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"Why, the food must be like mud pies, Grandmother!" cried Mary Jane.
咦，奶奶，那食物一定就像泥土餡餅一樣了！瑪麗·簡大聲說道。
"Don't you remember when I used to make beautiful pies from the dirt in your back yard?"
您不記得我過去常常用您后院里的泥土制作漂亮餡餅了嗎？
"Oh, but, Mary Jane," answered Grandmother, "it is only some things in the ground that help the plant to grow."
嗯，是這樣的，但瑪麗·簡啊，只有土壤中的一些東西能夠幫助植物成長，奶奶回答。
"How does the plant get these things from the ground?" asked Mary Jane.
那植物是怎么從土壤中獲得這些東西的呢？瑪麗·簡問道。
Grandmother said, "The rain water that soaks into the earth helps.
奶奶回答說，滲入地里的雨水起了作用。
It mixes with the things in the ground that the plant needs.
它混合了土壤中植物生長所需要的東西。
This water soaks into the roots of the plant and is carried into the leaves, where the food is made.
這樣的水滲入植物的根部，再被送到植物的葉子里，食物就在那里被制造了出來。
"When rain does not fall for many days, the ground gets so dry that we have to put water wherever plants are growing.
幾天不下雨的話，土壤就會變干，我們就必須給植物生長的地方澆水。
"But there is something else a plant must have before it can make food. "A plant must have sunlight."
但在植物制作食物之前，還需要其他的一些東西。植物需要陽光。
"Oh!" cried Mary Jane. "The sun is hot.
哦，我知道了，太陽是熱的，瑪麗大聲說道。
Does it cook the plant's food, just as fire cooks our food?"
它就像我們用火燒熟食物一樣，將植物的食物給燒熟，是不是？
"No," said Grandmother. "Plants need heat, but the heat does not cook the food.
不是的，奶奶說。植物需要熱量，但這熱量不是用來燒熟食物的。
We do not know just how the food is made.
現在我們還不清楚植物的食物是怎么被制造出來的。
"We only know that a plant cannot make food without sunlight, even though it has air and water."
我們只知道，即便有空氣和水但沒有陽光的話，植物也是無法生產出食物來的。
"I wish I knew how plant food tastes," said Mary Jane.
我想知道植物的食物嘗起來怎么樣，瑪麗·簡說。
"Oh, Mary Jane!" laughed Grandmother. "You eat plant food almost every day of your life.
哦，瑪麗·簡啊！奶奶笑到。你生活中的每一天都在吃植物的食物。
"Plants do not use all the food they make. They store some of it in their leaves and stems and seeds.
植物是不會吃掉所生產出來的全部食物。它們會把一部分食物儲存在葉子、莖和種子里。
"Some plants, like the potato plant, the turnip, and the carrot, store extra food under the ground. This extra food is what we eat."
一些植物像土豆、蘿卜和胡蘿卜會把多出來的食物存放在地下。這些多出來的食物就是我們吃的食物。
Mary Jane thought about all the things her grandmother had told her.
瑪麗·簡想了想奶奶告訴她的所有的這些事。
Then she ran off to look at the growing things in the garden.
然后便跑到了花園研究花園中生長的食物去了。
