Tea is a simple drink. And it is central to the lives of millions of people worldwide.

There are six major types of tea in China-green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, dark tea, white tea, and reprocessed tea, distinguished     1    (main) by different methods of production.

China,    2     (recognize) as the homeland of tea, is a leading producer and consumer, and the     3    (discover) and the usage of tea have a history of 4, 000 to 5, 000 years. Drinking tea first    4    (start) to become popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The origin of tea is lost among history and legend.    5     can be roughly confirmed is that tea originated in southwest China. In Yunnan and elsewhere, some wild tea trees that     6    (be) over 1, 000 years old still exist.

Many traditional Chinese families drink tea after dinner or when     7    (greet) visitors. This is not only a     8    (health) habit but also reflects rich culture and history. Chinese people can chat with a friend or enjoy themselves for a whole afternoon     9    a pot of good tea.

It was in the Tang Dynasty that teahouses came into being, and in some big cities then, there were also tea shops,    10     stored large quantities of tea leaves and prepared tea for their customers.

Zhang Zeduan’s timeless scroll is a masterwork of Chinese art. The Qingming Scroll, which offers     1     important insight into life in China in the 12th century, measures 10.03 inches in height and 17.22 feet in     2     (wide). Although the scroll is over eight hundred years old, it is in     3     (surprise) good condition.     4     (house) in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Qingming Scroll is usually displayed flat in a glass case.

The scroll consists of three main sections, the first of which     5     (feature) crop fields, a river     6     (wind) through the landscape and farmers hard at work, presenting a peaceful scene of rural life near Bianjing. Boats sailing     7     and out of Bianjing can he seen in the second section. The final section pictures hundreds of people from all     8     (walk) of life, including butchers, hairdressers and government officials. The combination of these three sections gives the viewer an idea of     9     life was like for the people of Bianjing.

At first sight, the overall scene of life in the capital city appears peaceful and cheerful. However, if you inspect the painting carefully, some serious political and social problems     10     (expose).

In the summer of 1405, Zheng He set sail from Taicang     1     his first voyage. A fleet of over 200 ships navigated the blue seas, with almost 28,000 people on board. Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He made     2     total of seven voyages. His efforts helped develop and     3     (strength) harmonious relations between China and its neighbours. Zheng He is remembered as one of China’s most     4     (influence) explorers.

On 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from Spain with three ships     5     (carry) 90 crewmen. They encountered many     6     (challenge) during their journey. On 12 October, the crew     7     (spot) land in the distance. Columbus     8     (convince) that he was in East Indies.     9    , the shores they had reached were of the Caribbean, not the East Indies. Between 1493 and 1504, Columbus found more land over the course of his three subsequent voyages. His voyages marked the beginning of the Age of Exploration, a period     10     witnessed many important geographical findings.

9 . Tea drinking was common in China for nearly one thousand years before anyone in Europe had ever heard about it. People in Britain were much slower in finding out what tea was like, mainly because tea was very expensive. It could not be bought in shops and even those people who could afford to have it sent from Holland did so only because it was a fashionable curiosity. Some of them were not sure how to use it. They thought it was a vegetable and tried cooking the leaves. Then they served them mixed with butter and salt. They soon discovered their mistake.

Tea remained scarce(稀少的) and very expensive in England until the ships of the East India Company began to bring it directly from China early in the 17th century.During the next few years so much tea came into the country that the price fell and many people could afford to buy it.

Tea had been drunk without milk in it at first, but one day a famous French lady named Madame de Sevigne decided to see what tea tasted like when milk was added.She found it so pleasant that she would never drink it without milk again.She was such a great lady that her friends thought they must copy everything she did.Slowly this habit spread until it reached England and today only very few Britons drink tea without milk.

At first tea was usually drunk after dinner in the evening.No one ever thought of drinking tea in the afternoon until a duchess(公爵夫人) found that a cup of tea and a piece of cake at three or four o'clock stopped her getting“a sinking feeling”as she called it.She invited her friends to have this new meal with her and so，teatime was born.

10 . There are 195 countries in the world today but almost none of them have purple on their national flag. So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. Why would no country use it in their flag? The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just for too expensive.

The color purple has been associated with royalty power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I forbade anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s high status comes from the rarity and cost of the dye (染料)originally used to produce it. Fabric traders got the dye from a small sea snail (海螺)that was only found in the Tyre region of the Mediterranean. More than 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of purple; not to mention a lot of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive.

Since only wealthy rulers could afford to buy and wear the color, it became associated with the royal family. Sometimes, however, the dye was too expensive even for royalty. 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.

The dye became more accessible to lower-class about a century and a half ago. In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally created a man-made purple compound (化合物)while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that the compound could be used to dye fabrics, so he patented the dye, manufactured it and got rich. Purple dye was then mass-produced so 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 in their flag. So don’t be making any bets just yet.