suger rush - suddenly feeling excited or full energy after eating food containing a lot of suger
balanced diet - a diet combing the proper types and amounts of food needed to stay healthy
go low - have very little of a particular thing
sharp - intelligent and quick to notice and react to things
(20 second / minutes)flat - used to to mean a certain about of time exactly, and to emphasise that something is done very quickly
What we eat alters our brain chemistry, changing our mood and emotions. For example, you eat a doughnut and get a suger rush. You got a strong feeling of excitement and energy, only to collapse an hour later with a headache. Our brain is working 24 hours a day, even while we sleep. And our brain uses 20% of the body's energy despite making up only 2% of our total weight.
Eating a variety of foods is good to stay healthy. If you eat very little of foods, your body wouldn't work well. Actually we shoud eat superfoods like avocado, Alaskan salmon, berries or walnuts, but they cost a fortune. For saving, it's good to cook a lot of foods at once and freeze them, then eat at later meals. We can cook quickly and get many more nutritions than normal microwave ready meals. So let's get healthy foods to work our brain well!
The market for the world's most popular drink has come a long way since the inception of instant coffee, when we just added boiling water to some brown powder. Afeter that came the giants like Starbucks or Costsa Coffee who made coffee drinking trendy and a lifestlyle statement. People shoudn't forget what lies beheind the coffee we enjoy everybody because it's a hugely complicated business as it's the second biggest commodity in the world, after oil. So the price of coffee is changing everyday, every houe even. And the farmers in countries like Ethiopia, Costa Rica or Brazil are dependent on the deals that are made in commodity markets thousands of miles from their farms. It makes them extremely valunerable.
Food journalist Sheila Dillon explains the impact of coffee markets on local growers. What happens in the coffee market makes waves around the globe. "Makes waves" means 'have a big effect'. Entire national economies depend on the price of coffee. It's the key to whether individual farmers can have enough in come to live comfortably.
Now, the price of coffee has gone up quickly in recent years. The profit margin for coffee may amongst the highest in the world, so we can't see what all the fuss is about. Everyone benefits all depends on how the profits are distributed. There are countless transactions between the grower and the drinker. A grower can have a good crop, but the amount he makes stays the same, or can even fall. We can expect most of the profits go to the commodity traders and very little to the individual growers of the bean. It sounds like the growers have no control. That's what happens in other agricultural sectors. But some people are trying to distribute the profits more widely and they have been having some success. Some small- scale projects where the company takes change of the whole process from field to shop. These organisations tend to farm organically. This is very 'labour intensive'- that means a lot of people are employed - and it creates a lot of jobs for people the local company. In this way, they are not victims of market fluctuations.
Leo Virmani, who runs a small plantation like this in Costa Rica, explains the grower's profit. For their plantation, the approach they have is to go through every stop of the way or process, so that they grow it, pick it, and process it in the mill. Then eventually they'll roast it, package it, and sell it as small plantation they are. And that would allow them to stay, or be profitable at the end of the day.
It's good to know that small growers can live reasonably comfortably, despite what the world markets are doing. The next time when I grab a takeway coffee, I'll try to remember all the politics involved in the production process.
It's a strange fact that the some dish described using difference words can make it sound more delicious, more exotic and more desirable. Restaurants think carefully about the language they use to describe the food on their menus make it sound appealing, tasty or poetic.
Instead of humbergers, we have gourmet burgers. And it's just not gravy and raspberry coulis sounds a lot of taster than raspberry sauce.Many of the words used to describe gourmet food, that's food which is higher than quality and more sophisticated than usual, and French, coming from a country with a long tradition of high-level cooking called haute cusine. But how does the language used to described food affect our phycology and help restaurants make menus which are both tempting and profitable?
But according to linguist Dr Keri Matwick, the use of French is decreasing. She thinks French names used to be popular but there's a tendacy to not use that names because they are now seen as pretencious. if something is pretentious, it tries to appear more important or clever that it really is. Some diners like the French names, you stop feeling interested or excited to the dishes.
