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Wild carrots probably evolved with the other flowering plants, about 360 million years ago.
在大約3.6億年前，野生胡蘿卜也許是和其它可以開花植物一起進(jìn)化的。
Like apples, carrots are native to Central Asia.
和蘋果一樣，胡蘿卜也是中亞的本土植物。
That's why horses, which also come from Central Asia, like both apples and carrots so much.
這就是為什么同樣來自中亞的馬，那么喜歡胡蘿卜和蘋果的原因。
With wild carrots, the roots are white, small and skinny, so we have to pick a lot of wild carrots to get enough to eat.
因為野生胡蘿卜的根是白色的，且又小又細(xì)，所以我們需要采很多野生胡蘿卜才夠吃。
Doctors used carrot seeds and roots as medicine, on the theory that foods that taste bad must be good for you.
醫(yī)生把胡蘿卜的種子和根做成藥，是基于“良藥苦口”這個理論的。
Around 800 AD, people in Central Asia, managed to develop a new kind of carrot-a purple carrot that attracted more interest from international traders.
在公元800年，中亞的人們成功地研發(fā)出一種新的胡蘿卜，一種更吸引國際貿(mào)易者的紫色胡蘿卜。
Then in the late 1500s, food scientists in the Netherlands cultivated large, straight, sweet, red carrots like the ones we eat today,
隨后，在16世紀(jì)后期，荷蘭的食物科學(xué)家培育出了又大又直又甜的紅色胡蘿卜，與我們今天吃的胡蘿卜類似，
but people still mostly fed carrots to horses,donkeys and pigs, and didn't eat them themselves.
但是當(dāng)時的人基本上都用胡蘿卜喂馬、驢和豬，而不是他們自己吃。
In the 1600, people in China used carrots as medicine, but they also ate carrots boiled in soup.
在17世紀(jì)，中國人把胡蘿卜當(dāng)作藥，但是他們也用胡蘿卜煮湯。
The red color was popular for Chinese New Year celebrations.
紅色是中國春節(jié)時很流行的一種顏色。
But carrots got their biggest boost during the two World Wars
但在兩次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，胡蘿卜得到了最大的推廣，
when food shortages force people to eat them and governments told everyone how healthy carrots were.
因為食物短缺迫使人們食用它們，而且政府告訴每個人，胡蘿卜是多么健康。
Today, cooler countries grow most of the world's carrots.
如今，氣候更涼爽的國家種植了世界上大部分的胡蘿卜。
Machines do most of the planting and picking.
其中大多數(shù)是由機器種植和采摘的。
And carrots are easy to store and ship, so they are cheap almost everywhere.
并且由于胡蘿卜易于儲存和運輸，所以它們在任何地方都很便宜。
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
請根據(jù)你剛剛聽到的文章回答問題16至問題18。
Question 16: What do we learn from the talk about wild carrots?
問題16：我們從關(guān)于野生胡蘿卜的討論中獲悉了什么?
Question 17: What does the speaker say about carrots in the late 1500s?
問題17：對16世紀(jì)末期的胡蘿卜，發(fā)言人提到了什么？
Question 18: Why did people turn to carrots for food during the two world wars?
問題18：在兩次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，人們?yōu)槭裁崔D(zhuǎn)而將胡蘿卜當(dāng)作食物？
