Instructions: Read the sentences below and answer the questions or fill in the spaces
The hot pot is a kind of cooking style in China, which is especially popular in winter. When eating typical hot pot, people put frozen meat slices, mushrooms, fresh vegetables, and noodles orderly into boiling water and wait for their being done. In some areas, people prefer to place ingredients*into soup instead of water. The cooked food is usually eaten with the dressings*, such as peanut butter and sesame sauce. Actually, the main reason that people wash those things in the sauce is to cool them. The most interesting part of eating the hot pot is that people need to cook foods by themselves, even if they have hot pot in a restaurant.
Surprisingly, the hot pot did not originate* in China, although it is called Chinese fondue. Instead, Mongolia is the place that people had a hot pot for the first time. Some people state that a hot pot was invented by soldiers while others insist that sailors were the inventors. However, nobody ascertains* who the first eater of hot pot was. Currently, some Asian countries, such as Japan and Korea, have developed their own styles of cooking a hot pot.
In China, a hot pot is not only considered as a traditional style of cooking, but a symbol of communication. Waiting for water boiling, ingredients being done and looking for your own food will take people over one hour. During that time, people sitting at the same table have plenty of time to “break the ice*” even though they may be with unfamiliar colleagues.
Vocabulary: *
1: ingredients = a food used with other food
2: dressing = a liquid mixture, which is added to food
3: originated = comes from a particular place
4: to ascertain = to make certain
5: to break the ice = to make people feel more relax with each other
