Alice: Hello, I'm Alice.
Yvonne: And I'm Yvonne.
Alice: And this is 6 Minute English! Now, I don’t know if you’re like me, Yvonne,
but I am a big tea drinker.
Yvonne: Well, actually no - I like herbal tea.
Alice: Do you know, I think I drink so much tea you could call me an addict!
Yvonne: Well tea is a very popular and traditional drink here in the UK.
Alice: In fact some people say we are a nation of tea drinkers! Now I have a question
for you. According to the UK Tea Council, how many cups of tea are drunk by
the British every day? Is it:
a) 12,000
b) 120,000
c) 120,000,000
Yvonne: Oh, I think 120,000,000 is a little too many, so I'll go for b - 120,000.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
Page 2 of 6
Alice: Well, we’ll have to see at the end of the programme. Now, we’re not just
talking about tea because it’s my favourite drink. It’s because a Victorian tea
set has been included in a list of 100 objects that tell the history of the world.
Yvonne: Oh yes. This is the BBC radio series called “A History of the World in 100
Objects”. So what has a Victorian tea set got to do with it, Alice?
Alice: Well, it was made between 1840 and 1845 at a time when really, tea became
Britain’s favourite national drink.
Yvonne: So the popularity of tea began about 170 years ago then?
Alice: Yes and through this tea set, we begin to understand why tea became so
popular. Let’s hear from Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum
about why having a cup of tea is so British.
Insert 1: Neil MacGregor, British Museum
What could be more domestic, more unremarkable, more British than a nice cup of tea?
You could ask that question the other way 'round: what could be less British than a cup
of tea, given that tea is made from plants grown in India, China or Africa and is
usually sweetened by sugar from the Caribbean?
Yvonne: It’s interesting that Neil MacGregor says what could be less British than a cup
of tea, when we think of tea as a very British institution really.
Alice: It is, but of course, he’s talking about where the tea plants come from; places
like India, Sri Lanka and China, where they developed tea plantations, and the
sugar, of course, came from the Caribbean.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Yvonne: That’s because Britain was an empire during Victorian times so it helped itself
to anything its countries produced, like tea and sugar.
Alice: Now in the 1800s, Britain was becoming an industrialised nation and workers
were required to be as productive as possible. But unfortunately, many of them
were a little bit drunk.
Yvonne: So instead of being addicted to tea like you, Alice – a tea-aholic, I’d say some
were addicted to alcohol; they were alcoholics.
Alice: And it’s no real surprise! Water wasn’t safe to drink so alcohol was a good
antiseptic and often poor people, including some children, would drink beer,
port or gin.
Yvonne: Oh dear! That’s not good, but that's why the ruling classes wanted sobriety, so
things had to change.
Alice: Here’s historian, Selina Fox who can tell us more:
Insert 2: Selina Fox
The desire to have a working population that was sober and industrious was very, very
strong and there was a great deal of propaganda to that effect. And it was tied in with
dissent, Methodism and so on, sobriety – and tea really was the drink of choice.
Alice: So Selina Fox says there was a desire for an industrious working population;
people who worked hard and didn’t get drunk. Propaganda was used to help
change the workers along with help from the Methodists – Christian, religious
people.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Yvonne: Propaganda – that’s information which can be correct or incorrect - that’s used
to promote a particular purpose - propaganda.
Alice: Well it must have worked because as a result, tea became Britain’s favourite
national drink in the Victorian period.
Yvonne: I wonder how many cups have been drunk since then?
Alice: I don’t know but soon, I will reveal how many cups are currently drunk every
day in the UK. Of course, these days, coffee is an alternative to tea and has
become big business recently.
Yvonne: Particularly the sales of cappuccinos and lattes.
Alice: So now it’s time to give you the answer to my question. I asked you, according
to the British Tea Council, how many cups of tea are drunk every day in
Britain.
Yvonne: And I said 120,000 cups of tea.
Alice: Well, actually you're wrong. In fact, it’s 120,000,000 cups of tea every day!
Yvonne: Wow, that's a staggering number.
Alice: That's a lot of tea. Now you can see why Britain is a nation of tea drinkers! OK
Yvonne, while I put the kettle on, would you mind reminding us of some of the
words we have used today.
Yvonne: addict
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
Page 5 of 6
traditional
nation
Victorian
institution
plantation
industrialised
antiseptic
sobriety
propaganda
.Alice: Thanks Yvonne. We do hope you’ve had fun with us today on 6 Minute
English and that you’ll join us again soon.
Both: Bye.
