1 . There are 195 countries in the world today and actually none of them have purple on their national flags. Throughout history, purple was never used to represent a kingdom.

So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.

The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio famously wouldn’t allow his wife to buy a scarf made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn’t spend that much having purple on their flags.

In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin by accident created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore everybody could afford it.

Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.

1. Why was color purple expensive in the past?

A．Because only royal families were allowed to wear purple.

B．Because it took a long time to get purple dye from snails.

C．Because purple was worth as much as its weight in gold.

D．Because purple dye used to be uncommon and hard to produce.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The anti-malaria drug.	B．Snails.
C．The man-made purple dye.	D．Tyrian purple.

3. What can we infer from the passage ?

A．A few new national flags have chosen to use purple.

B．William Henry Perkin got rich by producing the purple dye.

C．Royal families stop using purple because it’s not expensive.

D．A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．No Purple Flags?	B．Purple vs. Gold
C．How to Produce Purple Dye?	D．The Birth of Purple Color