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Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a European History Class
獨白:聽下面一段歐洲歷史課的演講
Professor:So would it surprise you to learn that many of the food that we today consider traditional European dishes that their key ingredients were not even known in Europe until quite recently,
教授:如果我跟大家說，現在很多傳統歐洲菜肴的主調味料是在最近才被發現的，
until the European started trading with the native people in North and South America?
而且是在歐洲人開始與北美及南美當地人進行交易的時候才開始，你們會不會很驚訝呢。
I mean, you probably aware that the Americas provide Europe and Asia with food like squash, beans, turkey, peanuts.
我的意思是你們可能知道美國人為歐洲和亞洲提供食物，比如南瓜、豆角、火雞、花生等。
But what about all those Italian tomato sauces, humgarengurush or my favorite, French fries? Those yummy fried potatoes.
而意大利番茄醬、哈姆咖熱格食或者我最喜歡的法式炸薯條呢？
Student:Wait. I mean I knew potatoes were from where, South America?
學生:等一下，我知道土豆來自哪里，是南美嗎？
Professor:South America. Right, the Andes Mountains.
教授:南美，是的。安第斯山脈。
Student:But you are saying tomatoes too?
學生:但是你還提到了西紅柿？
I just assume since there used to so many Italian dishes.
我還想不是有很多意大利食物都是用這個嗎？
Professor:No, like potatoes, Tomato grew widely in the Andes.
教授:像土豆一樣，西紅柿也是在安第斯附近大范圍生長。
Although unlike potatoes, they weren't originally cultivated there.
但是和土豆不一樣的是，西紅柿并不是原始種植在那里。
That seems to occur first in Central America.
最初好像是在中美。
And even then the tomato doesn't appear to have been very important as a food plant until the European came on the scene.
即使在那時西紅柿也并不是主要的食物，直到歐洲人出現。
They took it back to Europe with them around 1550.
大概在 1550 年歐洲人將西紅柿帶回了歐洲。
And Italy was indeed the first place where it's widely grown as food crop.
意大利就是最初開始大面積種植西紅柿的地方。
So in a sense, it really is more Italian than American.
所以某種意義來講，其實它更像是來自于意大利，而不是美國。
And another thing and this is true of both potato and tomato.
關于西紅柿和土豆，它們還有一個共同的特點，
Both of the plants are members of Nightshade family.
就是都屬茄科。
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們是不會食用的，如曼德拉草、顛茄甚至煙草等。
So it's no wonder that people once considered potatoes and tomatoes to be inedible too, even poisonous.
難怪人們一度認為土豆和西紅柿是不可食用的，甚至認為其有毒。
And in fact, the leaves of the potato plant are quite toxic.
而事實上，土豆的葉子含有很大毒性，
So, too it took both plants quite a while to catch on in Europe.
因此，過了很長時間這兩種作物才被歐洲所接受。
And even longer before it made a return trip to North America and became popular food items here.
甚至比它們重返北美并在那里成為流行食物的時間還要長久。
Student:Yeah, you know, I remember,
學生:是的，你知道，我還記得，
I remember my grandmother telling me that when her mother was a little girl, a lot of people still thought tomatoes are poisonous.
我記得我祖母告訴我她小的時候，許多人認為西紅柿是有毒的。
Professor:Oh, sure.
教授:當然了。
People didn't really start eating them here until the mid-eighteen hundreds.
人們直到 19 世紀中期才開始食用西紅柿。
Student:But seems like I heard didn't Tom Jefferson grow them or something?
學生:但是我聽說不是湯姆杰弗遜種植的嗎？
Professor:Well, that's true.
教授:嗯，是這樣的。
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.
但是杰弗遜不僅因為是美國的第三任總統而出名，同樣也是一位高瞻遠矚的學者。
He didn't let the conventional thinking of his day restrain his ideas.
他沒有讓當時的傳統觀念禁錮了他的思想。
Now, potatoes went through a similar sort of rejection process, especially when they were first introduced in Europe.
那么土豆也經歷過一個相似的被拒過程，尤其是剛開始到達歐洲的時候。
You know how potatoes can turn green if they are left in the light too long?
你們都知道土豆在光下放置太久會變綠是吧？
And that green of skin can make the potatoes tastes bitter; even make you ill.
這種發綠的土豆吃起來會很苦澀，甚至會使人生病。
So that was enough to put people off for over 200 years. Yes, Bill?
這就足夠使人們延遲 200 多年的了。有什么問題嗎，比爾？
Student:I'm sorry professor Jones. But I mean yeah ok.
學生:抱歉打擾，瓊斯教授。但是的確，
American crops have probably contributed a lot to European cooking over the years. But…
這些年美國作物可能為歐洲的烹飪作出了很大的貢獻，但是…
Professor:But have they really played any kind of important role in European history?
教授:但是他們真的曾經在歐洲歷史上起到過重要作用嗎?
Well, as a matter of fact, yes.
嗯,事實上是這樣的。
I was just coming to that.
我正要講到這點呢。
Let's start with North American corn or maize, as it's often called.
讓我們先來講講北美的玉米，一般大家都這么叫。
Now before the Europeans made any contact with the Americas, they subsist mainly on grains, grains that often suffered from crop failures.
那么在歐洲人與美國人有接觸之前，人們基本靠谷物維生，而這些谷物經常是顆粒無收。
And largely for this reason, 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.
主要是這個原因，歐洲政治力量需要在南部，也就是地中海附近集中幾個世紀，就是因為那里可以更好的種植谷物。
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.
但是當玉米從墨西哥到達歐洲以后，這種耐寒的作物可以很容易在偏北部的氣候下生長，那么中央力量就相應轉移了。
And then, well as I said potatoes weren't really popular at first.
然后，我剛說的土豆開始并不流行。
But when they finally catch on which they did in Ireland around 1780.
但是后來在 1780 年前后，土豆被愛爾蘭所接受。
Well, why do you suppose it happen?
為什么會這樣呢？
Because potatoes have the ability to provide abundant and extremely nutritious food crop, no other crop grew in North Europe at the time had anything like the number of vitamins contained in potatoes.
因為土豆有能力提供極其豐富的營養，北歐當時沒有其它任何作物的含維他命量能和土豆相媲美。
Plus, potatoes grow on the single acre of land could feed many more people than say, wheat grow on the same land.
另外，土豆種植在單畝地上，可以為很多人提供糧食，而小麥也種植在同一片地上。
Potatoes soon spread to France and other Northern European countries.
土豆很快就傳播到法國及其它北歐國家。
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.
結果，總體人口的攝入營養都大幅度提升，而且在 19 世紀初人口激增，所以歐洲力量從南向北轉移的現象持續下來。
