1. Cotton wool - вата.
Вата сделана из 100% хлопка высокого качества. Вследствие этого становится понятным присутствие слова cotton в английском названии ваты.
2. French fries!?? Why French?
The history of French fries plays an important role in the long-lasting and for the most part friendly rivalry between France and Belgium.
'Do you want Belgian fries with that?" - That's what you might be hearing at fast-food restaurants today if it hadn't been for World War I. The Belgians claim to have invented "French" fries, though no one knows for sure. The dish was first prepared as early as the 1700s and was simply called fried potatoes. Thomas Jefferson tried them in Paris and brought the recipe home. At a White House dinner in 1802, the menu included "potatoes served in the French manner." But that's not how they got their name.
Their commercial success began in 1864, when Joseph Malines of London put "chips" (French fries) on the menu. His success inspired others across Europe. But they weren't French fries until 1918 or so. American soldiers (stationed in France) ate a lot of fried potatoes. They named them "French fries" and liked them so much they wanted to have them at home, too. Americans still love French fries. Last year alone, more than 4.5 billion pounds of them were sold in the United States.
3. Do French people eat French fries?
Yes they do, but they do not call this dish by that name. French fries are "chips" in English and "pommes de terre frites" or just "frites" in French. Nobody in Europe ever called them "french".
4. Why do Russian people call the dish "картошка фри"?
Обычай обжаривать ломтики овощей в кипящем жире пришёл из Франции. Овощи, в том числе и картофель, там обжаривали во фритюре, вот от него-то и произошло их название «фри». Фритюр (friture) переводится с французского как «жаренье, топлёное масло или жир». Не составит большого труда догадаться, что от этого же слова произошло название таинственной «фритюрницы».