# PTE SWT #11: Historical Evolution of English...

Summarize Written Text #11 - Level 2 - Feeds Writing + Reading

> Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence. Type your response in the box at the bottom of the screen. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. Your response will be judged on the quality of your answer.

"The English have the reputation of being a nation of tea drinkers, but this wasn't always the case. By the end of the 17th century, the English were the biggest coffee drinkers in the Western world, and coffee houses became the places to be seen. As well as gossip, you could pick up talk of the latest intellectual developments in science, politics, and so on, in this age of scientific discovery and progress. At first coffee houses were very basic; a room with a bar at one end and a few plain tables and chairs. Customers paid a penny for a bowl -- not a cup -- of coffee. A polite young woman was usually in charge of the bar because it was thought her presence would ensure that the customers didn't use bad language or cause any trouble. An added attraction was that coffee houses provided free newspapers and journals. But people didn't go to the coffee houses just to drink coffee. They went to talk. They soon developed from simple cafes, where anyone with a penny could go for a drink and a chat, into clubs. People started to go to coffee houses where they would find other people who had the same jobs or who shared their interests and ideas, to talk and conduct business. The great popularity of coffee houses lasted about a hundred years. In the later 18th century, increased trade with other countries made such luxuries as coffee cheaper and more easily available to the ordinary person. As a result people started to drink it at home. Also at this time more tea was imported from abroad, and the century of the coffee house was replaced by the domestic tea-party as the typical English social occasion."

## Answer

Coffee houses in 17th-century England evolved from simple spaces serving basic drinks into vibrant hubs of intellectual and social exchange, where patrons gathered to discuss science, politics, and ideas, but their popularity declined by the 18th century due to reduced coffee prices and increased tea imports, shifting socializing habits from public spaces to private homes.

## Explanation

Write one sentence of 5 to 75 words. Cover the main arc: by the late 1600s the English loved coffee houses as places to talk and do business. Then explain the change: cheaper coffee and more tea moved socializing into homes. Skip details like the penny bowl.

## Hints

- Focus on the primary social function of the establishments mentioned in the first half of the text.
- Note how economic factors like trade and availability influenced the shift in consumer habits over time.

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