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The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The sleights of hand that conflate consumption with virtue are a central theme in A Thirst for Empire, a sweeping and richly detailedhistory of tea by the historian Erika Rappaport. How did tea evolve from an obscure “China drink” to a universal beverage imbued withcivilising properties? The answer, in brief, revolves around this conflation, not only by profit-motivated marketers but by a wide variety ofinterest groups. While abundant historical records have allowed the study of how tea itself moved from east to west, Rappaport isfocused on the movement of the idea of tea to suit particular purposes.
Beginning in the 1700s, the temperance movement advocated for tea as a pleasure that cheered but did not inebriate, and industrialistssoon borrowed this moral argument in advancing their case for free trade in tea (and hence more open markets for their textiles). Factoryowners joined in, compelled by the cause of a sober workforce, while Christian missionaries discovered that tea “would soothe anycolonial encounter”. During the Second World War, tea service was presented as a social and patriotic activity that uplifted soldiers andcalmed refugees.
But it was tea’s consumer-directed marketing by importers and retailers - and later by brands - that most closely portends current tradedebates. An early version of the “farm to table” movement was sparked by anti-Chinese sentiment and concerns over trade deficits, aswell as by the reality and threat of adulterated tea containing dirt and hedge clippings. Lipton was soon advertising “from the Garden toTea Cup” supply chains originating in British India and supervised by “educated Englishmen”. While tea marketing always presenteddirect consumer benefits (health, energy, relaxation), tea drinkers were also assured that they were participating in a larger noble projectthat advanced the causes of family, nation and civilization. . . .
Rappaport’s treatment of her subject is refreshingly apolitical. Indeed, it is a virtue that readers will be unable to guess her politicalorientation: both the miracle of markets and capitalism’s dark underbelly are evident in tea’s complex story, as are the complicatedeffects of British colonialism. . . . Commodity histories are now themselves commodities: recent works investigate cotton, salt, cod,sugar, chocolate, paper and milk. And morality marketing is now a commodity as well, applied to food, “fair trade” apparel and ecotourism. Yet tea is, Rappaport makes clear, a world apart - an astonishing success story in which tea marketers not only succeeded inconveying a sense of moral elevation to the consumer but also arguably did advance the cause of civilisation and community.
I have been offered tea at a British garden party, a Bedouin campfire, a Turkish carpet shop and a Japanese chashitsu, to name a fewsettings. In each case the offering was more an idea - friendship, community, respect - than a drink, and in each case the idea thencreated a reality. It is not a stretch to say that tea marketers have advanced the particularly noble cause of human dialogue andfriendship.
The passage below is accompanied by a set of questions. Choose the best answer to each question.
The sleights of hand that conflate consumption with virtue are a central theme in A Thirst for Empire, a sweeping and richly detailedhistory of tea by the historian Erika Rappaport. How did tea evolve from an obscure “China drink” to a universal beverage imbued withcivilising properties? The answer, in brief, revolves around this conflation, not only by profit-motivated marketers but by a wide variety ofinterest groups. While abundant historical records have allowed the study of how tea itself moved from east to west, Rappaport isfocused on the movement of the idea of tea to suit particular purposes.
Beginning in the 1700s, the temperance movement advocated for tea as a pleasure that cheered but did not inebriate, and industrialistssoon borrowed this moral argument in advancing their case for free trade in tea (and hence more open markets for their textiles). Factoryowners joined in, compelled by the cause of a sober workforce, while Christian missionaries discovered that tea “would soothe anycolonial encounter”. During the Second World War, tea service was presented as a social and patriotic activity that uplifted soldiers andcalmed refugees.
But it was tea’s consumer-directed marketing by importers and retailers - and later by brands - that most closely portends current tradedebates. An early version of the “farm to table” movement was sparked by anti-Chinese sentiment and concerns over trade deficits, aswell as by the reality and threat of adulterated tea containing dirt and hedge clippings. Lipton was soon advertising “from the Garden toTea Cup” supply chains originating in British India and supervised by “educated Englishmen”. While tea marketing always presenteddirect consumer benefits (health, energy, relaxation), tea drinkers were also assured that they were participating in a larger noble projectthat advanced the causes of family, nation and civilization. . . .
Rappaport’s treatment of her subject is refreshingly apolitical. Indeed, it is a virtue that readers will be unable to guess her politicalorientation: both the miracle of markets and capitalism’s dark underbelly are evident in tea’s complex story, as are the complicatedeffects of British colonialism. . . . Commodity histories are now themselves commodities: recent works investigate cotton, salt, cod,sugar, chocolate, paper and milk. And morality marketing is now a commodity as well, applied to food, “fair trade” apparel and ecotourism. Yet tea is, Rappaport makes clear, a world apart - an astonishing success story in which tea marketers not only succeeded inconveying a sense of moral elevation to the consumer but also arguably did advance the cause of civilisation and community.
I have been offered tea at a British garden party, a Bedouin campfire, a Turkish carpet shop and a Japanese chashitsu, to name a fewsettings. In each case the offering was more an idea - friendship, community, respect - than a drink, and in each case the idea thencreated a reality. It is not a stretch to say that tea marketers have advanced the particularly noble cause of human dialogue andfriendship.
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