Part I
Pro: So would it surprise you to learn that many of the foods that we 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 peoples of North and South America?I mean, you are probably aware that the Americas provide Europe and Asia with foods like squash, beans, turkey, peanuts. But what about all those Italian tomato sauces, Hungarian goulash or my favorite, French fries? Those yummy fried potatoes?
Stu: Wait. I mean I knew potatoes were from where, South America?
Pro: South America. Right, the Andes Mountains.
Stu: But you are saying tomatoes, too? I just assume since they’re used in so many Italian dishes.
当你得知其实许多我们今天认为是传统欧洲菜肴的食物，它们的主要食材在欧洲并不为人所知，直到近代，直到欧洲人开始与北美和南美的土著人民进行贸易，你是否也会感到惊讶？
1. dish|dɪʃ|
noun. food prepared in a particular way as part of a meal 一道菜；菜肴
E.g.: I can recommend the chef's dish of the day.
我可推荐厨师今天的特色菜。
2. squash |skwɔ:ʃ|
noun. a squash is one of a family of vegetables that have thick skin and soft or firm flesh inside 番瓜类蔬菜
E.g.: The pond is quite small but can support many aquatic plants and fish.
池塘虽小，但能为许多水生植物和鱼类提供足够的养分。
3. goulash |ˈgu:læʃ|
noun. a hot spicy Hungarian dish of meat that is cooked slowly in liquid with paprika 匈牙利红烩牛肉；匈牙利的辣椒炖肉；菜炖牛肉
E.g.: Goulash is seasoned with paprika.
用辣椒粉给菜炖牛肉调味。
Part II
Pro: No, like potatoes, Tomatoes grew wild in the Andes, although unlike potatoes, they weren’t originally cultivated there. That seems to have occurred first in Central America. And even then, the tomato doesn’t appear to have been very important as a food plant until the Europeans came on the scene. They took it back to Europe with them around 1550. And Italy was indeed the first place where it was widely grown as a food crop. So in a sense, it really is more Italian than American.
And another thing and this is true of both the potato and the tomato. Both of these plants are members of the Nightshade family. 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. So it’s no wonder that people once considered potatoes and tomatoes to be inedible too, even poisonous. And in fact, the leaves of the potato plant are quite toxic. So it took both plants quite a while to catch on in Europe. And even longer before they made the return trip to North America and became popular food items here.
即便如此，在欧洲人出现之前，番茄作为食用植物的地位似乎并不是很重要。
1. cultivate |ˈkʌltɪveɪt|
verb. to grow plants or crops 种植；栽培；培育
E.g.: The people cultivate mainly rice and beans.
这里的人们主要种植稻子和豆类。
2. the scene
a particular area of activity or way of life and the people who are part of it 活动领域；界；坛；圈子
E.g.: After years at the top, she just vanished from the scene.
她在圈内雄踞首位许多年，突然销声匿迹了。
3. nightshade|'naɪtˌʃeɪd|
Nightshade is a family of plants that includes tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Tobacco is also in the nightshade family. Nightshades are unique because they contain small amounts of alkaloids. Alkaloids are chemicals that are mainly found in plants茄科是真双子叶植物茄目的一科，对于人类是非常重要的一类植物，提供给人类许多种食物和药物。茄科植物一般都含有不同量的生物碱，对人类具有一定的毒性，根据其生物碱含量的多少，有的品种可以作为食物，有的品种可以作为药物
E.g.: Other names for belladonna include devil's herb and deadly nightshade.
贝拉多纳的其他名称还包括魔鬼药草和颠茄。
4.mandrake 茄参, belladonna 颠茄, tobacco 烟草
5. inedible|ɪnˈedəbl|
adj. that you cannot eat because it is of poor quality, or poisonous; not edible 不能吃的；不宜食用的
E.g.: These chemicals make the fruit inedible.
这些化学制品使这种水果不宜食用。
6. catch on
to become popular or fashionable 受欢迎；流行起来；变得时髦
E.g.: He invented a new game, but it never really caught on.
他发明了一种新的游戏，但从未真正流行起来。
Part III
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 that tomatoes were poisonous.
Professor: Oh, sure. People didn’t really start eating them here until the mid-eighteen hundreds.
Student: But seems like I heard...didn’t Thomas Jefferson grow them or something?
Professor: Well, that’s true. But then Jefferson is known not only as the third president of the United States, but also as a scholar who was wayahead of his time in many ways. He didn’t let the conventional thinking of his day restrain his ideas.
但杰斐逊不仅是美国的第三任总统，而且还是一位在许多方面都领先于他所在的那个时代的学者。
1. way |weɪ|
noun. very far; by a large amount 很远；大量
E.g.: She finished the race way ahead of the other runners.
她遥遥领先于其他选手跑到终点。
2. ahead of your time
having advanced or new ideas that other people use or copy later 超越时代的；有超前意识的；具有前瞻性的
E.g.: As a poet, he was ahead of his time. His poems, now regarded as classics, were unpopular when he wrote them.
