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In the Stone Age, people didn’t need to find salt, because they were hunting a lot of their food, and eating a lot of red meat. Red meat has plenty of salt in it.

But when people began to farm, about 10,000 B.C., they started to eat mainly grains like rice and wheat, and very little meat. Then they really needed another way to get salt. Salt was also used to preserve all different kinds of food, because there were no refrigerators: salt is used to make bacon, or ham, or salted fish, or pickles.

The earliest evidence of salt production comes from northern China, where people had been harvesting salt from a salt lake, Lake Yuncheng, by 6000 B.C. and maybe earlier.

In Egypt, people were using salt to preserve meat and fish by about 3000 B.C. The Egyptians also used salt to preserve mummies. They evaporated seawater from the Mediterranean Sea.

About 700 B.C., in Europe, the Celts were mining salt underground in modern Austria, Hungary, southern Germany and Poland. The Celts sold their salt to other people. The Celts also sold salted meat – salami, ham, and bacon. In exchange, the Celts bought glass and pottery for their houses and their graves.

Because everyone needed salt, but only a few people could produce it, salt was something everybody bought and rather expensive.

Письменно ответьте на вопросы.

1. When and why did people begin to produce salt?

2. How did the ancient people produce salt?

3. Why was salt expensive?

Заполните пропуски артиклями, где это необходимо. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Cheese produced in … Europe, where climates are cooler than in … Middle East, required less salt for … preservation.

2. … British drink far too much tea.

3. Can you pass ... marmalade, please?

4. Have you tried … raw fish at … new Japanese restaurant?

5. … harder the cheese, … more pressure is applied.

Употребите прилагательные или наречия в нужной степени сравнения. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Harder cheeses have a … (low) moisture content than softer cheeses.

2. Hong Kong and the United States are … (large) importers of the edible bird's nests.

3. In school, Italian children are taught that their diet is one of … (healthy) in the world.

4. “… (good) before” indicates a future date beyond which the food product may lose quality in terms of taste or texture, but does not imply any serious health problems if food is consumed beyond this date (within reasonable limits).

5. Colorings are added to food to replace colors lost during preparation, or to make food look … (attractive).

Поставьте к следующим предложениям вопросы указанного типа.

1. The word spice comes from the same root as species. (общий)

2. The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1499. (специальный)

3. The shelf life of a ground spice is roughly six months. (альтернативный)

4. A large number of people get sick every year due to spoiled food. (разделительный).

5. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. (вопрос к подлежащему)

Раскройте скобки. Определите видовременную форму глаголов. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Sugar … (refine) before it is used for food.

2. Today the main tendency in agriculture of Great Britain is that small farms … (disappear) gradually because they cannot compete with modern industrial farms based on up-to-date agricultural machinery.

3. Not long ago Canada, Australia, and Chile … (sign) agreements with Europe that will limit the use of the term ‘champagne’ to only those products produced in the Champagne region.

4. Although Christopher Columbus … (not, find) spices, his voyage led to a new world of food to Europeans.

5. The bird's nests … (use) in Chinese cooking for over 400 years, most often as bird's nest soup.