Do Potatoes See with Their Eyes？ 马铃薯也是用眼睛看世界的吗？

胡杨

Have you ever wondered...

你有没有想过……

Do potatoes see with their eyes？

马铃薯也是用眼睛看世界的吗？

Where did potatoes come from？

马铃薯是从哪里来的？

What country produces the most potatoes？

哪个国家生产马铃薯最多？

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

哪种做法的马铃薯是你的最爱？马铃薯泥，烤马铃薯，炸薯条……马铃薯的烹饪方法是没有止境的。

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.

英语单词“potato”来源于西班牙语单词“patata”。“patata”这个词来源于“batata”，它是一个南美印第安词，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”马铃薯植株是完全不同的植物，它们并没有紧密的联系。相反，马铃薯植株与茄子和番茄的关系更密切。

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.

馬铃薯是多年生植物，贴着地面长。它们有心形或椭圆形的叶子和紫色或白色的小花。野生的马铃薯也会结出小而不能食用的绿色浆果果实。

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.

但我们所知道的“马铃薯”是在地下生长的。它被称为块茎，是从植物的根部下面地下茎的末端长出来的。

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

每个块茎或马铃薯都有几个芽。我们把这些小芽称为马铃薯的“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！

从这些芽中可以长出新的马铃薯。因此，即使土豆的眼睛看不见地下，它们也能帮忙长出更多的马铃薯！

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.

早在一万多年前，马铃薯就在南美洲秘鲁的安第斯山脉地区种植。西班牙探险家在16世纪将马铃薯带到了欧洲。

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

17世纪，欧洲人把马铃薯带到了北美。今天，马铃薯是世界上第四大粮食作物，仅次于大米、小麦和玉米。

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.

现在全世界有超过1000种不同种类的马铃薯。中国是世界上产马铃薯最多的国家。在美国，爱达荷州和华盛顿每年产的马铃薯最多。

Fun potato facts：

土豆趣事：

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

美国人平均每年吃超过125磅的马铃薯。

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

第一个在太空种植的蔬菜是……你猜对了……马铃薯！

Are you ready to eat some potatoes？

你准备好要吃点马铃薯了吗？

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？

讓一个成年的朋友或家人带你去当地的商店。你的目标呢？就是尽可能多地找到马铃薯和马铃薯制品。从不同种类的新鲜马铃薯开始找，然后再到冷冻食品区寻找炸薯条。但别让你的旅程就此结束！如果你继续找，我们肯定你能找到其他的马铃薯食物。感觉饿了吗？

Notes：

1. oddly adv. 奇怪地

2. completely adv. 完全地

3. perennials n. 多年生植物（perennial的名词复数）

4. oval adj. 椭圆的；卵形的

5. inedible adj. 不能吃的

6. berry n. 浆果（葡萄，番茄等）

7. tuber n. 块茎

8. stem n. 干；茎

9. bud n. 芽，萌芽

10. sprout v. 发芽；长芽