Drinking Tea
- 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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Britain is a nation of tea drinkers - any excuse for a cuppa. Someone’s upset in the office? We offer to make him a cup of tea. A DIY job needs doing? Time for a quick mug first. When Chamberlain announced we were at war with Germany in 1939, the instinctive national response was to put the kettle on.
Our love affair with tea started in the middle of the 18th century and since then tea has played an important role in our history - it’s caused wars and built fortunes. One of Britain’s less respectable moments - the 19th century Opium Wars with China - was caused by tea. Importing tea from China left Britain with a big trade deficit, which was offset exporting Indian grown opium to the Chinese. We were very successful and opium addiction became a serious national problem in China. When the Chinese government tried to clamp down on its use, Britain provoked a war. It not only won us the right to continue selling opium in China, also a new colony - Hong Kong.
Tea is more than just a national obsession, it’s entwined in our history and today we drink more than a 150 million cups of the stuff every day. And it’s good for us, it contains antioxidants and other good things and keeps us hydrated - you could even say tea keeps us British.
Our love affair with tea started in the middle of the 18th century and since then tea has played an important role in our history - it’s caused wars and built fortunes. One of Britain’s less respectable moments - the 19th century Opium Wars with China - was caused by tea. Importing tea from China left Britain with a big trade deficit, which was offset exporting Indian grown opium to the Chinese. We were very successful and opium addiction became a serious national problem in China. When the Chinese government tried to clamp down on its use, Britain provoked a war. It not only won us the right to continue selling opium in China, also a new colony - Hong Kong.
Tea is more than just a national obsession, it’s entwined in our history and today we drink more than a 150 million cups of the stuff every day. And it’s good for us, it contains antioxidants and other good things and keeps us hydrated - you could even say tea keeps us British.
From the History Channel podcast 'Things that make us British?'
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