Binge drinking
- Play the video again while you read the transcript at the same time.
- Now find words in the text that mean the folowing:
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We British seem to be a nation in the grip of a binge drinking epidemic. One in 20 people in the UK can’t get through the day without a drink and the number of cases of liver disease caused by alcohol has trebled in the last 12 years.
Our relationship with alcohol really deteriorated in 1689. It started with gin, which became popular after William of Orange took the throne in the Glorious Revolution. As King of England, he raised taxes on French wine and brandy. This encouraged the British to distil their own cheap spirits. Large numbers of the urban poor were killed through alcohol poisoning, before rising taxes caused consumption to level out by the end of the 18th century. Gin also played a big part in the British Empire. For British officials sent to the Tropics, quinine, in the form of tonic water was the drug of choice to combat malaria. To mask the bitter taste and with the added bonus of getting plastered they added gin, thus the gin and tonic was born.
Although binge drinking is a national problem in the 21st century appears to be part of our cultural heritage and has contributed to our history and our national identity. Getting soused, pissed, wasted and hammered is an inherently British pastime and the reputation that goes with it is unlikely to be lost any time soon.
Our relationship with alcohol really deteriorated in 1689. It started with gin, which became popular after William of Orange took the throne in the Glorious Revolution. As King of England, he raised taxes on French wine and brandy. This encouraged the British to distil their own cheap spirits. Large numbers of the urban poor were killed through alcohol poisoning, before rising taxes caused consumption to level out by the end of the 18th century. Gin also played a big part in the British Empire. For British officials sent to the Tropics, quinine, in the form of tonic water was the drug of choice to combat malaria. To mask the bitter taste and with the added bonus of getting plastered they added gin, thus the gin and tonic was born.
Although binge drinking is a national problem in the 21st century appears to be part of our cultural heritage and has contributed to our history and our national identity. Getting soused, pissed, wasted and hammered is an inherently British pastime and the reputation that goes with it is unlikely to be lost any time soon.
From the History Channel podcast 'Things that make us British?'
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