Задание №10 — Чтение

Salts can appear to be clear and transparent, opaque, and even metallic and lustrous. In many cases these differences are only related to the difference in the size of a crystal. Since light reflects from the phase boundaries, larger crystals tend to be transparent, while poly-crystalline aggregates look like white powders. Of course, some salts are inherently opaque. Salts may be colourless but they also exist in the full range of different colours – yellow, orange, red, blue, green, white and black. That’s why many synthetic or organic dyes are basically salts.

Food industry would not have appeared without salt. Meat-packing, sausage-making, fish-processing and food-processing industries use salt as a preservative or seasoning or both. In the chemical industry salt is required in manufacturing sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), chlorine and many other chemicals. Salt is also employed in soap, glaze, and porcelain enamel manufacturing and participates in metallurgical processes as a flux – a substance promoting fusing of metals.

Salt was so valuable in ancient Rome that soldiers were sometimes paid with it. In fact, the word ‘salary’ even comes from the Latin word for salt. Historically, salt’s value came from its ability to preserve food. Venice may be famous for its canals now, but it was the salt imports that fueled its rise as an influential trade power by the end of the 13^th century. Salt also took on a great deal of symbolic value. This is the reason it is mentioned so many times in the Bible. Its preservative properties made it an apt metaphor for permanence and conviction.

There are many interesting idioms and expressions with the word ‘salt’ in the English language. For instance, if somebody is worth their salt, it means they are good at their job. If you take something with a grain of salt, it means that you understand that something is likely to be untrue or incorrect. Good and honest people are often called the salt of the earth. If you are trying to save some money, it means you’re salting the money away. If a person is in trouble but you make the situation worse for them, you rub salt in their wounds.

Most people think that salt has no other role in food rather than enhancing the taste and we can give up eating salt completely. However, nothing can be further from the truth. Salt plays a vital role in human health, and we all need to consume at least some salt every day. It facilitates the transport of nutrients and oxygen in our body, allows our nerves to transmit messages and helps our muscles work. The average adult’s body contains about 250 g of sodium – the equivalent of about three or four shakers of salt.

Most people know about the health risks associated with sodium, but reducing your intake of salt is easier said than done. According to health experts, an average person consumes around 10 g of salt per day, which is double the recommended amount. Since the taste for salt is acquired, reduced consumption should be practiced from an early age. Even if you don’t have hypertension, it’s still a good idea to cut down on your salt intake to reduce your blood pressure, according to numerous recent health reviews and studies.

Modern tourists often choose to go off the beaten track. Palacio de Sal is a resort hotel, which is located on the edge of the salt flats. It was built entirely of compressed salt blocks. Chairs, tables, beds and even a swimming pool are also made of local salt sources. It is located at the edge of the world’s largest salt flat in southwest Bolivia. The hotel has a dry sauna and a steam room, a saltwater pool and whirlpool baths. There is a rule in the hotel prohibiting licking the walls in order to prevent their degradation.