Complete these sentences about yourself and your country.

1. In my country ……………….. is/are more common than ……………….

2. In my country ……………….. is/are more expensive than ………………..

3. In my country a mixed salad usually contains ………………………………

4. In my country we don’t grow ……………………………………………………….

5. And we don’t often eat ………………………………………………………………..

6. Personally, I prefer ……………. to …………………………………………………..

7. I love ………………. But I don’t really like ……………………………………….

8. My favorite meat is…………………………………………………………………….

READING

Checking out the check out

The eighteen-century French writer, Brillat-Savarin, wrote that we are what we eat. But in the consumer world of the twenty-first century it is perhaps truer to say we are what we buy.

Every year, in order to find out more about who we are, the National Office of Statistics draws up a list of the typical contents of the nation’s shopping basket. The list is designed to analyze the nation’s buying habits as accurately as possible. Every year they remove any items that are becoming less popular and replace them with new products.

In this year’s basket they have included: A carton of low-fat milk, a bottle of mineral water, a tub of olive oil based- margarine, a bag of pre-washed salad leaves and some free-range chicken. The basket does not contain a box of matches (apparently we prefer lighters), a bottle of gin (it seems that we’ve become a nation of vodka drinkers) or a packet of cheese slices (which were very popular a few years ago).

Changes in the basket show that traditional British foods, like bread and butter or bacon and eggs and a cup of tea, which used to be so popular, are being replaced by a more Mediterranean diet. Twenty years ago very few households included olive oil or fresh pasta in their shopping lists.

Now they are among the top ten most likely items on the Great Britain shopping list. Ten years ago very few families bought bottled mineral water to drink at home – they thought it was a luxury item. But, influenced by holidays in other European countries, we’re now buying so much that it has taken over from more traditional drinks such as lemonade. And it would seem that the typical British consumer is also spending more money on organic fruit and vegetables, vegetarian burgers and decaffeinated coffee. At the same time, less healthy food items have been crossed off the list.

So it seems that Britain as a nation is looking more to its European neighbours and thinking more about its health. The next time you’re in the supermarket, take a quick look at the contents of your trolley and see if you’re a part of modern Britain.