The Slow Death of Spain’s Menú del Día
Food is at the heart of Spanish culture. From social life to business deals, everything revolves around food---above all, lunch. How did Mariano Rajoy, then prime minister, react in 2018 when faced with an unprecedented (前所未有的) vote of no confidence? He went to lunch ... for eight hours.
The three-course menú del día (menu of the day) has been the cornerstone of Spanish food and social life for generations.
The fixed-price menú del día as we now know it was first introduced in the mid-1960s as the “tourist menu,” which helped to ensure that an affordable meal would be within the financial reach of all Spaniards.
But now working life has changed. Fewer people split the workday with a two-hour break for lunch. “People are realizing that an hour is long enough for lunch,” says José Luis Casero. Furthermore, a decreasing percentage of Spaniards have full-time jobs. Trade unions (工会) estimate 33 percent of jobs that have been created since 2012 are temporary. New professions such as delivery riders do not receive paid lunch breaks. Throughout many Spanish cities today, what may have once been restaurants serving menú del día have already been reborn as kebab (烤肉串) shops or, in more touristy areas, tapas bars (西班牙小食吧).
These days, the tradition only continues to endure in small numbers of restaurants in Spain. Just around the corner from city hall and with mayor Ada Colau being one of its regulars, Cervantes has been a family-run restaurant since the early 1980s. It is now managed by the Esteve sisters: Glòria, Cristina and Gemma. The C13 menú of classic Spanish dishes is chalked up on a board.
“I cook more or less what my mother cooked,” says Glòria. “I know what I know and people like that. It’s all homemade.” “All kinds of people eat here, from officials to builders,” adds Gemma. “There’re people who come to Cervantes for the first time and say: ‘Wow, I didn’t know this sort of place still existed.’ ‘Well,’ I say, ‘we’ve always been here.’”
| A．It changes with the seasons, but only slightly. |
| B．They are less likely to honor the menú tradition. |
| C．They often make just enough to maintain the families that run them. |
| D．People see changes in a place like this as an attack on their lifestyle. |
| E．All of these types of restaurants had to offer at least one of these on its menus until the law was changed in 2010. |
| F．Consequently, the restaurants serving these menus — generally low on aesthetics (美观性) and high on value for money — have been a feature of the urban landscape. |
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【推荐1】Tea has become rooted in the British way of life, from the humble tea break to the afternoon tea to be enjoyed— in a jacket and tie, of course.
But what are the secrets or even cruel realities behind the taste of this beloved beverage? Anthropologist Kate Fox writes in her book Watching the English that there are several clear messages sent whenever a Brit makes a cup.
She observes that the strongest brews of black tea— with the largest doses of flavour factors— are typically drunk by the working class. The flavor gets progressively weaker as one goes up the social ladder.
Milk and sweetener have their own codes. According to her, taking sugar in your tea in Britain is regularly by many as a definite lower-class indicator.
A food scientist pointed out something that seems to apply here. “
Fox also observes that, alongside its chemical properties, tea is a social space-filler. Many meaningless moments can be occupied by tea and its related events.
| A．And one could come up with any number of theories for why the current tea making and drinking habits are inevitable. |
| B．Thought regarded as a form of simple act, tea making can vary between cultures. |
| C．The tea is, above all, credited with the ability to represent different individual personalities. |
| D．Food choices are driven by one’s environment-the context. |
| E．Tea making is the perfect replacement activity. |
| F．Even one spoonful is a bit suspicious unless other details clearly show otherwise. |
【推荐2】Growing up in a Southern family, big meals were the norm. Every meal for my nuclear family of four provided enough food for eight. Each Sunday, when we drove to my grandmother’s home for lunch, there was more than enough food.
When I lost my job, though, my handling of extra food suddenly hit a barrier.
