英國學生科學讀本 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.

甘蔗莖里面充滿了柔軟的“髓”;等到甘蔗完全長大成熟了，髓里面就會充滿汁液。甘蔗長著又長又直的窄葉子，頂端有一個穗子，大約有兩英尺長，長滿了玫瑰色的花朵。

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.

黑人工人會把地挖出坑來，把甘蔗種下去;因為這些地區太熱，白人工人沒辦法工作。甘蔗完全長大之后，黑人工人會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.

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

 

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