Foods are classified into three major classes: carbohydrate, proteins and vitamins.
Carbohydrates are energy-giving foods and include rice, ubugali, potatoes, bread and
cassava. Carbohydrates give the body energy. They also provide the body with heat.
Proteins are natural substances found in meat, eggs and fish.
They help the body grow. They help repair the body too. Sources of vegetable proteins include peas, beans and
lentils.
Vitamins, which are natural substances found in fruits and vegetables, help us stay
healthy. They protect us from vitamin-deficiency diseases.
A meal which consists of carbohydrate, proteins and vitamins is said to be a balanced
diet. Was the meal you had today a balanced diet?
1. In groups of five, discuss your favourite foods. Do these foods make up a balanced diet?
2. In groups of five, identify at least three different meals that Rwandans love. Explain
how they are prepared. Do these meals make up a balanced diet?
3. In groups of five, discuss what junk food is. What is more expensive: junk or healthy food?
You have noticed that people around you look very unhealthy, with children having various
deficiency diseases. You are determined to correct this situation.
Working in a group, outline a talk you would give to the villagers to help them improve
their health. Identify the dietary habits you would tell them to adopt and give the reasons
for this.B.
Reading and comprehension
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Nutrition 
When should you eat a balanced diet? What should your
portion size be? Choose wisely and eat healthily every day,
three times a day.
Serve whole-grains and choose more fish, poultry and
less red meat. Always opt for low-fat dairy foods. Your
meals don’t have to be expensive with plenty of substitutes
present. Choose cassava, arrowroots, sweet potatoes or
maize for carbohydrates. Substitute meat with beans, peas
or eggs. Also, eat locally available fruits and vegetables.
Breakfast 
You must include protein in your breakfast. When they
are available, choose from eggs, salmon, lean ham or
low-fat dairy. Alternatively, take a chunk of cassava
and a helping of beans, followed by a banana. Top your
morning toast with a scrambled egg, a slice of smoked
salmon or lean ham. Alternatively, enjoy an omelette.
Do, not skip breakfast. It plays a key role in maintaining
healthy weight.
Mid-morning snack 
Eating small portions and often is good. Spread your
intake evenly throughout the day. Make every snack
count with nourishing options. Swap your biscuits for
oatcakes. Spread with peanut or almond nut butter
and a banana or have a tasty dip with veggie sticks.
Lunch
Make lunch a mix of lean protein and starchy carbohydrates. Go for high fibre whole-
grains to generate energy. Opt for an open rye-bread sandwich topped with salmon.
Choose chicken or low-fat dairy as well as plenty of salad. Otherwise, choose whole-grain
toast topped with baked beans.
Mid-afternoon
Satisfy that craving and the need for energy with fruit. Eat groundnuts, simsim and any
available fruit. This can help stabilise the release of sugars, which keep you energised.
Dinner
Take carbohydrates; they’re low in fat, fibre-rich and help you relax in the evening. Combine
them with some healthy essential fats from oily fish like salmon. They are also in sardines,
nuts, seeds and their oils. Your body uses healthy fats for regeneration and repair. This is
important for maintaining healthy skin and hair.
Always fill half your plate with vegetables or salad.
(Adapted from The New Times Rwanda)
Comprehension Questions
Answer the following questions.
1. Working in your groups, fill in the following crossword puzzle. The words have
been used in the passage. You may use a dictionary.
Down
1.Choose to take or not take a particular course of action
2. Good for your health
3. One part of something larger
4. A large piece of something
5. Takes the place of something or someone else
6. Meat containing little or no fat
Across
1. To make something firm, or unlikely to change
2. Keeping someone healthy with food
3. Containing the grain without anything having being removed
4. A strong desire for something
5. Full of fibre
Use the words to make correct sentences.
