考满分 toefl

1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a lecture in a European History Class.

旁白：听一段欧洲历史课堂演讲。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->So would it surprise you to learn that many of the food that we eat today consider traditional European dishes that their key ingredients were not even known in Europe until quite recently, until the European started trading with the native people in North and South America?

教授：如果我和大家说，现在很多传统的欧洲菜肴的主调味料是在最近才被发现的，而且是在欧洲人开始与北美及南美当地人做交易的时候才开始的，你们会不会很惊讶呢。

2 .I mean, you probably aware that the Americas provide Europe and Asia with foods like squash, beans, turkey, peanuts.

我的意思是，你们可能知道美国人为欧洲和亚洲提供食物，比如南瓜、豆角、火鸡、花生等。

3 .But what about all those Italian tomato sauces, hungarian goulashor my favorite, French fries? Those yummy fried potatoes.

而意大利番茄酱、哈姆咖热格食或者我最喜欢的法式炸薯条呢？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Wait. I mean I knew potatoes were from where, South America?

学生：等一下，我知道土豆来自哪里，南美是吗？

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->South America. Right, the Andes Mountains.

教授：南美，是的。安第斯山脉。

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->But you are saying tomatoes too?

学生：但是你还提到了西红柿？

2 .I just assume since they're used in so many Italian dishes.

我还想不是有很多意大利食物都是用番茄吗？

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->No, like potatoes, tomatoes grew wild in the Andes.

教授：其实像土豆一样，西红柿也是在安第斯附近大范围生长。

2 .Although unlike potatoes, they weren't originally cultivated there.

但是和土豆不一样的是，西红柿并不是原始培植在那里。

3 .That seems to have occurred first in Central America.

最终好像是在中美。

4 .And even then the tomato doesn't appear to have been very important as a food plant until the Europeans came on the scene.

即使在那时西红柿也并不是主要的食物，直到欧洲人出现。

5 .They took it back to Europe with them around 1550.

大概在1550 年，欧洲人将西红柿带回了欧洲。

6 .And Italy was indeed the first place where it was widely grown as food crop.

意大利就是最初开始大面积种植西红柿作为蔬菜作物的地方。

7 .So in a sense, it really is more Italian than American.

所以某种意义来讲，其实它更像是来自于意大利，而不是美国。

1 .And another thing and this is true of both potato and tomato.

关于西红柿和土豆，它们还有一个共同的特点

2 .Both of these plants are members of Nightshade family.

就是都属茄科。

3 .The Nightshade family is a category of plants which also includes many that you wouldn't want to eat, like mandrake, belladonna, and even tobacco.

茄科包括的一系列植物有很多你们是不会实用的，如曼德拉草、颠茄甚至烟草。

4 .So it's no wonder that people once considered tomatoes and potatoes to be inedible too, even poisonous.

难怪人们一度认为土豆和西红柿是不可食用的，甚至认为其有毒。

5 .And in fact, the leaves of the potato plant are quite toxic.

而事实上，土豆的叶子是含有很大毒性的

6 .So it took both plants quite a while to catch on in Europe.

因此，过了很长时间这两种作物才被欧洲所接受。

7 .And even longer before it made a return trip to North America and became popular food items here.

甚至比它们重返北美并在那里成为流行食物的时间还要长久。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Yeah, you know, I remember, I remember my grandmother telling me that when her mother was a little girl, a lot of people still thought tomatoes are poisonous.

学生：是的，你知道吗，我还记得我祖母告诉我她小的时候，许多人认为西红柿是有毒的呢。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Oh, sure. People didn't really start eating them here until the mid-eighteen hundreds.

教授：当然了。人们直到19 世纪中期才开始食用西红柿的。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->But seems like I heard didn't Tom Jefferson grow them or something?

学生：但是我听说不是汤姆杰弗逊种植的吗？

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Well, that's true.

教授：嗯，是的。

2 .But then Jefferson is known not only as the third president of the United States, but also as a scholar who was way ahead of his time in many ways.

但是杰弗逊不仅因为是美国的第三任总统而出名，同样也是一位高瞻远瞩的学者。

3 .He didn't let the conventional thinking of his day restrain his ideas.

他没有让当时的传统观念禁锢了他的思想。

1 .Now, potatoes went through a similar sort of rejection process, especially when they were first introduced in Europe.

那么土豆也在经历一个相似的被拒过程，尤其是刚开始到达欧洲的时候。

2 .You know how potatoes can turn green if they are left in the light too long?

你们都知道土豆在光下放置太久会变绿是吧？

3 .And that greenish skin can make the potatoes taste bitter; even make you ill.

这种发绿的土豆吃起来会很苦涩，甚至会使人生病。

4 .So that was enough to put people off for over 200 years. Yes, Bill?

这就足够使人们延迟200 多年的了。比尔，什么问题？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->I'm sorry professor Jones. But I mean yeah ok.

学生：对不起琼斯教授。

2 .American crops have probably contributed a lot to European cooking over the years. But...

但是的确，美国作物可能为欧洲的烹饪这些年作出了很大的贡献，但是……

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->But have they really played any kind of important role in European history?

教授：但是它们是否有在欧洲历史上扮演了重要的角色是吗？

2 .Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I was just coming to that.

嗯，事实上，是的。我正要讲到这点呢。

1 .Let's start with North American corn or maize, as it's often called.

让我们先来讲讲北美的玉米，一般大家都这么叫。

2 .Now before the Europeans made contact with the Americas, they subsist mainly on grains, grains that often suffered from crop failures.

那么在欧洲人与美国人有接触之前，人们基本靠谷物维生，而这些谷物经常是颗粒无收。

3 .And it's largely for this reason that the political power in Europe was centered for centuries in the South, around the Mediterranean Sea which was where they could grow these grains with more reliability.

主要是这个原因，欧洲政治力量需要在南部，也就是地中海附近集中几个世纪，就是因为那里可以更好的种植谷物。

1 .But when corn came to Europe from Mexico, wow, now they had a much hardier crop that could be grown easily in more northerly climates and centers of power began to shift accordingly.

但是当玉米从墨西哥到达欧洲以后，这种耐寒的作物可以很容易在偏北部的气候下生长，那么中央力量就相应转移了。

2 .And then, well, as I said potatoes weren't really popular at first.

然后， 我刚说土豆开始并不流行。

3 .But when they finally did catch on which they did first in Ireland around 1780.

但是后来在1780 年前后，土豆被爱尔兰所接受。

4 .Well, why do you suppose it happen?

为什么会这样呢？

5 .Because potatoes have the ability to provide an abundant and extremely nutritious food crop, no other crop grown in North Europe at the time had anything like the number of vitamins contained in potatoes.

因为土豆有能力提供极其丰富的营养，北欧当时没有其它任何作物的含维他命量能和土豆相媲美。

6 .Plus, potatoes grow on the single acre of land could feed many more people than say, uh....wheat grow on the same land.

另外，土豆种植在单亩地上，可以为很多人提供粮食，小麦也种植在同一片地上。

7 .Potatoes soon spread to France and other Northern European countries.

土豆很快就传播到法国及其它北欧国家。

8 .And as a result, the nutrition of the general population improved tremendously and population soared in the early 1800 and so the shift of power from southern to northern Europe continued.

结果，总体人口的摄入营养都大幅度提升，而且在19 世纪初人口激增，所以欧洲力量从南向北转移的现象持续下来。