What Is Your Country’s National Dish?

Just as cooking is about using food ingredients in special ways, food discussions are about using language ingredients in special ways.

就像烹飪是運用食材的特殊方式，對食物的討論也是運用語言食材的特殊方式。

Our first ingredient is the noun.

我們的第一个食材是名詞。

Nouns give us the name of a dish, or any food prepared in a special way.

名詞提供了菜餚的名稱，或是任何以特殊方式準備的食物名稱。

Nouns also give us names for all the spices and other materials that go into the dish.

名詞也提供了所有香料及其他用於製作該菜餚的材料名稱。

But nouns alone cannot make a rich, complete sentence.

但僅靠名詞無法構成豐富完整的句子。

We need something else to add color, smells, and taste.

我們需要其他元素來增添色彩、氣味和風味。

That is how we arrive at adjectives.

這就是我們引入形容詞的原因。

Adjectives are central to discussions about food.

形容詞在食物討論中佔有核心地位。

When we talk about any kind of dish, we describe it in terms of taste, color, smell, temperature, and so on.

當我們談論任何類型的菜餚時，我們會從味道、顏色、氣味、溫度等方面來描述它。

In other words, adjectives are like spices that bring flavor to plain nouns.

換句話說，形容詞就像是為平淡的名詞增添風味的香料。

There are many adjectives we use to describe dishes, but some common ones include rich, spicy, sweet, and fresh.

有許多形容詞可用於描述菜餚，其中一些常見的包括濃郁、辛辣、甜美和新鮮。

So we have nouns and adjectives, but we have one missing element.

因此，我們有了名詞和形容詞，但仍缺少一個要素。

We need to express how ingredients go together to make up a dish.

我們需要表達食材如何組合以構成一道菜。

One phrasal verb is especially useful in this regard: consist of.

有一個動副詞在此方面特別實用：consist of（由……組成）。

We have the verb consist, and the short word of.

我們有動詞 consist 和短詞 of。

Consist of means to be formed or made of exact things, so you might say that pizza consists of flour, cheese, sauce and vegetables, or you might say that kebab consists of meat and spices.

Consist of 意指由具體事物構成，因此你可以說披薩由麵粉、起司、醬料和蔬菜組成，或者說烤肉串由肉類和香料組成。

There are of course many other phrasal verbs you can use to describe the act of cooking.

當然，還有許多其他動副詞可用於描述烹飪的過程。

We have explored some of them in previous Everyday Grammar lessons.

我們已在之前的《日常語法》課程中探討過其中一些。

So far we have covered a lot of territory: nouns, adjectives and one phrasal verb.

到目前為止，我們已涵蓋了相當多的內容：名詞、形容詞和一個動副詞。

How might we use these ingredients?

我們該如何運用這些「食材」呢？

Here is one possible example for how to describe any national dish.

這裡提供一個描述任何國菜的範例。

Noun is the national dish of noun.

[名詞] 是 [名詞] 的國菜。

It is a adjective dish that phrasal verb noun noun and noun.

它是一道 [形容詞] 的菜餚，由 [名詞]、[名詞] 和 [名詞] 組成。

How might we fill in the noun, adjective and phrasal verb spots?

我們該如何填入名詞、形容詞和動副詞的位置呢？

Let's use a traditionally popular dish in the United States as our example: apple pie.

讓我們以美國傳統上受歡迎的一道菜為例：蘋果派。

You may have heard the expression "as American as apple pie."

你可能聽過「像蘋果派一樣美式」這個說法。

So what could we say about apple pie if we used our example structure?

那麼，如果套用我們的範例結構，我們可以怎麼描述蘋果派呢？

Here is one possibility.

這裡提供一種可能性。

Apple pie is the national dish of the United States.

蘋果派是美國的國菜。

It is a sweet dish that consists of apples, sugar, flour, and spices.

它是一道甜美的菜餚，由蘋果、糖、麵粉和香料組成。

Of course, one could go on to add more details.

當然，人們可以進一步添加更多細節。

You could say that apple pie also often includes a small amount of lemon juice, or that apple pie is often served with ice cream on top.

你可以說蘋果派通常還包含少量檸檬汁，或者說蘋果派常搭配冰淇淋上桌。

You have learned about one possible way to describe a popular American dish.

您已學到描述一道受歡迎的美國菜餚的一種可能方式。

Now we would like to hear from you.

現在我們想聽聽您的意見。

Can you write to us about a traditional dish in your country?

您能寫信告訴我們貴國的一道傳統菜餚嗎？

Try to use the sentence structures that you have learned about, but feel free to include more details.

請嘗試使用您學過的句型，但歡迎加入更多細節。

Send us your piece of writing in an email to learningenglish at voanews. com.

請將您的文章寄至 learningenglish 信箱，網址為 voanews.com。

In a future lesson, we will provide feedback on the writing that we receive.

在未來的課程中，我們將針對收到的寫作提供回饋。

I'm John Russell.

我是約翰·羅素。