1. According to the passage, you should take ................ meals in a day.
2. When should you have a balanced diet?
A. After a hard day’s work C. In the morning
B. In the evening D. At all times
3. Why is it important to eat a balanced diet?
A. To add weight
B. To remain healthy
C. To build up calories
D. Carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins are available
4. What do you think is an adverb of frequency?
5. Pick out at least two adverbs of frequency used in this passage.
6. In your own words, explain what has been recommended for breakfast in the passage.
7. According to the passage, which foods help in making healthy skin and hair?
8. In groups of five, look for reasons white meats are preferred to red meats. You can
consult your teachers, parents or the library. If you have access to the internet, use it.
Appoint a secretary to report your findings to the rest of the class.
Think about this
In groups of five, discuss what AIDS is and what causes it. Suggest meals that a person who
has this disease should eat.
C. Language use
Simple present tense
Do you remember the simple present tense? Turn to the previous Unit and quickly remind
yourself what we learnt about the simple present tense.
Study the sentences below. Say what is common about the verbs in these sentences.
1. Jane eats a balanced diet everyday.
2. My father cooks good food for the family.
3. The students eat their food hot.
4. We pray before we eat.
5. We wash our dishes after meals.
Activity 5
With your classmate, construct ten sentences that describe your feeding habits. For
example:
1. I eat vegetables.
2. You eat potatoes.
Questions and negatives in simple present tense
Practice Exercise 1
Do the following exercise orally, in pairs. Your answers must be complete sentences.
One person should read the question and the other one answers. For example:
AMINA: What does a chef do?
MAJJID: A chef prepares meals.
1. When do you eat lunch?
2. Do you serve your food hot or cold?
3. When do you buy food from the market?
4. Do you prefer your coffee with or without milk?
5. How often do you eat eggs?
6. When do you take your breakfast?
7. In which season do vegetables do well?
8. How do you keep your food fresh?
9. When do you finish your lunch?
10. How often do you take milk?
Relative Pronouns
Look at the following examples. Pay attention to the words in bold.
1. Carbohydrates, which are energy-giving foods, include rice and potatoes.
2. The proteins that I eat help me grow.
3. Vitamins, which are natural substances found in fruits and vegetables, help us to stay
healthy.
1. The vegetable which was cooked was delicious.
2. The milk that I drank was sour.
3. The child whom I saw is healthy.
4. The student who came to school loves a balanced diet.
5. The pupil whose food poured loves vegetables.
Make correct sentences using the following table.
Complete the following sentences correctly
1. The lunch which we took...............................................
2. The fruits that I ate....................................................
3. The child whom we gave the delicious food.......................
4. The child whose mother cooks a balanced diet...............................
5. The mother who made the tastiest food...................................
6. The meal that we took............................................
7. The father whose food got burnt..............................
8. The child whose mother............................................
9. The balanced meal that he made..............................................
10. The hotel where we took our breakfast....................................
11. It matters what you eat............................................................
12. How do you choose a meal that you cook..........................................
Study the sentences below. Use an English dictionary to find out what the word class
of the words in bold.
In groups, try to answer these questions:
a. How tall is your deskmate?
b. What is the colour of your sweater?
c. What is the shape of the school flag?
1. Always fill half your plate with a colourful variety of vegetables or salad.
2. You eat five times a day.
3. If you choose wisely, you can eat healthily every day.
In English, we have adverbs of place, manner, time, frequency and degree. In this Unit,
we focus on adverbs of frequency. In the activity above, ‘always’ and ‘every day’ tell us
how frequently the events happen.
Therefore, adverbs of frequency show how often or not something happens. They
include: once, again, seldom, daily, frequently, weekly, hourly, twice, often and always.
Look at the following examples.
