Examples. I am going the theatre with George and his friend.

I am going ... the theatre with George and his friend.

I am going to the theatre with George and his friend.

The theatre is very . . . Shaftesbury Avenue.

The theatre is very near Shaftesbury A venue.

1I am going .. . the theatre with George and his friend.

2The theatre is very . .. Shaftesbury Avenue.

3It is... Piccadilly Circus.

4We are going to a restaurant…the play, because the play doesn't finish...

eleven thirty.

5I hope George will sit. .. to me.

6Then,. .. the play, we're all going to go to a nightclub.

7I hope George will be here ... a few minutes.

8We will meet George's friend ... six o'clock.

THE INVENTIVE AMERICAN CUISINE

The United States is a vast pantry. On American grasslands that are as large as some of the countries of the world, roam enormous herds of beef cattle. An overflowing abundance of fruit and vegetables of countless varieties springs from its earth. A profusion of lobsters, crabs, clams, oysters, shrimps and fish is drawn from its waters. Its golden waves of grain reach to endless horizons.

If America is a pantry, the American kitchen is a laboratory. It is equipped with a wealth of culinary machines and gadgets designed to simplify the task of prepar­ing the products of nature's generosity for the dinner-table. America's obsession with labour-saving tools and mechanical devices was translated, first, into such simple gadgets as apple peelers and hand-cranked ice-cream freezers, and later in­to space-age ovens, high-speed blenders, electric juicers and an extensive catalogue of other implements that have transformed the process of cooking.

Ironically, this amalgam of abundance and mechanics has not resulted in a fancy American cruisine. Generally, American cooking is unsophisticated and straightforward, concerned with content rather than form.

The best-known and most popular American foods are grilled steaks, ham­burgers, fried chicken, boiled lobster and fried fish. All of these dishes can be delicious, and none requires much cooking flair. Some recipes for Southern fried chicken, however, are jealously guarded family secrets, and a pure beef ham­burger with onions and relish on a fresh sesame-seed roll can taste good enough to be a product of culinary magic.

The simplicity of most cooking in the United States is deceptive. Although the American cook may not spend long hours over a hot stove, and, due to a highly efficient food distribution system, big-city cooking tends to be the same across the country, the variety of regional foods in America is formidable. New England cooking has little in common with Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Neither has a Montana rodeo roast with a magnificent traditional Hawaiian luau. Indian in­fluences in the Southwest, and French-Spanish influences in Louisiana are still apparent. But the settlers from England, Holland and a dozen other countries as well, who tamed the Atlantic coast and gradually pushed the frontier back across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, had little time or inclination for ceremony or ritual in cooking.

The first problem was survival. The settlers held that if the ingredients were good and properly cooked, whether fried, baked or boiled, that's all that could, or should, be desired.