You can Drink Wine with Your Cat Now

Pre discussion questions

Would you like to drink alcohol with your pet?

What do you think cat wine would be like?

You get home late. It’s been one of those days at the office. All you want to do is unwind with a bottle of wine. But you’ve got nobody to drink it with. You only have a cat. And cats don’t drink wine. Right? Wrong! Well maybe.

Now you can drink wine with your cat. As it says on the Apollo Peak website: “Why Drink Alone?!

Maybe you will want to throw your hands up in horror. But rest assured the drink does not have any alcohol. It is made from catnip and water. Catnip is a product you can buy that cats really love. And this red wine version drink contains catnip. To make it red the makers have used a vegetable to add color.  The vegetable is Beetroot.  Beetroot colors the drink to give it a red color like red wine.

The drink was made by a wine company called Apollo Peak. It was apparently made so those people living alone can enjoy drinking wine without the lonely feeling of drinking alone.

And those drinking alone can now enjoy wine with their cat.

The drink might be innovative. Some say the idea is a bizarre product.  The wine has funny names such as 'pinot meow' and 'mosCATo'.

A Japanese company tried to make this drink a few years ago. They made a wine called 'Nyan Nyan Nouveau'. But the cats in Japan didn’t like this drink. And that is because it had real grape juice. Grape juice causes stomach trouble for cats.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=2, B=1, C=7, D=3, E=8, F=4, F=6, G=5

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1.      So many things went wrong it was one of those days .

2.      At the end of each day I like to unwind  by watching a good movie.

3.      My mother threw her hands up in horror when she saw the bad things I had done.

4.      The airline said rest assured we will get everyone there on time.

5.      They played the song which was a version of a famous song from 20 years ago.

6.      My friend said it was apparent that I had paid too much money for it.

7.      The smart phone was the most innovative product of the last ten years.

8.      It was bizarre, they were winning the game but in the last 5 minutes they did something foolish and lost it.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1.      Describe a time when you had one of those days.

2.      How do you unwind at the end of each day?

3.      What would make you throw your hands up in horror?

4.      If someone is traveling to a new country for the first time, how do you tell them to rest assured, that nothing bad will happen?

5.      Do you think a version of this wine for dogs would be good too? Why or why not?

6.      Do you think that it should have been apparent to the Japanese that grape juice would be a bad choice for cats?

7.      How innovative do you think this cat wine is?

8.      What do people do in other cultures that you think is bizarre?