I. Discuss the following questions with your partner and then come up with your answers. 1.According to the Sinologist Endymion Wilkinson, what are the four key developments of Chinese cuisine? The Sinologist Endymion sees a succession of incremental and successive changes that fundamentally altered the "richness of ever-changing Chinese cuisine". Four key developments were: 1)The expansion of Han culture from the upland stretches of the Yellow River across a huge and expanding geographical area with climate zones ranging from the tropical to the subarctic, each providing new ingredients and indigenous cooking traditions; This expansion would surely have been from north to south, from millet cultivating to the humid areas where irrigated rice was possible.

2)An elaborate but continually developing traditional medicine which saw food as the basis of good health ("Food was medicine and medicine, food"); 3)Constantly shifting demands from elites—beginning with the imperial courts and provincial governors but eventually expanding to include rich landowners, "scholar-gourmands", and itinerant merchants – for specialized cuisines, however far away from home; and 4)Continuous absorption of diverse foreign influences, including the ingredients, cooking methods, and recipes from invading steppe nomads, European missionaries, and Japanese traders.

2.What are the characteristics of the Eight Distinctive Cuisines? Search for more information about them and share it with your partner. (omitted)

II. Fill in each of the following blanks with an appropriate word or phrase chosen from the text. 1.cuisine; restaurants 2.thousands; climate 3.Shandong; Zhejiang 4.Singaporean; Indian; noodles 5.stirring; Han; Ming 6.ingredients; onions; Han 7.Shandong; Jiangsu 8.Christ; Chou 9.enjoyment; food; food 10.hygienic; longevity; taste