Do Potatoes See with Their Eyes？ 馬鈴薯也是用眼睛看世界的嗎？

胡楊

Have you ever wondered...

你有沒有想過……

Do potatoes see with their eyes？

馬鈴薯也是用眼睛看世界的嗎？

Where did potatoes come from？

馬鈴薯是從哪里來的？

What country produces the most potatoes？

哪個(gè)國家生產(chǎn)馬鈴薯最多？

What is your favorite way to eat potatoes？ Mashed， baked， French-fried...theres no end to the ways potatoes can be cooked.

哪種做法的馬鈴薯是你的最愛？馬鈴薯泥，烤馬鈴薯，炸薯?xiàng)l……馬鈴薯的烹飪方法是沒有止境的。

The English word “potato” comes from the Spanish word patata. Patata， in turn， comes from batata， which was a South American In-dian word that firstly meant the sweet potato.

英語單詞“potato”來源于西班牙語單詞“patata”。“patata”這個(gè)詞來源于“batata”，它是一個(gè)南美印第安詞，原指甘薯。

Oddly1 enough， the sweet potato plant and “regular” potato plants are completely2 different plants that are not closely related. In-stead， the potato plant is more closely related to the eggplant and tomato.

奇怪的是，甘薯植株和“普通”馬鈴薯植株是完全不同的植物，它們并沒有緊密的聯(lián)系。相反，馬鈴薯植株與茄子和番茄的關(guān)系更密切。

Potato plants are perennials3 that grow low to the ground. They have heart-shaped or oval4 leaves and small purple or white flowers. Wild potato plants also produce small， inedible5 green berries6 as fruit.

馬鈴薯是多年生植物，貼著地面長。它們有心形或橢圓形的葉子和紫色或白色的小花。野生的馬鈴薯也會(huì)結(jié)出小而不能食用的綠色漿果果實(shí)。

The part we know as the potato， though， grows underground. Its called a tuber7， and it grows from the end of underground stems8 be-

low the roots of the plant.

但我們所知道的“馬鈴薯”是在地下生長的。它被稱為塊莖，是從植物的根部下面地下莖的末端長出來的。

Each tuber or potato has several buds9. These are the small sprouts10 we call potato “eyes”.

每個(gè)塊莖或馬鈴薯都有幾個(gè)芽。我們把這些小芽稱為馬鈴薯的“眼睛”。

Its from these buds that new potato plants can grow. So even though a potatos eyes cant help it see underground， they can help grow more potatoes！

從這些芽中可以長出新的馬鈴薯。因此，即使土豆的眼睛看不見地下，它們也能幫忙長出更多的馬鈴薯！

Potatoes were first grown more than 10，000 years ago in the Andes region of Peru in South America. Spanish explorers brought potatoes to Europe in the 1500s.

早在一萬多年前，馬鈴薯就在南美洲秘魯?shù)陌驳谒股矫}地區(qū)種植。西班牙探險(xiǎn)家在16世紀(jì)將馬鈴薯帶到了歐洲。

Europeans brought potatoes to North America in the 1600s. Today， potatoes are the worlds fourth-largest food crop， behind rice， wheat， and corn.

17世紀(jì)，歐洲人把馬鈴薯帶到了北美。今天，馬鈴薯是世界上第四大糧食作物，僅次于大米、小麥和玉米。

There are now more than 1，000 different types of potatoes around the world. China pro-duces the most potatoes of any country in the world. In the United States， Idaho and Wash-ington produce the most potatoes each year.

現(xiàn)在全世界有超過1000種不同種類的馬鈴薯。中國是世界上產(chǎn)馬鈴薯最多的國家。在美國，愛達(dá)荷州和華盛頓每年產(chǎn)的馬鈴薯最多。

Fun potato facts：

土豆趣事：

The average American eats more than 125 pounds of potatoes each year.

美國人平均每年吃超過125磅的馬鈴薯。

The first vegetable to be grown in space was...you guessed it...the potato！

第一個(gè)在太空種植的蔬菜是……你猜對了……馬鈴薯！

Are you ready to eat some potatoes？

你準(zhǔn)備好要吃點(diǎn)馬鈴薯了嗎？

Ask an adult friend or family member to take you on a field trip to a local store. Your goal？ Find as many potatoes and potato prod-ucts as you can. Start with the different types of fresh potatoes. Then move on to the frozen foods part in search of French fries. But dont let your journey end there！If you keep looking，

were sure you can find other examples of potatoes. Feeling hungry yet？

讓一個(gè)成年的朋友或家人帶你去當(dāng)?shù)氐纳痰辍Ｄ愕哪繕?biāo)呢？就是盡可能多地找到馬鈴薯和馬鈴薯制品。從不同種類的新鮮馬鈴薯開始找，然后再到冷凍食品區(qū)尋找炸薯?xiàng)l。但別讓你的旅程就此結(jié)束！如果你繼續(xù)找，我們肯定你能找到其他的馬鈴薯食物。感覺餓了嗎？

Notes：

1. oddly adv. 奇怪地

2. completely adv. 完全地

3. perennials n. 多年生植物（perennial的名詞復(fù)數(shù)）

4. oval adj. 橢圓的；卵形的

5. inedible adj. 不能吃的

6. berry n. 漿果（葡萄，番茄等）

7. tuber n. 塊莖

8. stem n. 干；莖

9. bud n. 芽，萌芽

10. sprout v. 發(fā)芽；長芽