1. We have three meals a day.
2. I eat meat twice a week.
3. I eat fruits frequently.
4. I eat chicken weekly.
5. I eat a balanced diet daily.
6. I seldom eat guavas.
7. I always insist on well-cooked food.
Use the words in the box to complete the sentences that follow. Note that some
words can be used more than once
1. We usually eat ................ in a day.
2. We need to eat a balanced diet .................
3. In our school, we are given fruits ................ a week.
4. My mother ................ cooks a balanced diet.
5. We eat a chicken .................
6. We should visit a dentist ................ however good a diet we take.
7. If you ................ take a balanced diet, you may ................ need to see a doctor.
8. A balanced diet should ................ have vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates.
9. We should brush our teeth after every meal which means ................ a day.
10. We should ................ follow the advice of a doctor on the foods to eat.
Construct sentences to answer the following questions correctly.
Where do you take your lunch from?
Example: I always take my lunch at home.
1. How many times do you take breakfast?
2. How many times in a year do you take snacks?
3. How often do you eat a balanced diet?
4. How often do you eat fish?
5. How often do you take ubugali in a week?
6. When do you eat potatoes?
7. How often do you drink milk?
Countable and non-countable nouns
A noun is the name of something. For example: milk, meat, mango. Some nouns can
be counted, whereas others cannot be counted. Nouns that can be counted are called
countable nouns. Those that cannot be counted are called non-countable or mass nouns.
For countable nouns, we talk of singular if we have one item and plural if we have more than
one. We indicate plural by adding ‘s’ to a countable noun. Look at the following examples;
Singular Plural
banana – bananas
orange – oranges
flower – flowers
books – books
egg – eggs
For non-countable nouns, we leave the noun as it is. Look at the following examples.
Singular Plural
milk – milk
oil – oil
salt – salt
fish – fish
Study the table below.
Use the words in the brackets to fill in the blanks in the following sentences. Use the
words correctly.
1. Mutesi ate three ................ for breakfast. (egg)
2. My mother bought a packet of ................ to make ubugali for supper. (maize flour)
3. ................ is also important in a balanced diet. (salt)
4. ................ are important sources of vitamin. (fruits)
5. He was advised to include ................ in his meals (carrot)
6. He bought three kilogrammes of ................ for his supper. (cabbage)
7. Though it is important to have proteins, you do not need to always eat ............ . (chicken)
8. A balanced meal should have .............. (protein, carbohydrate, vitamin)
9. You can eat ............. as part of your diet, but you can also eat ............. (meat, beans)
10. It is not how many ............. of food you eat, but how balanced a .............. you eat that matters. (plates, meal)
Write down ten countable and non-countable foodstuffs that we usually eat at home.
Determiners of quantity
A determiner is a word that comes before a noun. It shows what the noun is referring to.
There are several types of determiners. A determiner of quantity tells us about amount.
We have seen that non-countable nouns do not take ‘s’ for plurals. We usually indicate
quantities for non-countable nouns using determiners of quantity. Here we use some,
little, a little, much.
It is also possible to use determiners for countable nouns. We use few and a few.
Look at the following examples.
1. Jean doesn’t take much tea.
2. I take little sugar in my tea.
3. She takes some coffee in the morning.
4. May I have a few buns please?
5. There are few oranges in the house.
6. How many slices of bread can you eat?
Note that we use few and little when we mean there is hardly any. Alternatively, there is
nothing. A few and alittle indicate there is quite some amount or number of something.
When we ask a question where the answer has these quantifiers, we ask using ‘some’. If
the answer is negative we use ‘any’, but ‘some’ if positive. Look at the following examples:
1. Do you have some sugar?
No, I don’t have any.
Yes, I have some.
2. Do you need buns?
No, I don’t need any.
Yes, I need some.
Match parts in A with correct ones in B to make complete sentences.
Use a few, few, little, a little, much, some or any to complete the following sentences.
1. This morning I didn’t have breakfast as I was late for school.
2. The teacher asked me whether I had taken lunch, but I told her I hadn’t taken ........... .
3. The food we took had ........... vegetables and a ........... . pieces of meat.
4. He doesn’t take ........... sugar as he says it is unhealthy.
5. We add ........... salt to the food to make it taste nice.
6. He took ........... cups of tea and left without taking lunch.
7. There is ........... sugar in the tea and it tastes bland.
8. As he had put too ........... sugar in the tea, it was sickly.
9. “Would you like to have ........... orange juice?” Mutesi asked Jane.