But instead of cooking a lot and then simply eating the leftovers, I had a new solution that worked well with my belief in showing love through food:
Such a small act can bring large amounts of joy to anyone in these hard times. And in unfavorable situations, it’s an act that allows us to develop friendship and show love while we must, still, remain apart.
| A．Continue cooking for my family. |
| B．Bringing the extras as meals to my friends. |
| C．It was the one part of our new world I couldn’t refuse. |
| D．In the shock of the change, I cooked less for about a year. |
| E．In my adult life before unemployment, this tradition stayed with me. |
| F．Serving extra food was the way that we showed love to one another. |
| G．But doing so seemed contrary to the generosity I had been brought up to believe in. |
【推荐3】Globalization has significantly influenced food consumption in most parts of world, but one country whose food has a long history of being globalized is Italy. If you walk down any main street in any major world city, you will find at least one Italian restaurant. Furthermore, Italy has seen changes in its own eating habits due to influence from other countries.
Food has always been very important for Italian families. Italians take a lot of pride in the making and preparation of food. Until recently, pastas — a basic Italian food — would have been made by people in their local area. Families would also have made the sauces to eat with the pasta at home.
Nowadays, however, Italian eating habits appear to have changed. People no longer spend so much time preparing their meals. Indeed, frozen or takeaway Italian meals have become very popular in Italy. Furthermore, dried pasta is now mass-produced and sold relatively cheaply in the last five years, according to one manufacturer.
These changes have both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, globalization has increased the range of food available in Italy. Italians now have much more choice in terms of what they eat. They also do not need to spend so long preparing and making food, unless of course they want to. In contrast, it can be argued that large restaurant chains are becoming increasingly powerful, resulting in the destruction of local and national specialties.
| A．There is a difference between the food that people eat in the countryside and the food people eat in big cities. |
| B．Consequently, many Italians worry that they are losing their sense of nationality, as foreign food becomes more common. |
| C．In addition, people’s opportunity to experiment with foreign food was very limited, since only pizza and pasta were available in the local town square. |
| D．Possibly the global popularity of Italian eating habits is the increasing popularity of foreign cuisine, especially Indian, Chinese and Japanese foods. |
| E．Another important change in Italian eating habits is the increasing popularity of foreign cuisine, especially Indian, Chinese and Japanese foods. |
| F．Globalization has had a significant influence on the way that Italians eat. |
【推荐1】When you were at school, the last thing you probably wanted to do was to spend your weekends going to work. There was homework to do, sport to play and fun to have. But our parents probably persuaded us to find a job to earn some money and get some life experience. When I was a teenager I had a paper round: delivering newspapers to people’s homes.
Today in the UK you are allowed to work from the age of 13, and many children do take up part-time jobs. It’s one of those things that are seen almost as a rite of passage (成人仪式). It’s a taste of independence and sometimes a useful thing to put on your CV（简历). Teenagers agree that it teaches valuable lessons about working with adults and also about managing their own money.
Some research has shown that not taking up a Saturday or holiday job could be deleterious to a person later on. A 2015 study by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills found that not participating in part-time work at school age had been blamed by employers’ organizations for young adults being ill-prepared for full-time employment, but despite this, recent statistics have shown that the number of schoolchildren in the UK with a part-time job has fallen by a fifth in the past five years.
So does this mean that British teenagers are now afraid of hard work? Probably not. Some experts feel that young people feel going out to work will affect their performance at school and they are under some pressure now to study hard and get good exam result and a good job in the long term. However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that “Properly regulated part-time work is a good way of helping young people learn skills that they will need in their working lives.” In reality, it’s all about getting the right balance between doing part-time work and having enough time to study and rest.
Many young people actually want to work because it gives them a sense of freedom. One 13-year-old girl called Rachel, who has a Saturday job in a shop, told the BBC that “I enjoy my job because I’m earning money and it helps me socialize with people I work with.” That seems like something worth getting up for a Saturday morning. Did you do a part-time job when you were at school?
1. What conclusion can we draw from Para2?| A．Children over 13 in the UK must take up part-time jobs. |
| B．Taking up part-time jobs is good for students in many ways. |
| C．Students taking up part-time jobs are more independent. |
| D．Taking up part-time jobs can help students save money. |
| A．Threatening. | B．Important. |
| C．Beneficial. | D．Harmful. |
| A．Because they are not ready to go out to work. |
| B．Because they cannot endure hardships. |
| C．Because they want to study hard and get good academic performance. |
| D．Because they lack confidence and skills needed to work. |
| A．Students should put all their energies into their studies. |
| B．It is good for students to do part-time jobs as long as they are proper. |
| C．Students with good grades and no study pressure can do part-time jobs. |
| D．The more part-time jobs they do, the more beneficial it is for students. |
| A．Should schoolchildren have part-time jobs? |
| B．What kind of part-time job should schoolchildren do? |
| C．What benefits can part-time jobs bring to schoolchildren? |
| D．Why do British schoolchildren show less interest in part-time jobs? |
【推荐2】The information age has reached a critical point, with AI’s superior computation ability surpassing that of humans. A report released by Goldman Sachs in March 2023 estimated that AI is capable of doing a quarter of all the work currently done by humans.
