英语博客:Processed or unprocessed?

As most parents, I am concerned about what my children eat. Do they eat healthy food, and if they do, do they eat it consistently? And what about me? Am I careful about what I put in my body? It will, in time, influence my health and those around me. I find it is easy to quickly grab food when I am 'on the go', and not necessarily feed my body everything that it needs. School kids, especially, need a balanced diet. When my children come out of school, they are always ready to devour¹ something. I have been experimenting recently, to see just how healthy I can make their after school snacks. There are so many quick, processed foods that I could feed them, but how would they benefit? So, the other day, when I picked them up, I presented them with chicken and a bag of blueberries each. "Ah, cool!" was their only reply as they tucked into the food. You would have thought that they would want something sweet, or starchy, but they were totally satisfied with what I had brought them. "Great!" I thought to myself, "I can feel good about feeding them all kinds of healthy snacks on the way home." Once when I was at the check-out till at a supermarket, the cashier made a remark about a box of pumpkin² bread mix that I was buying. "Oh, this is really good stuff," she said. "I bought this the other day because my kids were getting tired of Oreo cookies as an after school snack." I was actually horrified³ at the thought of the super processed Oreos being eaten every day! Processed ingredients sneak⁴ into all kinds of foods these days, but every day Oreo cookies take the biscuit!

Grammar notes.

The past conditional⁵ with the past subjunctive with the new expressions.

1. 'On the go' - I would have grabbed a quick 'on the go' lunch if I had known that the cafeteria was closed.

2. 'To tuck into something' - We would have tucked into our chicken if it had been cooked properly.

3. 'Starchy' - If they had realized(sed) just how starchy the bread, pies, and cookies are, they wouldn't have bought them.

4. 'Check-out till' and 'cashier' - If the check-out till hadn't been so slow, the cashier wouldn't have been so frustrated⁶.

5. 'To take the biscuit' - I would have been embarrassed to have performed like that on stage; she really takes the biscuit.

 

1 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

2 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

3 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

4 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

5 conditional   

adj.条件的，带有条件的

参考例句：

• My agreement is conditional on your help.你肯帮助我才同意。
• There are two forms of most-favored-nation treatment:conditional and unconditional.最惠国待遇有两种形式:有条件的和无条件的。

6 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》