10. “I’d love to have ..........., but I don’t have money to buy it,” Jane answered.
11. “I have ........... money remaining. I can buy some.”
12. “In that case, let me have ........... flavour.”
13. ........... people can afford to have cereals, meat and fruits in their meals as they are expensive.
14. ........... people can afford expensive meals, but the rest of us can still eat a balanced
diet of maize, beans and vegetables.
1. Construct five sentences using determiners of quantity to talk about food.
2. In groups, come up with three sentences using determiners of amount/quantity to
describe your breakfast. Thereafter, read the sentences to the class. The class should
say which group came up with a balanced diet.
D. Writing
Recipe
1. What can you make?
2. What do you use to make that meal?
3. How do you mix the ingredients?
A recipe is a set of instructions for preparing a meal. It includes the ingredients required
and their amounts. You should remember the following when writing a recipe:
1. A recipe has to be to the point, clear and easy to follow.
2. A recipe has two main parts: ingredients and the method.
The following is an example of a recipe.
Beef stew
Ingredients
•1 kg stewing beef, cut into half-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 3 large green plantains, peeled and cut into half-inch slices
• 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 large tomato peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon seasoning
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Method
• In a cooking pot, brown the beef and onion in oil.
• Rub the plantain slices with lemon juice and add them to the browned beef and onions.
• Cook for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly to make sure they do not stick.
• Add the remaining ingredients and water to cover them.
• Cover the pot and cook over low heat for 1½ to 2 hours.
• Add more water if needed, and stir occasionally so that the ingredients do not stick.
• Serve it with a chapatti or ubugali. Enjoy!
1. In three paragraphs, describe your breakfast, lunch and supper.
2. In two paragraphs, describe mealtimes in your home.
3. In groups, discuss favourite foods and classify them according to their nutritive value.
For example, mangoes will be under vitamins.
4. Which meal is considered the staple food in your region? Write its recipe.
Complete the sentences below correctly. Refer to the explanation you read earlier.
1. A recipe is a set of ......
2. A recipe includes the ingredients .......
3. A recipe has to be ......
4. A recipe has two main parts: ...... and ......
5. I can write a recipe for ......
General Practice Exercise
Construct correct sentences from the table below. Write them in your exercise book.
E. Little laughter
TEACHER:Remember you are what you eat!
PUPIL: Really?TEACHER: Of course!
PUPIL: I wish I could eat the president.
TEACHER: What!
PUPIL: Then I would be president!
Fruits, which are juicy, are good.We all enjoy delicious food.We should consider nutritional value,We all need it, we can’t argue.You need energy? In ubugali there is plentyYou need proteins? In bean stewthere is plenty.A balanced diet, we all must have,A balanced diet will take us aboveA great dish, we should all savour,Eat slowly, as we taste the flavour.Food is GoodI like potatoes,I like tomatoes,I like oranges,And I like porridge.I favour the beans,And savour the greens.I love meat,I can’t miss wheat.Beans for proteinsGreens give protection,Wheat for carbs; you need some fats.Three meals a day, keep hunger away.
3. Describe a balanced diet.4. Tell your desk mate about the meal you had in the morning. Do you think it was abalanced diet? Give reasons for your answers.5. Tell your desk mate about mealtimes at your home.
1. The vegetable which was cooked was delicious.2. The milk that I drank was sour.3. The child whom I saw is healthy.4. The student who came to school loves a balanced diet.5. The pupil whose food poured loves vegetables.
Study the sentences below. Use an English dictionary to find out what the word classof the words in bold.In groups, try to answer these questions:a. How tall is your deskmate?b. What is the colour of your sweater?c. What is the shape of the school flag?1. Always fill half your plate with a colourful variety of vegetables or salad.2. You eat five times a day.3. If you choose wisely, you can eat healthily every day.
