Английский для бакалавров. Зарубина Л.П - 212 стр.

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212
From the earliest times, salt has been a symbol of lasting friendship and honor.
When the Arabs say, “There is salt between us,” they mean, “We have eaten together
and are friends.” Hebrews have a custom of taking bread and salt to the home of a
friend. By this they mean. "May you always have everything you need — and some
added flavor as well." As part of a religious ceremony, the Hebrews also used to rub
salt on newborn babies to insure their good health. Catholics use salt as a symbol of
purity in their baptismal service and for the preparation of holy water.
When salt was scarce, it was considered bad luck to spill any of it. Many peo-
ple still believe this. To prevent bad luck, they say, you must take a pinch of
the spilled salt between the thumb and first finger of your right hand and throw it
over your left shoulder.
Have you ever heard someone say, “That man isn’t worth his salt”? This means
he hasn't earned his salary. If they say, “She's the salt of the earth,” they mean she's
the finest kind of person. When someone tells you a story that you know is only
partly true, you "take it with a grain of salt." This means you will have to look hard to
find the tiny part of the story that is true. If you “salt something away,” you are stor-
ing it or putting it away for future use.
Today, almost 40,000,000 tons of salt are produced in the United States alone,
taken from mines, wells, and the sea. Some salt deposits are thousands of feet thick
and have been mined for hundreds of years. In Poland, 900 feet underground, miners
have cut out whole rooms and have carved statues and alters cut of pure salt crystals.
In another old mine in Colombia, 345 feet down, there is an excavation large enough
to hold 10,000 people.
Only a small amount of all the salt produced seasons - our food. The rest of it is
used in other ways - to preserve food, to cool refrigerated railroad cars, to cure animal
hides, to melt winter snow and ice. Chemical compounds made from table salt are
also used in manufacturing things like glass, soap, paper, and rayon, in heat-treating,
smelting, and refining metals, and in water-softening. Common table salt is necessary
in many ways we take for granted — our very lives depend upon it.
Margaret Gramatky
From "Cricket"
American English
I. Read the text ‘You Can’t Live without It’. Note both the order in which the
ideas come in the text and the important details.
II. Read the text again and find the answers to the questions below.
1. What are extra amounts of salt dangerous for?
2. Why must you replace the salt lost from your system?
3. What do farmers do to keep domestic animals healthy?
4. What elements does salt consist of?
5. Many years ago salt was used as money, wasn’t it?
6. What idiomatic expressions with the word ‘salt’ are given in the text?

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