READING

Exercise 5: Read the passage.

A school meal or school lunch is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world offer various kinds of school meal programs. Because it is important for children to eat nutritious and healthy food, school lunches around the world become one essential topic to discuss.

Japan

This country is a world-wide known place of healthy eating. According to the teacher of English in one of the Japanese districts, students in Japan usually eat a bowl of rice, some fish, a salad made from pickles, some sort of soup and tofu added with vegetables and fruits. Japanese students are also given a bottle of milk for every school lunch. This variety of products is traditional for the Japanese people and represents quite a healthy and nutritious range of foods.

The United States

The typical school lunch in the USA is burger and chips, which is not as nutritious as expected. It leads to such health problems as obesity and overweight in the later years of life. However, recently, the American government has passed an act according to which school lunches should comprise of more nutritious and healthy foods. Hopefully, such measures will help to improve the quality of school lunches in the US.

India

Schools in India do not provide school lunches. Therefore, children in India typically eat lunch at home. There is also a service of providing fresh meals and delivering them to school. The containers from school lunches are then picked up by the servicemen. A typical school lunch in India comprises of flat bread known as “roti” and a meat or vegetable curry. Such lunch can be considered a nutritious option being beneficial for the health of children.

South Korea

People in this country care much about school lunch. The country’s government has actually banned the fast food advertisements because they might not be good for children and make them eat unhealthy foods. The typical school lunch in South Korea consists of “kimchi”, tofu, soybean sprouts and rice. Such lunch is absolutely healthy for children and sometimes look alike Japanese school lunches. South Koreans are known for taking much care about health and nutrition. So their school lunches definitely stand out compared to other countries.

Circle the best answer A, B, or C to each of the questions.

When is school lunch typically served?