Fast Food Restaurant

吕建忠

When you eat in a Chinese restaurant， you first go and sit down at the table. The waiter brings you the menu. After you give your order， they begin to cook. It often takes some time to cook the dishes.

But in a fast food restaurant， things are quite different. You just stand in a line in front of a counter （柜臺）. Above the counter you can see a lot of pictures of food and soft drinks， such as rice， hamburgers， potatoes， cabbage， meat， hot dogs， Coke， Sprite etc. After ordering， you can get your food quickly， usually in less than three minutes. They give you your food on a plate， or in a paper bag or a box. You pay for it before you eat. And you can eat just there or take it away.

Now people like to go to fast food restaurants because eating there is cheap and time-saving （节省时间的）. That is why fast food is becoming more and more popular all over the world.

Restaurant owners have to know not only how to make delicious food but also how to make money. Colors can help them make more money， so it is important to choose the right colors to decorate （装饰） a restaurant. Different colors make customers feel different. The color red makes people eat more and faster. Soft colors like pink and light green make people spend more time eating their food. Loud music and hard seats make people want to eat quickly and leave. The owners of fast food restaurants don't want the customers to stay too long， so they usually provide hard seats and play very loud music. Then they can serve more people and make much more money.

Questions：

1. Can you take away your food from a fast food restaurant？

2. Why do people like to go to fast food restaurants now？

3. What color can make people spend more time eating their food？