PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 18: Coffee: The Buzz on Beans

Questions 23-33 refer to the following information.

Coffee: The Buzz on Beans

Americans love coffee. 23 Some days you can find a coffee shop in nearly every American city. But this wasn't always true. How did coffee, which was first grown in Africa over five hundred years ago, come to America?

The coffee plant, from which makers get the "cherries" that 24 is dried and roasted into what we call beans, first appeared in the East African country Ethiopia, in the province of Kaffa. From there, it spread to the Arabian Peninsula, where the coffeehouse, or qahveh khaneh in Arabic, was very popular. Like spices and cloth, coffee was traded internationally as European explorers reached far lands and 25 establishing shipping routes. The first European coffeehouse opened in Venice, Italy, in 1683, and not long after London 26 displayed over three hundred coffeehouses.

There is no record of coffee being among the cargo of the Mayflower, which reached the New World in 1620. It was not until 1668 that the first written reference to coffee in America was made. The reference described a beverage made from roasted beans and flavored with sugar or honey and cinnamon. Coffee was then chronicled in the New England colony's official records of 1670. In 1683, William Penn, who lived in a settlement on the Delaware River, wrote of buying supplies of coffee in a 27 New York market, he paid eighteen shillings and nine pence per pound. 28

Coffeehouses like those in Europe were soon established in American colonies, and as America expanded westward, coffee consumption grew. In their settlement days, 29 Chicago St. Louis and New Orleans each had famous coffeehouses. By the mid-twentieth century, coffeehouses were abundant. In places like New York and San Francisco, they became 30 confused with counterculture, as a place where intellectuals and artists gathered to share ideas. In American homes, coffee was a social lubricant, bringing people together to socialize as afternoon tea had done in English society. With the invention of the electric coffee pot, it became a common courtesy to ask a guest if she wanted "coffee or tea?" 31 There were many coffee shops in New York and in Chicago.

However, by the 1950s, U.S. manufacturing did to coffee what it had done to 32 other foods; produced it cheaply, mass-marketed it, and lowered its quality. Coffee was roasted and ground in manufacturing plants and freeze-dried for a long storage life, which compromised its flavor. An "evangelism" began to bring back the original bracing, dark-roasted taste of coffee and spread quickly. 33 In every major city of the world, now travelers around the world, expect to be able to grab an uplifting, fresh, and delicious cup of coffee—and they can.

11 questions    9 minutesAll test questions


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28. Which choice best establishes a concluding sentence for the paragraph?

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31. Which choice most effectively concludes the paragraph?

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