Vegetarians

The word “vegetarian” was coined in about 1840 to mean people who lived without killing for food, either for moral or health reasons, or both. But the practice is much older than that. Greek philosophers recommended vegetarianism and famous people who practised it in the past include Leonardo da Vinci, Tolstoy and Voltaire, Milton, Newton and Bernard Shaw. Surely this proves that mental activity does not depend on flesh foods. What are the arguments that might stop us from eating meat?

Man’s body is more like those of fruit-eating animals (such as our ‘cousins’ the apes) than like those of flesh-eating animals. For millions of years man must have lived on fruit, nuts and leaves and so developed a digestive system. Perhaps the more we move away from this diet towards meat-eating, the less likely we are to be healthy. Cancer, tuberculosis and heart disease are certainly more common in meat-eating communities. Man may have started eating the flesh of animals during the Ice Age when most of the vegetation was destroyed.

A diet of vegetables, fruit, grains and nuts together with a few dairy products can give us all the vitamins and minerals we need. By eating meat we are getting the basic food elements secondhand after they have been digested by the animal. It is worth considering how wasteful meat-eaters are with land. A meat-eater needs about three times as much land to support himself and his animals as a vegetarian does. For every 45 kilos of dry food eaten by cattle only 1, 8 – 7, 3 kilos come back as food for us humans — an expensive method of producing food.

10 A lot of people all over the world suffer from obesity, that is, being far too fat. Quite many of them dream of, if not becoming slim and graceful like stunning top models or smashing Hollywood stars, then of at least being able to make out where their waists are.

There are dozens upon dozens of various slimming diets and

other ways of getting rid of overweight.

a Discuss with your partners the following:

1) What are the reasons for becoming obese? 2) What is your impression of stout/fat people? (You dislike them, are indifferent, tolerant, etc.) 3) Fat people can be charming, charismatic, can’t they? Will you give an example of that? 4) Do you think obesity has something to do only with our aesthetic perception of a person and it is fairly harmless for health? Give your arguments.

b Read the following ‘ Ten Tips on How to Lose Weight’ and discuss it in class. Look up in the dictionary the verbs ‘toss out’, ‘stock up on’, ‘cut down on’; make sure you know what spices ‘cinnamon’ and ‘nutmeg’ are; comment on the meaning of the word ‘tip’ in this very context.

TEN TIPS ON HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT

1. Don’t shop for groceries on an empty stomach. Make a list and

stick to it.

2. Never eat anything after dinner.

3. Eat desserts only on weekends — one way to limit problem

foods without depriving yourself altogether.

4. Toss out offending foods. Stock up on raw vegetables, fresh

fruit, low-calorie crackers, tomato juice, low-fat yogurt and

cottage cheese.

5. Learn to love water — six to eight glasses a day. Coffee and tea

can dehydrate you and give you caffeine jitters. Soft drinks have

sugar.

6. When cooking, replace salt with spices and herbs.

7. Cut down on sugar. Switch to substitutes in coffee and tea; cook

with cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon and fruit juices.

8. Don’t weigh yourself every day — normal fluctuations may

frustrate you. Once a week is enough.

9. Reward yourself for your efforts — not just results – with

something other than food.

10. Start exercising – now!

From Reader’s Digest

c Answer the following questions:

1) Do you think that ‘offending foods’ is the same as ‘problem foods’? 2) Which of these tips seem most reasonable to you? 3) Can you describe this diet as severe or bland? 4) Do you think this diet will suit those who don’t want to put on weight or just wish to be healthy?

11 Modern life is hard on us. There are lots of little things to make us feel tense and irritable. Tension leads to stress and stress leads to … what?

Doctors think that stress, the pressure we all live with every day, makes us ill. It gives us headaches and bad stomachs. But that’s not all. Many serious diseases are related to stress. Doctors have found that the two ‘modern killers’ – heart disease and cancer – are more common in people who find it difficult to relax.

a Discuss with your partner the following:

1) What is stress? What are its symptoms? 2) What kinds of things cause stress (e.g. cold, hunger, fear, etc.)? 3) How does stress affect you or people like you? 4) How can people cope with stress?

b Which of these situations would you find most stressful?

1) divorce; 2) going on a business trip; 3) moving house; 4) moving to another country; 5) losing your job; 6) a personality clash with your boss; 7) an annual health check-up; 8) being the victim of a robbery.

c Give your opinion of the following ways to reduce stress:

· taking tranquillizers

· smoking

· drinking alcohol

· taking drugs (narcotics)

· doing exercises (sports)

· taking up a hobby

· entertaining, having fun

d Discuss how sports help us cope with stress.

