英國(guó)學(xué)生科學(xué)讀本 Lesson 40 甘蔗(2)

These stems are filled with soft pith, which containsa sweet juice when the sugar-cane is fully grown and ripe. The plant has long, straight and narrow leaves, and at the top there grows a tassel of rose-coloured flowersabout two feet in length.

甘蔗莖里面充滿(mǎn)了柔軟的“髓”;等到甘蔗完全長(zhǎng)大成熟了，髓里面就會(huì)充滿(mǎn)汁液。甘蔗長(zhǎng)著又長(zhǎng)又直的窄葉子，頂端有一個(gè)穗子，大約有兩英尺長(zhǎng)，長(zhǎng)滿(mǎn)了玫瑰色的花朵。

Black men dig the ground, and plant the sugar-cane; for the countries where sugar grows are too hot for white men to work in. When the plants are fully grown, the black men cut them off near the ground with big sharp knives, strip off the leaves and the flowers, and cut up the stems into pieces about two feet long.

黑人工人會(huì)把地挖出坑來(lái)，把甘蔗種下去;因?yàn)檫@些地區(qū)太熱，白人工人沒(méi)辦法工作。甘蔗完全長(zhǎng)大之后，黑人工人會(huì)用鋒利的大刀子把甘蔗從接近地面的地方砍斷，把葉和花都剝掉，把莖切成大概兩英尺的段子。

You may be sure that both the black men and the little black boys and girls suck many pieces of the stems every day. The sweet juice is a good food, and all the negroes become fat and strong at the time when the cane is being cut.

你大概知道，成年的黑人和黑人小朋友，每天都會(huì)吃掉很多段甘蔗。甘蔗的甜汁是一種很好的食物，收甘蔗的時(shí)候，黑人們都吃得又胖又壯。

A great deal of sugar is now made in France and in Germany, from the juice of a kind of beet, a plant with a white root, somewhat like a big turnip. It is very like the red beet-root which we cut up into slices and use as a vegetable. If you have eaten any of that, you must have noticed how sweet it tastes. There is far more sugar in the white beet, however, than in the red beet.

現(xiàn)在，法國(guó)和德國(guó)也出產(chǎn)大量的糖，這些糖是用一種叫“甜菜”的植物汁液制造的。甜菜長(zhǎng)著白色的根，看上去很像一棵大號(hào)的郁金香。還有一種紅色的甜菜根，我們把這種甜菜根切成片當(dāng)菜吃。要是你吃過(guò)，一定會(huì)注意到，甜菜根有多么甜。不過(guò)，白色甜菜根的含糖量，卻比紅色甜菜根高得多。

 

英語(yǔ)美文