We drink tea every day. But more than three hundred years ago, most of the people in Europe did not know anything about tea. Some people heard about it, but very few of them knew what to do with it.
There is a story about an English sailor. He went to countries in the east, the west and the south. He went to India and China. One day he came home and brought some tea as a present for his mother. She told her friends about the present and asked them to a "tea party". When her friends came to the "tea party", the old woman offered (给) them brown tea-leaves. The old woman's friends began to eat them. Of course, nobody liked the tea-leaves.
At that time the sailor came in. He looked at the table and said, "Mother, what have you done with the tea?"
"I boiled (煮) it, as you said."
"And what did you do with the water?"
"I threw it away, of course." answered the old woman.
"Now you may throw away the leaves too." said her son.
