MEALS AND COOKINGWhen we cook, we boil, roast, fry orstew our food. We boil eggs, meat, chicken, fish, milk, water and vegetables.We fry eggs, fish and vegetables. We stew fish, meat, vegetables or fruit. Weroast meat or chicken. We put salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar and mustard into ourfood to make it salted, sweet, sour or simply tasty. Our food may taste good orbad or it may be tasteless.The usual meals in England arebreakfast, lunch, tea and dinner or, in simpler houses, breakfast, dinner, teaand supper.For breakfast English people mostlyhave porridge or corn-flakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs,marmalade with buttered toast and tea or coffee.
For a change they can have aboiled egg, cold ham, or fish.English people generally have lunchabout one o clock. At lunch time in a London restaurant one usually finds amutton chop, or steak and chips, or cold meat or fish with potatoes and salad,then a pudding or fruit to follow.Afternoon tea can hardly be called ameal.
It is a substantial meal only in well-to-do families. It is between fiveand six o clock. It is rather a sociable sort of thing, as friends often comein then for a chat while they have their cup of tea, cake or biscuit.In some houses dinner is the biggestmeal of the day. But in great many English homes, the midday meal is the chiefone of the day, and in the evening there is usually a much simpler supper anomelette, or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs and sometimes just bread andcheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.HEALTHWhen we are ill, we call a doctor,and he examines us and diagnoses the illness. When we have a headache, astomach ache, a sore throat, a cold, or a pain in some parts of the body, wecall a doctor.
He takes our temperature and our pulse.He examines our heart,our lungs, our stomach or the part where we have pain, and tells us what thematter is with us. The doctor prescribes medicine, and gives us a prescription,which we take to the chemist s, who makes up the medicine.If you follow the doctor s orders,you get better if you disobey the doctor, you may get worse, and even die. Wemust obey the doctor, if we want to get better.
If we have a temperature, wemust stay in bed and take the medicine he prescribes. If we cannot get betterat home we must go to hospital.If we are too ill to walk, we go tohospital in the ambulance. After our illness we can go to a sanatorium until weare strong again.When we have toothache, we go to thedentist s. He examines our teeth, finds the tooth which hurts us, stops orextracts it.Now here in Russia health systemincorporates a variety of medical institutions.
The medical service in Russiais of two kinds. Some state establishments give their employees medicalinsurance cards.They guarantee the people free of charge medical assistance.Some medical establishments charge fees for treatment. They may be rat-herhigh, but our medical service now uses all modem equipment and medicines andprovides qualified medical help to all people.