軍人&預官◆英文題庫下載題庫

Questions 35-40 

        Tea is central to Asian civilization. Chinese tea creates atmosphere of poetry. Whether a large tin pot of farmers or a small Kung-fu teapot of a businessman, we always drink tea by pouring it out of a pot. A pot of tea is inherently social: several family members, a group of workers on the farm, or a bunch of friends in a bull session. In short, there is always a small tight-knit group around a teapot. We treasure it as a symbol of happiness in our traditional value, whenever we drink together with from same pot. 

        In the year of 1600, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, agents of the East India Co. discovered Chinese put some leaves into boiling water and drank the “tea”. They therefore learned how to drink tea. But since Westerners began drinking tea, they changed its social significance by inventing the tea bag. It made the process simpler, and saved tea leaves, if the group was smaller. Basically, the tea bag is a product for individual. What’s good for a pot of tea to a widow who lost her husband? Isn’t a bag of tea enough for a professor who enters his lab like he enters his castle? 

        It is not necessarily a less tasteful drink, which is brewed from the tea bag; it can still be used in social functions. But no matter how many bags we consume, we have a cup of tea in our hand by taking care of ourselves. The old Chinese saying: ”Such as drinking iced water in the winter, only you yourselves know if it is cold or warm,” may be changed to “Such as drinking tea of bag, only you yourselves know it is strong or weak.” Is simpler or individualism not good? We can definitely bear it, of course, but still lament something that might be disappearing forever.