And Brazilian Chef Caroline Martins agrres that using French names in menus is becoming a thing of the past. Caroline has stopped using French names in her pop-up restaurant, Sampa, in Manchester. She was classically trained in French cuisine, so she was using a lot of French terms, but that wasn't very welcome. People would be very confused and avoid the dishes or they would be sarcastic about them. They mocked and some diners even walked out. Caroline thinks French names make her cooking sound too posh, too fasionable, expensive and not available to everyone. So she has now started using English and her native Brazilian Portugues on the menu and is pleased with the results - comstomers don't feel confused, and their curiosity about Braizilian starts a conversation with the waiter.
French names may make menus which tempting and profitable, but many restaurants have stopped using Frensh names because they are pretentious and unfamiliar, and some diners doesn't accept them.
It's said that your personality is reflected in your pet-an animal that you keep in your home as a compassion and treat kindly. Dog people are supposed to be friendly, enthusiastic and loyal, whears cat people are introverted, proud and sensitive. In addition to the other animals, the British are well known as a nation of animal lovers. In the UK, 52% of owners describe their pet as their best friend and in 2021, 18 milion homes had at least one pet, which means there were more households with a pet than without.
Our relationship with pets has continually changed throuthout history. In the 1800, people started using the word pet to describe the emotional connection they felt to a special animal and gradually it became normal to keep pets indoors. As people got richer, they had more moneys to spend on luxury items, inckuding pets. On a very pratical level, living standarts which are known as 'the standard of living', are gradually increasing across that period, and it becomes more possible to keep pets if you have more disposable income. 'Disposable income' is that the money left over to spend on things you want, after paying tax and other living expenses.
In the Victorian era, pets included new and exotic animals such as tigers, lions, monkeys and elephants. Even the famous Victorian writer, Charles Dicken, owned a raven. It was the Victorians who firstly described Britain as a nation of dog lovers. In the Victorian era, dogs were very much the top pet, and you can see that the values that were often associated with dogs. Dog's qualities like loyality, trustfulness, steadfasteness were perfectly celebrated by the Victorians as key parts of the Victorian manly character, so dogs realrry fitted the bill. The Victorians admired qualities associated with dogs, qualities like -self confidence and loyality- being strong and unchaging in support of your friends. While dogs were considered strongly and manly, cats were feminie and weak. So for the Victorians, dogs really fitted the bill, an ideom meaning they were suitable for a particular purpose.
Nowdays, we see cats using Instagram or dogs on TikTok. It may be strange new development, but because British's relationship with pets really has changed over the years.
Alcohol has many kinds of flavors. For example, they are beer, cocktail, wine, sake, and so on. If you find a liqueur bar which specializes in your best favorite flavor, do you want to go? I introduce a compelling bar. It's a very rare because the bar serves only gin tonics. The bar has a variety of gin bottles that are not only from Japan but also from all over the world.
To surprisingly, all these bottles are gins. In addition to the basic types, there are lots of flavored gins.
EMPRESS -made in Canada-
I ordered this gin tonic colerd in pink at first. This gin has the flavor of tea.
HENDRICK'S -made in Scotland-
The bartender advised me to order it. This gin tonic has the flavor which are floral and rose. Actually this was the most delicious gin tonic that I've ever drunk. The scent of the flower suits the gin well, so it made me agreeable. And I like the design of the bottle. If I put this bottle in my room, my room must be sleek.
hernö - made in Sweden-
I'd studeid Swedish a little, so I orderd the gin tonic made in Sweden because I'd been interested in the country. This gin tastes smoky or woody because the gin had been marinate in a cask. It's a little bit unique flavor, but I like it.
GUNPOWDER IRISH GIN - made in Ireland-
I ordered this bottle because I was attracted by the deer's picture. This gin is mixed orange and the chinese green tea called 'Gunpowder'. I felt the scent of Jasmine tea, and orange.
BARR HILL - made in USA-
DREYBERG - made in Germany-
I drank the gin tonics, which were the honey taste made in USA, and the raspberry taste made in Germany. I love both of honey and raspberry, so I wondered whether their ingredients matches the gins. Absolutelly they were so good.
I enjoyed drinking many flavored of the gin tonics. I felt as if I had choosen fragrances, and I was happy. Having visited this bar, I love gin tonics more and more. I want to go there if I have a chance.
There are more animals on the list of endangered species than ever before. Around 2,000 more creatures have been added to the Red List of Threatened species. The figures were announced at COP28, the annual international climate conference. Scientists say climate change is putting the planet in a biodiversity crisis.
