A 14-year-old British student is packing for the next day of school: textbooks, notebooks, pens, 250 grams of flour, an egg and some cooking oil. Wait, what?
It’s not a joke.
From September, cookery will be a compulsory (必修的) course for kids aged 7-14 in the UK.
Primary school students will learn how to put things together and make simple, healthy food.
At high school, students will then master a number of different meals. They will also learn some cooking skills including baking.
Britain is sometimes known as a country with bad food and unhealthy eating habits. These new courses are part of the country’s effort to bring healthy food back onto the table.
“One in four British families no longer has a table that everyone can eat around. One out of every two meals we eat is eaten alone. Only four out of ten of us enjoy eating meals with our children,” British writer Joanna Blythman wrote in her book Bad Food Britain: How A Nation Ruined Its Appetite (食欲) in 2006.
Instead, ready meals have become the first choice for many British kids, because their parents are often too busy to cook a proper meal.
The Department for Education hopes that the cookery courses can introduce children to good food and reduce childhood obesity.
“It’s important that children can develop an interest and understanding of good food,” said a spokesman for the department.
“We want to encourage them to develop a love of food and cooking that will stay with them as they grow up.
小题1:Students under 14 in the UK _______.
A．are fond of cooking
B．love to eat junk food
C．will learn how to cook at school
D．have to prepare breakfast by themselves小题2:From the passage, we can learn that _______.
A．many British people have unhealthy eating habits
B．people in Britain don’t love to eat around the table
C．parents cook meals for their kids although they are busy
D．many British people don’t like to eat with their families小题3:The aim of the cookery course is to help children _______.
A．have a good appetite
B．learn more life skills
C．learn to do housework at home
D．enjoy eating and cooking healthy food小题4:The underlined word “obesity” in the passage means _______ in Chinese.
A．厌学
B．懒惰
C．肥胖
D．贪玩
