Dinner Is Served

晚餐準備好囉Is it better to eat in or eat out? by Ryan Batdorf and Lisa Holl Chang

Restaurants offer tasty alternatives to home-cooked meals, especially for busy people. Is cooking for one's self or family still worthwhile? Engaged couple Garrett and Kimberly discuss this issue.

Conversation
Kimberly: My parents want to take us out for dinner next Tuesday.
Garrett: Sounds great! Your parents sure do like treating us to dinner.
Kimberly: They like eating out, period, Mom simply won't be bothered with cooking!
Garrett: Whereas you have to drag my mom out of the kitchen! Eating dinner at home has always been a big deal for my family, a tradition I'd like to continue.
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Grammar tips
Why go to all that trouble when we can go to a restaurant and relax?
"to go to all that trouble"= " to go to the trouble" ="to make an effort to do something."
Why go to all that trouble of washing your clothes by hand when you can just throw them all into the washing machine.
Why go to all that trouble to answer your email when your secretary can do it for you?
" to go the the bother"-
I was so tired last night that I couldn't go to the bother to throw out the trash.
"to take the trouble"-
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to answer all my questions.
"to take the trouble" = " to go to the trouble" =" to go to the bother.

Vocabulary Tips
whereas-反之，卻，然而。。用來和前面所陳述的對比。
*We arrived at the office on time by taking the train, whereas the others were still stuck in traffic.
*SUVs are gas-consuming and expensive, whereas compact cars consume less gas and are thrifty.
rule out-排除。
*The whole manufacturing system was carefully examined to rule out the possibility of any breakdowns.
*The police ruled out the woman as a suspect.
recipe-食譜，或是秘訣，妙方。
*Carol published her first recipe book last year.
*The recipe for a successful marriage is mutual-trust.-成功的秘訣。
*Grandma's receipt for apple pie works wonders every time. 大獲好品（成功）。
MSG=(Mono sodium Glutamate) 味精
takeout (n)-bought the food from store to take home and eat them. 外賣，
*Patrick loves to eat Chinese takeout.
*Takeout food usually doesn't taste as good as homemade food.
*Please order at the takeout (adj) counter.
batch-一批，一組，一堆。
*she cooked a big batch of food.
*Mom baked a batch of cookies to treat my friends.
*Tourists descended upon the famous historical site in batches.
*After the merger, a batch of new problems appeared.
tip-tipped/tipping-小費
*Maggie tipped her porter at the hotel. 提行李箱的服務員）生）
*Tipping at restaurants is required in many countries.
*We left a tip in our room for the maid at our hotel.

Chat Room
Home-cooked meals-
homemade-
homemade cookies-
store-bought-
factory-made-
from scratch- make with very basic material.
to make something from scratch.
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cut out-remove something from. stop or remove from.-用剪刀剪下來。
cut out a picture from the newspaper.
cut out fat-food not having fat, stop taking fat.不要吃有fat的食物。
cut back on fat- reduce fat. do less of it.減少。
cut out for something-使勝任，使適合。（通常用在否定句）
I'm not cut out it for Olympics. 我不適合。。。
Cut it out-stop,停止，住手，打住，不要再繼續了