高中英语 voa常速听力2012年09月合辑文本when-it-comes-to-beer-variety-rules-in-usa素材.docVIP

VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：When-it-Comes-to-Beer-Variety-Rules-in-USA Americans didn’t invent beer. The refreshing, intoxicating and fattening malt beverage goes back Babylonians. We don’t even drink the most beer per capita. The Czechs, at 132 liters per person per year, take that prize. Americans rank 12th behind such nations as Slovenia and Venezuela. Who knew? But no nation, anywhere, brews more different kinds of beer, probably 100 varieties of lagers and pilsners, ales and porters and stouts. As you travel across the United States, you may run into: wheat beers, rye beers, barleycorn beers, bock beers, 搇ite?beers, all sorts of seasonal beers, 搇ow-carb?beers, and beers flavored with the essence of everything from blueberry to pumpkin to chili. Americans brew red ales, amber ales, golden ales, blonde ales, cream ales, and something called 揑ndia pale ales,?which aren抰 from India at all but were first brewed in Britain for export to its India colony. A few years ago, the Miller Brewing Company, now known as MillerCoors, made a 揷lear beer?until it discovered people prefer a rich, caramel color and a frothy head on their beers. And Anheuser-Busch, America抯 biggest brewer - which is now Belgian-owned - is pushing a beer packed with 54 milligrams of caffeine in every 355-milliliter can. Why so many kinds of beer? Well, even though Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors and a couple of other big breweries have bought out many of their competitors and dominate sales, there are more than 500 smaller 揷raft?breweries, as they抮e called, plus thousands of local 揵rewpubs?making beer in small batches. Many of these breweries have developed a loyal following using social media and imaginative marketing. The wacky names of some of their beers - such as 揃ad Frog,?揇ead Armadillo,?and 揥eeping Radish Amber Lager?- have caught the attention of beer buyers at bars, restaurants and retail checkout stands. We may not be the world抯 thirstiest beer-drinkers. But we have raised many