The second category is jobs that require sophisticated interpersonal relationships like nurses, business consultants and investigative journalists. These are jobs where you need a very deep understanding of people.
The third safe zone includes jobs that really require lots of mobility and problem-solving ability in unpredictable environments. Electricians, plumbers, welders (焊工) and the like all fall under this umbrella, where you’re dealing with different situations all the time.
In short, seeking roles in dynamic, shifting environments that include unpredictable tasks is good way to avoid job loss to AI, at least, for a while. It’s important to note that an advanced education is not a defense against AI takeover. In many cases, more educated workers are going to be more threatened than even the least educated workers.
| A．That could be terrible. |
| B．However, they are not coming for all jobs. |
| C．Thankfully, there are still things AI isn’t capable of. |
| D．The first would be jobs that are genuinely creative. |
| E．Think of the person that cleans hotel rooms. |
| F．That doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs that are considered “creative” are safe. |
| G．It’ll be a long time before AI has the ability to really build relationships and interact. |
【推荐3】During all kinds of holidays, millions of people will buy gifts for loved ones, which is great - except that tons of those people will make the same glaring mistake, and buy the wrong gift.
Roughly 10 percent of gifts are returned each year and the percentage of unwanted gifts is surely higher given that nice people may not want to return presents.
What's going on?
Gift buying has become a tricky selfish action. We don't actually look for things people want to receive. Instead, we tend to look for things that we want to give. It's a subtle(微妙的), but pretty important problem. The research says so.
"Gift givers want to prove how well they know a person by choosing a thoughtful gift," said Mary Steffel, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati whose research has focused on gift-giving. "But people aren't very good at dealing with what others want ahead of time."
Research has shown that givers tend to value the gifts they buy considerably more than recipients. Gifts are valued roughly 10 to 33 percent less by recipients than what givers paid for them, Joel Waldfogel noted in a book on gift-giving.
The difference seems to come from a simple wrong belief that thoughtful presents are the best presents. They are not. In fact, they might just be the worst presents. The more thought you put into a present, the more likely you are to turn aside from buying what the person you' re buying the present for actually wants.
''Gift givers tend to focus on what people are like instead of what people actually would like," said Steffel.
In other words, people let their gift-giving minds get in the way of great presents, especially when the recipient is someone they want to show they know really well.
Fortunately, the answer to our common insistence on guessing what people want is simple: stop it.
"People want whatever it is they happen to want in the moment, which can be very specific,"Steffel said." You' re much better off asking people what they want."
"People tend to prefer gift cards to actual gifts," Steffel said. Steffel's latest research, which focuses on giving gift cards, points to exactly this point-that variety of gift's functions is the key to better gift-giving.
1. The reason for masses of unwanted gifts is that ______.| A．givers don't spend enough time picking them out |
| B．givers take it for granted that receivers will like the gifts best |
| C．the gifts tend to be out of date |
| D．the gifts are mostly impractical |
| A．the gifts can be refused by recipients if they' re cheap |
| B．the gifts' value can't be recognized as expected |
| C．a thoughtful gift can say its value |
| D．the more carefully they choose the gifts, the less valuable the gifts will be |
| A．had better ask the recipients about their preference |
| B．will be rich if you ask people for some advice |
| C．will be proud of what you give to people |
| D．will feel better if you send the recipients some gifts |
| A．the gift card's value |
| B．the gift's functions |
| C．giving gift cards and money |
| D．the actual gifts |
| A．Why Thoughtful Gifts Are Available |
| B．How Thoughtful Gifts Steal People's Heart |
| C．How Thoughtful Gifts Have a Great Effect |
| D．Why Thoughtful Gifts Are the Worst Gifts |
