Разговорный английский
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MOTHER. Oh, my! What a troublesome boy you are, Tommy! (Places the cat on another chair.) There now. Eat, will you?
TOMMY. The cat wants to eat too.
MOTHER. What am I to do with this boy? Well, give it some then, but do eat, will you? (Tom begins feeding the cat.) Are you ever going to eat anything yourself, Tommy?
TOMMY. The cat hasn’t eaten enough yet.
MOTHER. You make my blood boil, Tommy, the way you behave. (To Grandmother.) Mother dear, can you do anything with that boy? He is altogether out of hand. I can’t stand it any more. (Goes away.)
GRANDMOTHER. Now, Tommy, stop trifling with the fish, will you?
TOMMY. I am picking out the bones, Grannie. The cat won’t eat bones, will it?
GRANDMOTHER. But there is hardly anything left there now. You have given it all away to the cat!
TOMMY. But I don’t want any, Grannie, really not.
GRANDMOTHER. Well, drink your coffee then. It has already grown cold.
TOMMY. Coffee? I want some milk.
GRANDMOTHER. But there is no milk left, Tommy. TOMMY. All the better. I want to play.
3. AT DINNER
ANN. Good morning, John. Come in, please.
JOHN. Thank you. Is Fred at home?
ANN. Yes, he’s in his study. This way, please.
JOHN. Hello, old chap. How goes the world with you?
FRED. Fine. So nice of you to have come. We are about to have dinner.
ANN. Will you dine with us, John?
JOHN. With the greatest pleasure. I’m ever so hungry.
ANN. That’s fine. Well, I’m off to lay the table. Excuse me, please.
JOHN. By all means.
At Table
FRED. Say, John, what about a drink?
JOHN. Will a duck swim?1
FRED. Here, down this.
JOHN. To you, Ann. But you are ftot —.
ANN. No, thank you. I never take wine.
FRED. Well, here’s something for you, Ann. Hand me your tumbler, please. Well, John, be good. Ann? {They drink.)
JOHN. It’s good to be in a company like this.
ANN. Let me help you to some salad, John.
JOHN. Please do. That’s quite enough, thank you.
ANN. Some soup, John?
JOHN. Why, yes! I think I could manage a plateful.
ANN. How do you find it?
JOHN. Awfully nice, really. Don’t you think so, Fred?
FRED. Yes, it is indeed. Pass me the salt, Ann, will you?
ANN. Here you are. Some more bread, Fred?
FRED. Yes, please. What comes next, Annie?
ANN. Chops with roast potatoes, fish —.
FRED. And what follows that?
ANN. Wouldn’t you like to make a guess?
FRED. Stewed apricots as usual, I suppose.
ANN. There you are wrong, Fred. It’s apple dumpling2 with whipped cream!
JOHN. Apple dumpling, and with whipped cream! My, isn’t that fine!
ANN. I am happy that I’ve suited your taste, John. And do you like it, Fred?
FRED. Oh, yes. You know I do.
ANN. Do you take milk in your coffee, John?
JOHN. Yes, I do. (Ann hands him a cup of coffee.) Thank you. FRED. Well, John, what about a cigar?
JOHN. With great pleasure.
Vocabulary Note
1 Will a duck swim? (Fam.) —
4. ENGLISH COOKING
Vegetable Soup
Peel and cut into very small pieces three onions, three turnips, one carrot and four potatoes; put them into a pan with a quarter of a pound of butter, a 1/4 of a po^nd of ham and a bunch of parsley; pass them ten minutes over a sharp fire; then add a spoonful of flour, mix well in; add 4 pints (2 litres) of broth and a pint of boiling milk; boil up, keeping it stirred; skim it; season with a little salt and sugar and run it through a sieve into another pan; boil again and serve with fried bread in it.
Potatoes Fried in Slices
Peel large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick or cut them into shavings as you would slice a lemon; dry them and fry in lard or dripping. The pan should be put on a quick fire, and as soon as the lard boils put in the slices of potatoes and keep moving them until they are crisp; take them up and lay them to drain on a sieve. Send to table with a little salt sprinkled over them.
Stewed Beef and Pork
Put into a saucepan about 2 pounds (800 gr.) of well-soaked beef cut into 8 pieces; 1/2 a pound of soaked pork cut into 2 pieces; six tablespoonfuls of rice; 4 middle-sized onions peeled and sliced; a tablespoonful of sugar; a little pepper and salt; add 4 pints of water; simmer gently for three hours; remove the fat from top and serve.
Accepting these few hints on English cooking as a base, describe the way you do your own cooking.
5. ON ENGLISH FOOD
The usual meals are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. Breakfast is really a big meal, but one would find that lunch is not small either. The usual breakfast is porridge with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade with buttered toast, and tea or coffee.
At lunch, which is at about one o’clock, cold mutton (left over probably from yesterday’s dinner) or fish with potatoes, salad and pickles generally grace the table. English mutton is a treat, and it is prepared in such a way that you wouldn’t know it is mutton. Salad is a little different from ours. You only get the clean green leaves and the so-called “salad-dressing”, a mixture of oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and maoynnaise, that you may take according to your taste.
After lunch most people take coffee, though tea is the favourite beverage in England. That is why there are no “coffee-houses” there, but tea-rooms and luncheon-rooms there are in abundance. There is nothing like an English tea-party, be it at home or in the open air. Such little at-homes and outings do much to further sociability and make you feel on good terms with all the company in a short time, which is very helpful to a foreigner in England. Afternoon tea can hardly be called a meal. Tea is made at the table. It is very strong and mostly drunk with sugar and cream. It would be an offence to take lemon in your tea.