, olive pickles, and dried figs.

2. The Etruscans too (to have) a simple diet based on the cereals favored by the fertile region of present-day Tuscany.

3. the most widely consumed foods were boiled cereals, chickpeas.

4. Culinary art (to begin) a revival, especially after 1000 AD.

5. Barbarians (to invade) Italy from the 5th century AD.

6. They often (to add) a breakfast of bread soaked in wine, grapes, olives, milk, and eggs.

7. Cheese (to be) gradually introduced.

Lesson 5

1. Read the words:

merchants

initially

Turkish

maize

2. Master the active vocabulary. Cover the left column and translate the Russian words back into English.

famines venetian the Orient medicine

голод венецианский Восток медицина

3. Word formation.

Analyze the meaning of the prepositions: un-, pre-, in-.

Find words formed with these prepositions in the text and translate them.

Give your own examples.