Lesson 4: Paul Visits Kobita’s House

Key words: sip, baggy trousers, reluctant, magazine, dish, dessert, chopped, skip, taste

A

In pairs, A thinks of something s/he really likes/dislikes and tells B about this through miming. B tries to guess what A wants to tell. Take turns as B mimes and A tries to guess.

For example: A may do the miming of picking a cup from the saucer, sipping tea from the cup, and then making an expression of disliking to show that he really dislikes having the tea.

B

Read the following text about Paul’s visit to Kobita’s house and answer the following questions.

Paul went to meet Kobita and her family the next day. He was in his blue trousers and a gray T-shirt. Kobita’s mother, Ms. Shahana, was a shy woman, and she was reluctant to come to Paul. But Paul greeted her warmly in his newly learned Bangla, “Kemon achen?”. Ms. Shahana loved hearing a foreigner speak Bangla. She welcomed Paul to her house. Kobita started talking to Paul. She wanted him to write something for her school magazine. As they were talking, Ms. Shahana prepared quite a number of Bangladeshi dishes. She served him lunch at noon. Paul had plain rice, chicken curry, fish bhuna, dal, and salad for lunch. He liked the tastes of all those delicious items except the dried fish bhorta. He is afraid of hot chilies. He also does not like eating fresh onions. So he skipped the mashed potato which had chopped fresh onions in it. But Paul became very fond of the dessert made of rice, gur, milk, and coconut. He also enjoyed drinking tea made of fresh cow milk. Paul thanked Kobita and Ms. Shahana for the lunch. In fact, he was tired of having vegetables and fried eggs for the last few weeks. He hates eating the same food for weeks. So he enjoyed the tastes of a variety of Bangladeshi dishes.

Questions:

1. What did Ms. Shahana love about Paul as she saw him first?
2. Which two items of food did Paul skip while having lunch?
3. What item of food did Paul specially like?
4. What has Paul been eating for the last few weeks? Did he like eating them?
5. Why do you think Paul visited Kobita’s house?

C

Read the expressions of liking and disliking taken from the passage in B. First, complete the sentences. Then, arrange the sentences in order of ‘liking very much’ to ‘disliking very much’.

1. Paul likes ______.
2. He is fond of ______.
3. He enjoys ______.
4. He loves ______.
5. He doesn’t like ______.
6. He is afraid of ______.
7. He hates ______.

Now write a true sentence about you with each expression and compare your sentences with a partner.