In ancient China tea was probably used as a relish(开胃小菜) and as a medicine. Tea was first brewed(煮泡) as a medicine around 2,700 BC in the western mountains of China. Tea was likely seen as healthy in part because it was made with boiled water, which is safer to drink in an area of polluted water.
Tea drinking, and commercial cultivation(种植)，spread during the Tang Dynasty, 618-907, especially after a Buddhist monk(佛教僧侣), wrote a book on the virtues of tea, Cha Ching. Tea gradually became one of the seven basic necessities of Chinese life (The others are fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.)
A Japanese Buddhist priest, Saicho, is believed to have introduced tea to Japan, when he returned from a visit to China in 805. In Japan tea drinking was considered medicinal, and became closely associated with Zen Buddhism(禅宗).
Tea drinking also spread to Korea and Southeast Asia, and was taken over the Silk Road to Central Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.
Dutch explorers became familiar with tea in the 1590s and were soon importing tea to Europe. In 1657 the British East India Company held the first public sale of tea in England, while that same year Thomas Garraway began offering tea at his London coffee house.
In 1662 tea received a big boost(推进) in England when the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza, married King Charles II and introduced tea drinking to the British court.
Gradually, the British fell in love with tea, and with the sugar that went in it. In 1665, less than 88 tons of sugar was imported to Great Britain. By 1700, it had increased to 10,000 tons of sugar. In 1768 the East India Company imported 10 million pounds of tea to Britain.
1. Tea has been used as a medicine in China for _________.
A. about 8,000 years      B. about 4,700 years     
C. about 2,200 years      D. about 2,700 years
2. Tea began to spread as a popular drink in China because of _______.
A. the Silk Road              B. the basic necessities of Chinese life
C. a famous book about tea   D. its association with Zen Buddhism
3. According to the text, we can infer that Britain________.
A. first introduced tea to Europe
B. was the first country to trade with China for tea
C. was the first country to have learned about tea from China
D. may be the biggest imported country of tea in Europe even today
4. What is the text mainly about?
A. The history of tea             B. How tea was introduced to other countries
C. China is the home of tea   D. The importance of tea

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