Task 1
Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 through 40. For each question or statement there are 4 choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should make the correct choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

The history and development of the beverage that we know as coffee is varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political intrigue (阴谋) , and the pursuit of wealth and power. According to one story, a sheepherder named Kaldi as he tended his sheep noticed the effect of coffee beans on behavior. He noticed that the sheep became hyperactive after eating the red "cherries" from a certain plant when they changed pastures. He tried a few by himself, and was soon as overactive as his herd. The story relates that a monk happened by and scolded him for "partaking of the devil’s fruit." However the monks soon discovered that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help them stay awake for their prayers. Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia whose inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. The government for bade transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Coffee was believed by some Christians to be the devil’s drink. Pope Vincent III heard this and decided to taste it before he banished it. He enjoyed it so much and baptized it, saying, "Coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it." Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.

What does the word "beverage" (Linel. Para. 1) mean