· What sport do you do? Why?

· Which sport do you prefer to watch (on TV, at a stadium, in a swimming pool / gym, etc.)?

· What do you think of aerobics? Is it a way of keeping fit?

· What is the difference between professional and amateur sport? Which of them is more helpful in getting fun (relaxing)?

e Speak about your hobby/ies and how it/they help reduce stress.

f Speak about a beneficial effect of such entertainments as

theatre Why are people attracted by the theatre?

What kind of theatre do you personally like?

Tell the class about the performance you’ve

enjoyed lately

cinema Where can you nowadays see a film you like?

What is exiting about watching a film?

How can you see a film made many years ago?

What are the advantages of video films?

music What is your favourite music?

Do you think dancing and singing can be a relaxing and enjoyable experience? Why?

Do you play any musical instrument? If not, what musical instrument would you like to learn to play?

Have you ever enjoyed music performed by amateurs?

g Read Texts A and B and discuss the stress problem.

A

People usually think of ‘stress’ as something the world inflicts on them. Worry and hassle are blamed for all kinds of ailments, from asthma to headaches, from high blood pressure to stomach ulcers. And we often blame other people for making us feel bad: when we call someone a ‘pain in the neck’, we are describing the physical and psychological effect they have on us.

But although it is tempting to regard stress as some nasty germ attacking us from outside, the truth is that we are largely responsible for what stress does to our bodies. Once we make ourselves aware of how our bodies respond to worry, fear, anger and fatigue (all of which are forms of stress), we can start learning to relax.

B

Recently, scientists in America did a very strange experiment with rats. They built a modern city for them. The rats lived in apartment blocks. They had the noise of traffic, music, other rats all day and all night. They were given alcohol. They were taken out of their ‘flats’ every day and put in an ‘office’. Of course they didn’t have to work or go to school but otherwise they lived just like we do.

Very soon they began to behave just like us, too. Some rats started to destroy their ‘homes’, just like the ‘hooligans’ who break windows for no reason. Some rats started to drink too much. Other rats got unhappy and depressed. And the rats began to fight each other. Then they started to develop diseases that rats don’t normally get: cancer, heart disease, etc.

Of course you can say that it isn’t natural for rats to live in blocks of flats. But then, is it natural for us to live the way we do in the modern world? It certainly isn’t good for us. It makes us tense and irritable, and depresses us.

h Answer the following questions:

1) What meanings does the phrase ‘pain in the neck’ have? (A) 2) What is referred to as ‘nasty germ’ and why? (A) 3) What are the two main ideas in Text A? 4) What did the American scientists aim at experimenting with rats? (B) 5) What was striking about the results of the experiment? (B) 6) What conclusion can you draw from the content of Text B?

12 ‘Keep fit’ seems to have become a motto of our time. People rush to sport clubs, fitness centers, gyms, tennis courts, swimming pools, sports grounds and jog, run, jump, swim… An athletic-looking figure with a slim waist and bulging muscles is an idol for millions, many of whom are typical ‘couch potatoes’ having no willpower to move a finger to change their lifestyle.

Exercising your body may be rather expensive in terms of time, effort and material things like club fees, equipment and special outfits. Meanwhile, there exist alternative ways of achieving this aim.

a Work in pairs or small groups. Explain the meaning of the

phrases ‘couch potato’ and ‘junk food’.

b How do you rate the following suggestions as ways of ensuring physical fitness? Rank them starting with those you consider to be most effective. Be prepared to justify your choice by explaining how the suggestions may or may not help you.

Do you consider selling your TV to be an effective way of keeping fit?

c Yet, there exists certain scepticism concerning this overwhelming obsession with you body being beautiful. Those who challenge this crazy fad, remark ironically: “Exercising makes people think that they can live for ever. It puts off the moment of realization that we are mortal. If you don’t stay still long enough you don’t have to think about such things. Coming to terms with oneself, finding out who one is and where one is going, come from within, not from running round a park with 2, 000 other people.”

Do you share this viewpoint?

d Read the following advice and discuss it with your partners:

“It’s high time you hung up your trainers and exercised your

mind and not your body.”

· What message does it convey to you?

· Who might it be given to?

· Does this bit of advice make sense? Why?