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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Patrick Woodward.

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<v Speaker 2>And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method

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<v Speaker 2>of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no

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<v Speaker 2>matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 1>India, pale, ale, lager, stout, hefe, weison, These are all

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<v Speaker 1>different kinds of beer. No matter where you are from,

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<v Speaker 1>you have probably heard of this grain based alcoholic drink.

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<v Speaker 1>Aside from tea and water. It is the most popular

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<v Speaker 1>drink in the world.

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<v Speaker 2>But beer is not just another alcoholic drink. Beer was

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<v Speaker 2>once a holy drink in many societies. In ancient Egypt,

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<v Speaker 2>people were paid in beer. Experts have found evidence of

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<v Speaker 2>beer in writing from ancient Iraq. This writing contained directions

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<v Speaker 2>for making the drink. It also included a poem praising

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<v Speaker 2>the god of beer. Some experts even think that beer

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<v Speaker 2>helped create modern culture.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's Spotlight is on beer. On this program, we will

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<v Speaker 1>explore the history of this important drink. We will see

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<v Speaker 1>how it shaped culture. We will explore its influence on

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<v Speaker 1>the present day.

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<v Speaker 2>Beer is a very wide description of drink. Today, there

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<v Speaker 2>are hundreds of different kinds of beer. People create new

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<v Speaker 2>kinds every day, but there are two basic things that

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<v Speaker 2>make a beer, grain and yeast.

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<v Speaker 1>All beer is made from grain. This includes plants like rice, barley, sorghum,

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<v Speaker 1>and corn. Today most people use barley to create beer,

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<v Speaker 1>but other grains were more popular in the past.

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<v Speaker 2>To make beer, brewers place grain in warm water. This

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<v Speaker 2>water breaks the grain down into sugars. Brewers call this

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<v Speaker 2>mixture of water and grain a wart. Yeast is a special,

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<v Speaker 2>very small form of life. There are many different kinds

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<v Speaker 2>of yeast, but several turn sugar into alcohol. This is

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<v Speaker 2>called fermentation. Brewers add yeast to a wart after it

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<v Speaker 2>has cooled. This turns the sugary wart into an alcoholic beer.

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<v Speaker 2>It also gives beer a special taste.

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<v Speaker 1>Beer is one of the oldest man made drinks in

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<v Speaker 1>the world. Experts have found evidence of beer as far

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<v Speaker 1>back as eleven thousand BCE, but people have probably been

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<v Speaker 1>making beer for much longer.

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<v Speaker 2>Most likely, the discovery of beer was an accident. The

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<v Speaker 2>Natufians were a group of ancient people from the Middle East.

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<v Speaker 2>They lived in what is now Israel, Syria, and Egypt.

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<v Speaker 1>The Natufians did not live in one place. Instead, they

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<v Speaker 1>hunted animals. They also gathered wild barley, a kind of grain.

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<v Speaker 1>Experts believe that somehow this barley mixed with wild yeast

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<v Speaker 1>and water. The Natufians must have tasted this mixture. They

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<v Speaker 1>must have liked how it made them feel.

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<v Speaker 2>For many of these ancient people, the process of making

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<v Speaker 2>beer must have seemed like magic. They did not know

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<v Speaker 2>how it worked. Many seemed to have believed it was

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<v Speaker 2>the work of God's As a result, beer became part

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<v Speaker 2>of religious ceremonies. People drank beer to celebrate and mark

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<v Speaker 2>special days. Brian Hayden is an expert on ancient peoples.

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<v Speaker 2>He works at Simon Fraser University. In a story on

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<v Speaker 2>Natufian beer, he wrote.

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<v Speaker 3>Beer was an important part of getting people to celebrations.

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<v Speaker 3>It made these gatherings better places for creating political structures

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<v Speaker 3>and power within communities. It also encouraged people to produce

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<v Speaker 3>food in ever increasing amounts.

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<v Speaker 1>Some experts even believe that beer helped create farming. Instead

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<v Speaker 1>of gathering grain, people started growing it for themselves. They

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<v Speaker 1>began to stay in one place instead of hunting and gathering.

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<v Speaker 1>They created strong communities around celebration and meals. These communities

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<v Speaker 1>may have been the start of modern towns and cities.

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<v Speaker 1>Beer was one thing that brought people together to form

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<v Speaker 1>complex communities.

