19. Lifestyles, social issues

Now I´d like to tell you something about eating habits. In past, for many years people were limited in what they could eat. During the war and after it was difficult to produce and trade food. Now you can just go to the supermarket and choose whatever you want, or go to restaurant and order your favourite meal. In the past families usually met at a big table every evening and had a dinner together. Now it´s nothing weird to have a dinner on our own in a living room while watching TV. Influence of TV in eating habits is enormous – people eat unhealthy food bought in supermarket in a box, which they just put into the microwave oven and then eat it on a sofa in front of TV just for not missing their favourite programme. Many people do not care about what they eat; they care just about the speed of preparing. That´s why the role of fast-foods grows so much. In the past there wasn´t anything like McDonalds or KFC, people didn´t eat so many junky food and didn´t drink fizzy drinks like Coca-Cola. Now many people can´t imagine their life without a hamburgers or chips from fast-food.

institutional racism (n.) - the culture of an organisation which makes its members behave differently towards certain ethnic groups

extremist (n.) - a person who strong views not held by most members of society (e.g. a terrorist)

discrimination (n.) - treating a group of people differently because of their race, gender, age or religion

ethnic minority (n.) - a group that has different national or cultural traditions from the majority of the population

migrate (v.) - to move from one place to another, usually for work, study or housing reasons (n. migration, migrant)

immigrate (v.) - to enter a different country with the intention of staying there either permanently or long-term (n. immigration, immigrant)

emigrate (v.) - to leave a country in order to live in another country (n. emigration, emigrant)

indigenous (adj.) - a person, animal or plant that naturally belongs to a country and has not been imported

heritage (n.) - the traditions, features or qualities of a country that have continued over many generations

demography (n.) - the study of population change

refugee (n.) - a person who has had to leave their own country for political, social or economic reasons

prejudice (n.) - having a negative view of somebody because of their race, gender, age or religion for example

destitute (adj.) - a state of extreme poverty

genocide (n.) - mass killing of people, usually in a war or a civil war

civil war (n.) - 2 or more groups within a country who are at war with each other for control of that country

rebel (n.) - somebody who goes against an authority

colonialism (n.) - a policy of a country to control a less powerful country and use its resources for itself

chronologically(adv.) - described or shown in the order in which they happened

monarch (n.) - the king, queen, emperor or empress of a country

ancestors (n.) - the older generations of your family