1.Read the texts (A–F) and match them with the titles (1–7). There is one extra title. Fill in your answers in the table below. (6 points max.)

1 Some like it cold

2 Debate over tea

3 An accidental discovery

4 Changing history

5 The taste of tea

6 Tea phrases

7 Modern tea drinking

A Tea bags were invented in America in the early twentieth century, but they became popular in Britain in the 1970s. Nowadays you can hardly imagine life without teabags. There are about 1,500 varieties of tea having their own taste and colour. Today tea is grown in over 30 countries of the world. The taste of tea is influenced by the geographical position of the plantation, the soil, the climate and weather conditions and other factors.

B Do you know what iced tea is? Iced tea is cold tea poured into glasses over ice cubes. It was first served at the 1904 World Trade Fair in St Louis, USA, where it was very hot at that time. More than 80% of all the tea consumed in the US is served as iced tea. Iced tea is becoming more popular in the UK and other countries. If you don’t want to buy bottled iced tea and prefer to make it yourself, use either Ceylon or China Keemun for the best results.

C Tea is considered the national beverage of the British. It is so important in the British culture that it gave rise to several idioms. You may hear the following dialogue: ‘Disco isn’t my cup of tea, I prefer rap.’ – ‘Right. I wouldn’t listen to disco for all the tea in China.’ It means that the first person doesn’t like disco music and the second person refuses to listen to it.

D There has been furious argument about whether tea drinking was good or bad for the health. We now know that four cups of tea a day is good for your health, but 250 years ago tea drinkers did not have this information. Many were worried that excessive tea drinking would lead to weakness and melancholy. The situation changed in the middle of the 19th century when the results of the medical research were published.

E Nowadays tea is nearly always associated with the British. Tea time is considered by many people to be the quietest and the most enjoyable moment of the day. But a little over 250 years ago tea was a hot political issue in America which led to the so-called Boston Tea Party. It was a protest against tea duties in December 1773, which eventually led to the United States of America becoming an independent nation instead of a group of British colonies.

F With the invention of tea bags our tea-drinking habits have changed. Tea bags were first developed in America. In around 1908 Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be put into the tea pot, rather than emptied. It was thus by accident that the tea bag was born!