Level 3 · Reading series
Lesson 11 · A Recipe with Missing Steps
Audio track 11
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My aunt sent me a recipe for her tomato soup. It listed the ingredients, but the instructions were surprisingly short: “Cook the onions. Add everything else. Wait.”
I followed every written step, yet my soup tasted different. When I called her, she asked, “Did you cook the onions until they were soft?” I had stopped after one minute because the recipe gave no time.
The next day, we cooked together on a video call. She watched the onions change color and said, “Now.” I wrote that moment down in my own words.
The recipe was not wrong. It had been written by someone who already knew what “cook the onions” looked like. Now I knew too.
Check your understanding
After reading, state the main idea in one sentence and find a line that supports it.
Chinese translation
姨妈发给我一份番茄汤食谱。材料列得很全，做法却短得出奇：‘炒洋葱。加入其他所有材料。等待。’
我照着写下来的每一步做，汤的味道却不一样。我打电话问她，她说：‘洋葱炒到变软了吗？’我只炒了一分钟就停了，因为食谱根本没写要炒多久。
第二天，我们通过视频通话一起做汤。她看着洋葱颜色慢慢变化，告诉我：‘现在可以了。’我用自己的话把那一刻的状态记了下来。
食谱并没有写错。写食谱的人早就知道‘炒洋葱’应该炒成什么样。现在我也知道了。
Key words and expressions
Key terms have Chinese explanations. Hover over dotted words in the English passage for word help and pronunciation when available.
- recipe
- 食谱；记录做菜材料和步骤的说明。
- list
- 列出；食谱列出了所需材料。
- ingredient
- 材料、食材；番茄汤要用到的各种原料。
- instruction
- 指示、步骤说明；文中做法写得过于简略。
- surprisingly
- 出乎意料地；强调食谱的步骤短得令人意外。
- follow a step
- 按一个步骤做；主人公照着写出的步骤操作。
- until
- 直到……为止；until they were soft 指‘直到洋葱变软’。
- change color
- 变色；视频中姨妈靠颜色变化判断火候。
- write down
- 记下；把观察到的状态写进自己的食谱。
- in my own words
- 用自己的话；不照抄简短指令，而是写清自己学到的细节。
Background notes (Chinese)
熟练的人写步骤时，常会略过自己认为理所当然的细节；初学者却可能正需要这些信息。文中‘炒洋葱’不只是一个动作，还包含变软、变色等判断依据。阅读操作说明时，要结合结果和场景理解动词。