作为诗人，他走在了时代的前面。他的诗歌，现在被认为是经典，在他写下它们的时候其实并不受欢迎。
3. conventional |kənˈvenʃənl|
adj. following what is traditional or the way sth has been done for a long time 传统的；习惯的
E.g.: It is simpler and quicker to use than conventional methods.
这比通常的做法更简单、更快捷。
4. restrain |rɪˈstreɪn|
verb. to stop sb/sth from doing sth, especially by using physical force 制止，阻止，管制
E.g.: They have obtained an injunction restraining the company from selling the product.
他们已经得到阻止这家公司出售这一产品的禁销令。
Part IV
Now, potatoes went through a similar sort of...uh...of a rejection process, especially when they were first introduced in Europe. You know how potatoes can turn green if they are left in the light too long? And that greenish skin can make the potatoes tastes bitter; even make you ill. So that was enough to put people off for over 200 years. Yes, Bill?
Student: I’m sorry, professor Jones. But I mean, yeah ok, American crops have probably contributed a lot to European cooking over the years. But…
Professor: But have they really played any kind of important role in European history? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I was just coming to that. Let’s start with North American corn or maize, as it’s often called. Now before the Europeans made contact with the Americas, they subsisted mainly on grains, grains that often suffered from crop failures.
你知道土豆在光照下放太久会变绿吗？而且那层绿色的外皮会让土豆尝起来很苦；甚至让你生病。
1. put sb off
to make sb dislike sb/sth or not trust them/it 使反感；使疏远；使不信任
E.g.: Don't be put off by how it looks─it tastes delicious.
别光看外表就讨厌它，这东西味道可美哩。。
2. maize |meɪz|
noun. a tall plant grown for its large yellow grains that are used for making flour or eaten as a vegetable; the grains of this plant 玉蜀黍；玉米
E.g.: Wheat, maize and oats belong to the grain group.
小麦, 玉米及燕麦都属谷类。
3. subsist |səbˈsɪst|
verb. to manage to stay alive, especially with limited food or money （尤指靠有限的食物或钱）维持生活，度日
E.g.: The prisoners subsisted on one mug of the worst quality porridge three times a day.
犯人们每日三餐靠一碗稀粥度日。
4. crop failure
a failure of crops to yieldsufficient food, etc, to maintain a community or to provide a surplus to sell 作物歉收；饥荒
E.g.: In the Middle Ages, years of crop failure were always followed by terrible disease.
中世纪时，庄稼连年歉收后总会出现严重的疫情。
Part V
And it’s largely for this reason that 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. But when corn came to Europe from Mexico, well, now they had a much hardier crop that could be grown easily in more northerly climates and the centers of power began to shift accordingly. And then, well, as I said potatoes weren’t really popular at first. But when they finally did catch on which they did first in Ireland around 1780.
Well, why do you suppose it happened? 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. Plus, potatoes grown on the single acre of land could feed many more people than say, wheat grown on the same land. Potatoes soon spread to France and other Northern European countries. And as a result, the nutrition of the general population improved tremendously and population soared in the early 1800s and so the shift of power from southern to northern Europe continued.
另外，在一英亩土地上种植的马铃薯比在同一块土地上种植的小麦可以养活更多的人。
1. Mediterranean Sea
the largest inland sea; between Europe and Africa and Asia 地中海
E.g.: The Mediterranean Sea boiled with the storm.
暴风雨中地中海波涛汹涌。
2. reliability |rɪˌlaɪəˈbɪləti|
noun. the trait of being dependable or reliable 可靠；可信赖度
E.g.: The incident cast doubt on her motives and reliability.
这件事使人怀疑她有何动机，以及她是否可靠。
3. hardy |ˈhɑ:rdi|
adj. that can live outside through the winter 耐寒的；能越冬的
E.g.: The silver-leaved varieties of cyclamen are not quite as hardy.
银叶仙客来品种不太耐寒。
4. vitamin |ˈvɪtəmɪn|
noun. a natural substance found in food that is an essential part of what humans and animals eat to help them grow and stay healthy. There are many different vitamins 维生素；维他命
E.g.: Healthy people do not need vitamin supplements.
健康的人不需要额外补充维生素。
5. acre 英亩, mile 英里, foot 英尺, inch 英寸（一英寸等于三颗大麦的总长度）, yard 码, pound 磅（一磅等于一颗从麦穗的中间抽取的大麦的重量的7000倍）, pint 品脱（一品脱的水的重量等于一又四分一磅）
6. nutrition |njuˈtrɪʃn|
noun. the process by which living things receive the food necessary for them to grow and be healthy 营养；滋养；营养的补给
E.g.: As in all experimental sciences, we still do not know everything about nutrition.
就像所有实验科学一样，我们仍然没有完全认识营养作用。
7. soar|sɔ:(r)|verb. if the value, amount or level of sth soars , it rises very quickly 急升；猛增E.g.: Unemployment has soared to 18%.失业率猛升到了18%。
