Mock Quiz 2

Click on the following link and listen to the audio track 

https://youtu.be/4PCWoMBNqwc

1. Historians believe the Maya people of Central America first learned to farm cacao plants around two thousand years ago. The Maya took the cacao trees from the rainforests and grew them in their gardens. They cooked the cacao seeds, then crushed them into a soft paste. They mixed the paste with water and spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink. They poured the chocolate drink back and forth between two containers so that the liquid had a layer of bubbles, or foam.
2. Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture. There are often images of cacao plants on Maya buildings and art projects. Ruling families drank chocolate at special ceremonies, and even poorer members of society could enjoy the drink once in a while. Historians believe that cacao seeds were also used in marriage ceremonies as a sign of the union between a husband and wife.
3. The Aztecs, another ancient people of Central America, could not grow the cacao plant in the area where they lived, so they traded to get it. Only the very wealthy people in Aztec societies could afford to drink chocolate because cacao was so valuable. The Aztec ruler Montezuma was believed to drink fifty cups of chocolate every day.
4. Some experts believe the word chocolate came from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which in the Nahuatl language means “bitter water”. Others believe the word “chocolate” was created by combining Mayan and Nahuatl words.
5. The explorer Christopher Columbus brought cacao seeds to Spain after his trip to Central America in 1502. The wealthy people of Spain first enjoyed a sweetened version of the chocolate drink. Later, the popularity of the drink spread throughout Europe. The English, Dutch and French began to plant cacao trees in their own colonies. Chocolate remained a drink that only wealthy people could afford to drink until the eighteenth century. During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies helped make chocolate less costly to produce.
6. Today, chocolate making is a big business. The market value of the yearly cacao crop around the world is more than five billion dollars. Chocolate is especially popular in Europe and the United States. Each year, Americans eat an average of more than five kilos per person. Speciality shops that sell costly chocolates are also very popular. Many offer chocolate lovers the chance to taste chocolates grown in different areas of the world.