1, Climate change : if warming approaches 2℃, a trickle of extinctions will become a flood
This headline says that if tenmpreatures increase by two degrees, there will be even more species that could become extinct. But we are looking at the word 'trickle'. A trickle is a very small flow of water. If you've got a bath and you turn the tap a tiny little way, you'll get a trickle of water coming out of the tap.But if you left that trickle alone for a very long time, the water would increase and flow over tha tap and the bathroom would food. It would become dangerous. So this headline is using 'trickle' metaphorically. As more species are added to the list of potential extinctions, and that's the trickle, it will become more dangerous for the planet- that is foold. And we often use the word 'trickle' metaphorically to talk about a small number of things or a little bit of something and it doesn't have to be a liquid, like in this headline.
2, 'Climate captives': The wins and losses of 2023's threatened species list
Captives is the plural form of 'captive'. A captive is something that's trapped. It can be a person or an animal. So this headline mentions climate captives. This means that these animals are literally trapped because of climate change. For example, rising sea shelves mean that salt water is travelling up rivers and that's trapping animals like frogs and salamanders. They have less space to live and that's why they're in danger.
In other words, these animals are literally trapped by climate change. They are alimate captives. And we can also use the word 'captive' for people. For example, if somebody is trapped or taken prisoner in a war.
3, A biodiversity tipping point as first marine fish extinction declared
This news story is also the list of threatend species. It says that the world is at a biodiversity tipping point. 'Tipping point' is that lots of small things keep happening until they reach a point where there's a big, significant change. It's usually negative. So this headline is saying about a critical time. We are at a tipping point where biodiversity is changing dramatically, and for the worse.
And it's often used in negative situations like this news. You might see ever about inflation. That's prices have gone up bit-by-bit until it reaches a tipping point, which might be where people can't afford to buy basic things.
A social media influencer has gone to jail after crashing a plane on purpose for a YouTube video. Trever Jacob, an experienced pilot and skydiver jumped out of the plane while filming himself on a selfie stick. He'd pretended there were engine problems and later tried to cover up the crash.
1,YouTuber jailed after staging plane crash in Calfornia to make video
This headline is saying that the YouTuber who staged a plan crash and was jailed for it. But we're looking at the word "staging". A stage as a noun is that place in the theatre where the actors stand and perform. There is a connection between that stage and this stage in the headline. So the stage in the headline is a verb and it means to put on a performance like you do in theatre, but it doesn't just have to be related to the theatre. Stage can also means to generally organize and do something. So this YouTuber planned to and then actually crashed his plane. He staged it though, but it was not an accident. It was a performance. He did it deliberately for his followers, his fans.
And we have some other examples of stage. So you can stage a walk out, or a protest. This means a group of people organize and then actually do it. So they actually walk out or protest usually because they're unhappy about something, they want to see a change. And stage can also mean pretend. So we do something fake to trick people into beliving it's ture. For exmaple, you can stage an argument.
2,YouTuber Trever Jacob jailed after crashing plane and skydiving to safty for video views 'and financial gain'
This headline says that this influencer crashed his plane for finacial gain. 'Gain' is the word that you probably already know this a verb which means to get something useful or positive. But in the headline here it's used as a noun. Gain as a noun means an increase in something, such as size or amount. So the YouTuber wants to increase his video views and money. That's why he crashed the plane and that's why the headline says 'financial gain'. 'Financial gain' is common epression, and it means an increase in money which is seen as a positive thing. Other common adjectives which go with gain are net gain and weight gain.
And it's also possible to use gains in the plural. This could refer to reward, like or maybe an increase in productivity.
3, Olympian snowboarder sentenced in YouTube airplane crash stunt
This headline has beeen sentenced and that means punished by law often as in this case going to jail. Stunt can be an action like that usually seen in a film or TV show and it's somthing that looks dangerous. That's why it has to be done by a stunt airtst. But stunt has slightly diffrent meaning in this headline. Stunt here can also mean that something is done for attention and we see stunt in this headline meaning both the first definition and this one about attention. So the snowboarder crashed his aeroplane just to get attention.
Recently I bought a new vocabulary book. This book is for TOEIC, and it's harder than the other books which I'd used ever. Absolutely there were the words that I'd never seen, but it includes the word that I've already known and gotten by studying BBC learning English or TOEIC's offical text books. It's difficult for me to learn new vocabulary, but I'll do with remembering them!
