Advanced English Conversations (2) - Robert Allans, Matt Edie, A. Mustafaoglu 2020

Set 41 - being self-sufficient is a perfect recipe for the poverty-stricken

Maya: They’re asking in this post about a delicious poor man's meal! Well; I’ll have to say potato takes up a top position among other foods. It’s cheap, you can cook it multiple different ways so you will not get tired of it, also it won’t go bad easily.

Jessie: Onions too - you can always add them to things or just make soup with them. Versatile but good nutrients to keep from starving.

Maya: I think people forgot how to cook with whole foods. That knowledge was never passed down. Things are so much cheaper and can go further. Things like a bag of dried beans, rice, cheap cuts of meat, a whole chicken, etc.

Jessie: Well; it’s a matter of understanding food and how to cook. How food grows, how to store it, what nutrition it has, when it grows and even growing it yourself. I mean being self-sufficient is a perfect recipe for the poverty-stricken.

Maya: I think planning ahead for each week’s meals, no tolerance for waste and keeping an eye on real bargains can considerably help to keep food costs down.

Vocabulary;

take up: to occupy or fill a large amount or volume.

go bad: (of food) to spoil; to decay; to become rotten.

versatile: (adjective) able to change easily from one activity to another or able to be used for many different purposes.

pass down something: to give something to someone who is younger, less important, or at a lower level than you.

go further: to stretch the quantity or amount of something.

self-sufficient: able to provide everything you need, especially food, for yourself without the help of other people.

perfect recipe for: to be likely to cause a particular result.

poverty-stricken: (adjective) extremely poor.

keep an eye on: to watch someone or something carefully; to be attentive to sb or sth.

considerably: to a large, noticeable, or important degree.

Exercise;

Fill in the gaps with the appropriate phrases or words;

1. Based on the awful smell, I'm pretty sure that meat has .......... bad.

2. I'm supposed to be working on new content, but replying to user comments is .......... up all my time.

3. Keep an .......... on my bag while I go and make a phone call, will you?

4. There are few jobs for the peasants who have flooded into the cities from the poverty-.......... countryside in search of work.

5. The interests of both parties may not be identical, but they do overlap ..........

6. Learning from experience is a perfect .......... for continuous improvement.

7. They were busy with growing vegetables and all the other chores of a self-.......... rural life.

9. Make sure that each person only gets one ladle of soup—that'll make it .......... further.

9. Instead of throwing away those toys, why don't you .......... them down to your cousin's kids?

10. A leather jacket is a timeless and .......... garment that can be worn in all seasons.

1. gone 2. taking 3. eye 4. stricken 5. considerably 6. recipe 7. sufficient 8. go 9. pass 10. versatile