In English, we have adverbs of place, manner, time, frequency and degree. In this Unit,we focus on adverbs of frequency. In the activity above, ‘always’ and ‘every day’ tell ushow frequently the events happen.Therefore, adverbs of frequency show how often or not something happens. Theyinclude: once, again, seldom, daily, frequently, weekly, hourly, twice, often and always.Look at the following examples.1. We have three meals a day.2. I eat meat twice a week.3. I eat fruits frequently.4. I eat chicken weekly.5. I eat a balanced diet daily.6. I seldom eat guavas.7. I always insist on well-cooked food.
Use the words in the box to complete the sentences that follow. Note that somewords can be used more than once
1. We usually eat ................ in a day.2. We need to eat a balanced diet .................3. In our school, we are given fruits ................ a week.4. My mother ................ cooks a balanced diet.5. We eat a chicken .................6. We should visit a dentist ................ however good a diet we take.7. If you ................ take a balanced diet, you may ................ need to see a doctor.8. A balanced diet should ................ have vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates.9. We should brush our teeth after every meal which means ................ a day.10. We should ................ follow the advice of a doctor on the foods to eat.
Construct sentences to answer the following questions correctly.Where do you take your lunch from?Example: I always take my lunch at home.1. How many times do you take breakfast?2. How many times in a year do you take snacks?3. How often do you eat a balanced diet?4. How often do you eat fish?5. How often do you take ubugali in a week?6. When do you eat potatoes?7. How often do you drink milk?
Use the words in the brackets to fill in the blanks in the following sentences. Use thewords correctly.1. Mutesi ate three ................ for breakfast. (egg)2. My mother bought a packet of ................ to make ubugali for supper. (maize flour)3. ................ is also important in a balanced diet. (salt)4. ................ are important sources of vitamin. (fruits)5. He was advised to include ................ in his meals (carrot)6. He bought three kilogrammes of ................ for his supper. (cabbage)7. Though it is important to have proteins, you do not need to always eat ............ . (chicken)8. A balanced meal should have .............. (protein, carbohydrate, vitamin)9. You can eat ............. as part of your diet, but you can also eat ............. (meat, beans)10. It is not how many ............. of food you eat, but how balanced a .............. you eat that matters. (plates, meal)
Write down ten countable and non-countable foodstuffs that we usually eat at home.
Match parts in A with correct ones in B to make complete sentences.
Use a few, few, little, a little, much, some or any to complete the following sentences.1. This morning I didn’t have breakfast as I was late for school.2. The teacher asked me whether I had taken lunch, but I told her I hadn’t taken ........... .3. The food we took had ........... vegetables and a ........... . pieces of meat.4. He doesn’t take ........... sugar as he says it is unhealthy.5. We add ........... salt to the food to make it taste nice.6. He took ........... cups of tea and left without taking lunch.7. There is ........... sugar in the tea and it tastes bland.8. As he had put too ........... sugar in the tea, it was sickly.9. “Would you like to have ........... orange juice?” Mutesi asked Jane.10. “I’d love to have ..........., but I don’t have money to buy it,” Jane answered.11. “I have ........... money remaining. I can buy some.”12. “In that case, let me have ........... flavour.”13. ........... people can afford to have cereals, meat and fruits in their meals as they are expensive.14. ........... people can afford expensive meals, but the rest of us can still eat a balanceddiet of maize, beans and vegetables.
1. Construct five sentences using determiners of quantity to talk about food.2. In groups, come up with three sentences using determiners of amount/quantity todescribe your breakfast. Thereafter, read the sentences to the class. The class shouldsay which group came up with a balanced diet.
1. In three paragraphs, describe your breakfast, lunch and supper.2. In two paragraphs, describe mealtimes in your home.3. In groups, discuss favourite foods and classify them according to their nutritive value.For example, mangoes will be under vitamins.4. Which meal is considered the staple food in your region? Write its recipe.
