Spread the table-cloth, put out tablemats to protect the table from hot dishes; arrange the plates.
Take out of the drawer the cutlery, don't forget soup spoons and spoons for the sweet. Put the knives and soupspoon on the right-hand side, the fork-on the left, except the spoon for desert, which you put across the top.
On the right of each guest you should put a wineglass.
TABLE MANNERS. A LIST OF “DO'S” AND “DON’TS"
I/ Never stretch over the table for something you want, ask your neighbour to pass it.
2/ Take a slice of bread from the bread-plate by hand, don't harpoon your bread with a fork.
3/ Don't bite into the whole slice, break it off piece by piece.
4/ Never spoil your neighbour's appetite by criticising what he just happens to be eating or by telling stories that don't coincide with good digestion.
5/ Eating chicken, first cut off as such as you can and then when you can't use knife and fork any more, use your fingers.
Never eat while eating, at least in company.
7/ When a dish is placed in front of you, don't eye it suspiciously.
8/ Don't use knife for fish, omelettes.
9/ When you are being served, don't pick: one piece is as good as the other.
10/ Don't lick your spoon. If you really feel like that, ask for another helping.
II/ Don't eat off the knife.
Vegetables, potatoes, macaronis are placed on your fork with the help of the knife.
13/ If your food is too hot, don't blow on it as you are trying to build a campfire on a damp night.
14/ Make as much noise as possible when eating. Don't sip your soup as if you want the whole house to hear it.
15/ Don't talk with your mouth full.
First chew, then swallow.
17/ Don't pick your teeth in company.
18/ Don't forget to say "thank you".
Supplementary texts for reading
The Hot Dog
In its home country of Germany, the hot dog was called the frankfurter. It was named after Frankfurt, a German city.
Frankfurters were first sold in the United States in the 1860s. Americans called frankfurters "dachshund sausages." A dachshund is a dog from Germany with a very long body and short legs. "Dachshund sausage" seemed like a good name for the frankfurter.
Dachshund sausages first became popular in New York, especially at baseball games. At games they were sold by men who kept them warm in hot-water tanks. As the men walked up and down the rows of people, they yelled, "Get your dachshund sausages! Get your hot dachshund sausages!" People got the sausages on rolls, a special bread.
One day in 1906 a newspaper cartoonist named Tad Dorgan went to a baseball game. When he saw the men with the dachshund sausages, he got an idea for a cartoon. The next day at the newspaper office he drew a bun with a dachshund inside—not a dachshund sausage, but a dachshund. Dorgan didn't know how to spell dachshund. Under the cartoon, he wrote "Get your hot dogs!"
The cartoon was a sensation, and so was the new name. If you go to a baseball game today, you can still see sellers walking around with hot-water tanks. As they walk up and down the rows they yell, "Get your hot dogs here! Get your hot dogs!"
The story of McDonald's
1937 The McDonald brothers, Dick and Mack, open a little drive-in restaurant in Pasadena, California. They serve hot dogsandmilk shakes.
1945 They have 20 waiters.All the teenagersin town eat hamburgers there.
1948 They get paper boxes and bags for the hamburgers. They put the price down from 30 cents to 15 cents. They cut the menu down from 25 things to only 9. There are no more waiters - it is self-service. So it is cheaper and faster. And they have windows all around the kitchen - so everyone can see it is clean. Parents start bringing their children to the restaurant. Poor families eat at a restaurant for the first time.
1960s The McDonald's company opens hundreds of McDonald's restaurants all over
the States.
1971 They open restaurants in Japan, Germany and Australia.
Now ... the McDonald's company opens a new restaurant every 8 hours! There aremore than 14,000 restaurants in over 70 countries.
The story of Coca-Cola (or 'Coke')
The Coca-Cola story begins in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886. John S. Pemberton invents a new drink. Two of the ingredients are the South American coca leaf and the African cola nut. Pemberton can't think of a good name for the drink. Finally, Dr Pemberton's partner Frank M. Robinson suggests the name Coca-Cola and writes the new name in a special way - and that becomes the famous trademark.
Thirty years later the famous Coca-Cola bottle design first appears. The style of the bottle and the trademark are very important for the success of the drink.
For many years, they make only Coca-Cola. They only introduce new drinks - Fanta, Sprite and TAB - in the 1960s, and diet Coke in 1982.
The recipe of Coca-Cola is a secret. In 1985 the company does something almost incredible. They change the recipe! But the public is very unhappy. And, soon after, they bring back the original recipe: 'Coca-Cola Classic'.
Today they sell Coca-Cola in 195 countries. Hundreds of millions of people, from Boston to Beijing, drink it every day. It has the most famous trademark in the world.