Passage 5
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Recently,Francisca Antman of the University of Colorado makes a convincing case that tea as an everyman's drink in late 1700s England saved many lives.She says that the simple practice of boiling water for tea,in an era before people understood that illness could be caused by water-borne virus,may have been enough to keep many people from an early death.
The changes in population in England of this era have long puzzled historians.Between 1761 and 1834,the annual death rate declined from 28 to 25 per 1,000 people.But at the same time,wages did not seem to have risen much and standards of living arguably did not increase.In fact,with the rise of the industrial revolution,more and more people were crowding into towns where the living condition would cause many deaths."With people coming into cities to work,you would expect,given the level of sanitation they have,that the big killer is water,"says Antman.
Antman developed a way to test her theory,using detailed geographical information about more than 400 parishes(小行政区)across England.There is a simple assumption at the heart of her study:more water sources in an area likely means cleaner water.By assigning parishes an inferred level of water quality,Antman could see whether areas with worse water quality saw a bigger decline in mortality(死亡率)than those with good water
In terms of testing this hypothesis,the key date is 1785,the moment when tea suddenly became affordable for the vast majority of Britons.This happened as 1784's Tea and Windows Act went into effect.The tax on tea went from 119%to just 12.5%and tea consumption exploded.By the end of the 18th Century,even very poor peasants were having tea twice a day,tea historian Alan Macfarlane writes.
To see f this change correlated (相互关联影响)with decreased mortality,Antman compared death rates before and after this watershed moment.As expected,Antman found that death rates declined in both parishes with good water and those with bad;yet,parishes with bad water saw death rates drop 18%more than those with good water.
Antman's research proves this idea:with relatively little change to their habits,merely an increase in a behavior they already enjoyed,people could better protect themselves.All they did was to have a cup of tea.
问题21:Many lives were saved thanks to the habit of drinking tea in England of late _________ century.