Tea revolution

wrestle with something

(phrasal verb) - To try to understand or find a solution to a difficult problem. Meaning: Trăn trở, vật lộn giải quyết vấn đề. - Example: Historians spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution.

enigma

(noun) - A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand. - Example: Why this revolution happened in Britain remains an enigma.

take off

(phrasal verb) - To suddenly start to become successful or popular. Meaning: Khởi sắc, bứt phá phát triển. - Example: For industry to take off, there needs to be technology and power.

drive

(verb) - To provide the power to keep a machine or system working. - Example: Power was required to drive factories.

urban

(adjective) - Connected with a town or city. - Example: Large urban populations provided cheap labour.

labour

(noun) - Practical work, especially when it involves hard physical effort; workers. - Example: Urban populations provided cheap labour to move goods around.

affluent

(adjective) - Having a lot of money; wealthy. - Example: An affluent middle-class was willing to buy mass-produced objects.

criterion

(noun) - A standard or principle by which something is judged or decided. - Example: Other nations also met some of these criteria.

sufficient

(adjective) - Enough for a particular purpose; adequate. - Example: These factors were necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution.

convinced

(adjective) - Completely sure about something. - Example: Most historians are convinced there are missing factors.

propose

(verb) - To suggest a plan, an idea, or a theory for people to think about. - Example: The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in kitchen cupboards.

ingredient

(noun) - One of the things or qualities that are used to make something. - Example: Tannin is the active ingredient in tea.

flourish

(verb) - To grow or develop successfully and rapidly; thrive. - Example: Urban communities began to flourish at close quarters.

close quarters

(noun) - A position very near to someone or something; a restricted space. - Example: People lived at close quarters without succumbing to disease.

succumb to

(phrasal verb) - To fail to resist pressure, temptation, or illness. Meaning: Đầu hàng, khuất phục trước bệnh tật/áp lực. - Example: They lived at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne diseases.

water-borne

(adjective) - Carried or transmitted by water. - Example: Water-borne diseases such as dysentery were rampant.

eccentric

(adjective) - Considered by other people to be strange or unusual. - Example: The theory sounds eccentric, but his logic makes sense.

deduction

(noun) - The process of reaching a decision or conclusion using logical reasoning. - Example: The detective work that went into his deduction was impressive.

scepticism

(noun) - An attitude of doubting that claims or statements are true. - Example: His deduction transformed initial scepticism into wary admiration.

wary

(adjective) - Feeling or showing caution about possible dangers or problems. - Example: Scepticism slowly gave way to wary admiration.

give way to

(idiom) - To be replaced or superseded by something else. Meaning: Nhường chỗ cho, bị thay thế bởi. - Example: Initial scepticism gave way to wary admiration.

notable

(adjective) - Important, interesting, or remarkable; deserving notice. - Example: His case has been strengthened by support from notable historians.

appraisal

(noun) - An act of assessing or judging the value, condition, or quality of something. - Example: He wrote a favourable appraisal of Macfarlane's research.

alight on

(phrasal verb) - To find or notice something unexpectedly. Meaning: Tình cờ phát hiện, nhận ra. - Example: Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th century.

static

(adjective) - Not moving, changing, or developing. - Example: Between 1650 and 1740, the population in Britain was static.

infant mortality

(noun) - The death rate of children under one year of age. - Example: The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years.

wipe out

(phrasal verb) - To destroy or eliminate something completely. Meaning: Xóa sổ, tiêu diệt hoàn toàn. - Example: Improvements in agriculture wiped out malaria.

sanitation

(noun) - Systems for protecting public health by treating waste and dirty water. - Example: Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century.

draw a blank

(idiom) - To fail to get an answer, result, or recollection. Meaning: Thất bại trong việc tìm câu trả lời, không thu được kết quả. - Example: Efforts to explain this sudden reduction appeared to draw a blank.

reveal

(verb) - To make something known that was previously secret or unknown. - Example: Historical records revealed that there was a change in disease patterns.

deduce

(verb) - To form an opinion or conclusion based on available evidence. - Example: Macfarlane deduced that whatever the British were drinking was important.

regulate

(verb) - To control something by means of rules or by controlling the rate/speed. - Example: Tea was important in regulating disease.

preserve

(verb) - To keep a particular quality or status; to protect from decay. - Example: The antibacterial agent in hops helped preserve the beer.

antiseptic

(adjective) - Preventative of infection; clean and free from bacteria. - Example: Tannin has strong antiseptic properties that purify the drink.

malt

(noun) - Grain, usually barley, that has been soaked and dried for brewing. - Example: A tax was introduced on malt, the basic ingredient of beer.

prevalence

(noun) - The fact of being common or widespread in a particular area or time. - Example: Was it the prevalence of tea in their culture that made the difference?

coincidence

(noun) - A remarkable concurrence of events without apparent causal connection. - Example: The history of tea provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates.

dip

(verb) - To go down to a lower level, amount, or rate. - Example: By the 1740s, infant mortality was dipping.

purify

(verb) - To make something clean by removing harmful substances. - Example: The stomach-purifying properties of tea made breast milk healthier.

loose grip

(idiom) - A weak or relaxed control over a situation or population. Meaning: Sự kiểm soát lỏng lẻo, giảm bớt ảnh hưởng. - Example: Water-borne diseases had a much looser grip on the Japanese population.

out of contention

(idiom) - Having no chance of winning or succeeding in a competition. Meaning: Bị loại khỏi cuộc đua, không còn cơ hội cạnh tranh. - Example: Logic pushed these other countries out of contention for the revolution.

forge ahead

(phrasal verb) - To make rapid progress or take the lead. Meaning: Tiến lên phía trước nhanh chóng, bứt phá dẫn đầu. - Example: Why didn't Japan forge ahead in an industrial revolution of its own?

literacy

(noun) - The ability to read and write. - Example: 17th-century Japan had large cities and high literacy rates.

turn one's back on

(idiom) - To reject, abandon, or ignore someone or something beneficial. Meaning: Quay lưng lại, từ bỏ, làm lơ. - Example: Japan had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution.

abandon

(verb) - To stop doing, using, or supporting something permanently. - Example: The nation entered the 19th century having abandoned the wheel.