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<v Speaker 2>As time passed, methods for making beer changed. In some places,

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<v Speaker 2>beer continued to have religious importance. In others, people used

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<v Speaker 2>beer as a special drink for workers. Drinking beer had

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<v Speaker 2>many advantages for people working physical jobs. Early beer had

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<v Speaker 2>much less alcohol than it does today and much more sugar.

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<v Speaker 2>It was like liquid bread. Beer kept workers energetic, even

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<v Speaker 2>if they did not have enough food. Beer was also

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<v Speaker 2>safer to drink than some water. William Bostwick is a

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<v Speaker 2>beer reporter for the New York Times. He told National

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<v Speaker 2>Public Radio.

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<v Speaker 4>Beers then were richer and heartier than today. They were

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<v Speaker 4>a way of providing something like food for the lower

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<v Speaker 4>classes who did not have healthy food.

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<v Speaker 1>The first major change in beer came with the discovery

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<v Speaker 1>of the hot plant in the ninth century CE in Europe.

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<v Speaker 1>Adding this bitter plant to beer gives a special taste,

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<v Speaker 1>but the oils from the hot plant are also natural preservatives.

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<v Speaker 1>When added to beer, hops keep the drink from going bad.

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<v Speaker 2>Many people who made beer during this time were Christian monks.

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<v Speaker 2>This special class of religious person lived in a group

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<v Speaker 2>away from normal society. These monks spent much of their

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<v Speaker 2>lives in prayer and thought. Time away from society also

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<v Speaker 2>gave them space to develop methods for beer making. They

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<v Speaker 2>passed their methods down to other monks, who built on them.

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<v Speaker 2>Hops gave them better taste control. The beers the monks

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<v Speaker 2>developed are responsible for today's modern beers.

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<v Speaker 1>Soon other people tried monastic beer methods. Beer taste became

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<v Speaker 1>more complex, and hops became one of the most important

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<v Speaker 1>elements in beer. William the fourth was the ruler of

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<v Speaker 1>a part of Germany called Bavaria in the sixteenth century.

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<v Speaker 1>He declared that people should only use three things to

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<v Speaker 1>make beer, barley, water and hops.

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<v Speaker 2>The next big discovery in beer was the identification of yeast.

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<v Speaker 2>Humans had used yeast to make beer for thousands of years,

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<v Speaker 2>but they did not know that yeast was what made beer.

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<v Speaker 2>The discovery of this process gave people another chance to experiment.

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<v Speaker 2>They could use different yeasts for a desired effect. This

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<v Speaker 2>helped brewers control what their beer was like even more.

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<v Speaker 1>Today beer is only a little like the drink the

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<v Speaker 1>Natufians made. Modern beer has more alcohol. The taste of

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<v Speaker 1>different beers are much more specialized. There are dark, sweet

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<v Speaker 1>beers like the Irish stout, the India pale ale is

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<v Speaker 1>famous for its bitter, hop taste. Rice wines like Japan's

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<v Speaker 1>saki are very similar to beer. These drinks have a

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<v Speaker 1>cleaner taste than European beers.

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<v Speaker 2>But modern beer does have one similarity to its ancient ancestor,

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<v Speaker 2>where those who drink it. Beer is a thing that

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<v Speaker 2>brings people together. It encourages talking and celebration.

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<v Speaker 1>Drinking alcohol is not good for everyone. Too much alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>can cause health issues like liver disease and cancer. Some

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<v Speaker 1>people reject it on religious grounds, but even then it

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<v Speaker 1>is difficult to deny beer's historic importance. This ancient drink

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<v Speaker 1>changed how many societies were formed. It may have even

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<v Speaker 1>created them.

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<v Speaker 2>Beer holds much importance in many countries. Do people drink

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<v Speaker 2>beer where you live? Why or why not? You can

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<v Speaker 2>leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight

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<v Speaker 2>English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok,

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<v Speaker 2>and x. You can also get our programs delivered directly

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<v Speaker 2>to your Android or Apple device through our free official

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight English app.

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<v Speaker 1>The writer and producer was Dan Christman. The voices you

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<v Speaker 1>heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States.

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<v Speaker 1>All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.

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<v Speaker 1>This program is called the History of Beer.

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<v Speaker 2>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight program. Goodbye,