WEEK EIGHTEEN-【优可·必掌握】高考英语完形填空与阅读理解

WEEK EIGHTEEN 》阅读理解 巧克力简史 Monday 话题 食物 词数 383 ★★★★ 体裁 说明文 限时 9分钟 得分率 14 What do you picture when you hear the word chocolate?Most of us picture a candy bar.a box of bonbons or an Easter bunny ()And when we think about consuming chocolate.we probably think of the verb"eat".not "drink".And we would describe its taste with the adjective"sweet". But chocolate was a beverage (for 90 percent of its long history.And no one would have called it sweet. "It's the best-known food that nobody knows anything about,"says Alexandra Leaf.She is a self-described"chocolate educator".She runs a business called Chocolate Tours of New York City. The food we call chocolate is made from a plant called cacao.Scientists trace the origin of the word"chocolate" to the Aztec word "xocoatl".It referred to a bitter drink brewed (from cacao beans.Many historians estimate that chocolate has been around for 2,000 years or longer. It's hard to pin down exactly when chocolate was first consumed.but it's clear that it was prized from the start.For several centuries in Latin America.cacao beans were valuable enough to use as currency.According to a 16th-century Aztec document,people could trade one bean for a tamale(玉米粉蒸肉).And 100 beans could buy a good turkey hen Both the Mayans and Aztecs believed the cacao bean had magical qualities 握 Sweetened chocolate didn't appear until Europeans discovered the Americas and sampled the native food and drink. According to legend,the Aztec king Montezuma welcomed the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet.It included chocolate drinks. By the 1600s,chocolate was drunk throughout Europe.It was believed to have nutritious and medicinal benefits.But only the rich could afford it until the late 1700s,when it became mass-produced.In 1828.a Dutch chemist found a way to make powdered chocolate.The first chocolate bar was created in 1847.By 1868.the chocolate company Cadbury was 完形空 selling chocolate candies throughout England. In the 1900s,the word "chocolate"be