The British have been drinking tea for over 350 years. But in fact, the history of tea goes much 【小题1】(far) back.

The story of tea begins in China. According to the legend, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting 【小题2】a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Shen Nung, 【小题3】 expert in herbal medicine, decided to try the water his servant created. As a result, it tasted so good that later the drink was 【小题4】 we now call tea.

It is 【小题5】(possible) to know whether there is any truth in this story. 【小题6】, tea drinking certainly was established in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the west. Containers of tea 【小题7】(find) in tombs dating from the Han dynasty (206BC-220AD) before tea was firmly established as the national drink of China in the Tang dynasty (618-906AD). It became 【小题8】 a favorite thing that during the late eighth century, a writer 【小题9】(call) Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch’a Ching, or Tea Classic. It was shortly after this that tea was first introduced to Japan, by Japanese Buddhist monks who had travelled to China to study before. Tea drinking has become a vital part of Japanese culture, 【小题10】may be rooted in the sprit described in the Ch’a Ching.