Read the excerpt from Early Victorian Tea Set. Among the upper classes, tea had been popular since before 1700. It received celebrity endorsement from Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza, and from Queen Anne. It came from China, it was expensive, refreshingly bitter and drunk in tiny cups without milk or sugar. People kept their tea in locked tea caddies, as if it were a drug; for those who could afford it, it often was. In the 1750s Samuel Johnson confessed himself a happy addict: A hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle scarcely has time to cool, who with Tea amuses the evening, with Tea solaces the midnights, and with Tea welcomes the morning. MacGregor’s main purpose in providing the quote is to
Answer
A
illustrate how celebrities preferred their tea with sugar and milk.
B
support his statement that people locked away their tea like it was a drug.
C
explain why only the upper classes could afford to drink tea.
D
express his viewpoint on the importance of drinking tea often.
Explanation
MacGregor uses Samuel Johnson’s words to show how intensely and frequently some people drank tea. Johnson describes himself as a “hardened and shameless tea drinker” who used tea to get through meals, evenings, midnight, and morning. This supports the passage’s comparison of tea to a drug; it does not explain affordability or describe tea with milk and sugar.
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