新概念雙語：萬萬沒想到：6種表達說的是同一種菜

You may never have heard of the plant Brassica Oleracea， but you‘ve definitely eaten it.

你可能從未聽說過花椰菜，但你肯定吃過。

Six vegetables you can find in any grocery store and which most people eat on a regular basis are actually all from this one plant. Over the last few thousand years， farmers have bred Brassica Oleracea into six “cultivars” that eventually became many of the vegetables we eat.

雜貨店常見的六種蔬菜，人們也經(jīng)常吃這幾種蔬菜，但實際上，這六種蔬菜都是一種蔬菜的變種。過去幾千年中，農(nóng)民培育出許多花椰菜的變種，并最終衍變成了我們今天吃的許多蔬菜。

This one plant was selectively bred over hundreds of years to create dozens of wildly different vegetables. By selecting and breeding plants with bigger leaves， or larger buds， the different cultivars (also known as subspecies) were created.

幾百年間，人們有選擇的對這種植物進行培育，并成功培育出幾十種不同的野生蔬菜。通過選擇和培育那些葉子較大、芽較健壯的品種，人們創(chuàng)造出許多該植物的變種(也稱之為亞種)。

Kale， collard greens， and Chinese broccoli were created by making the leaves of the ancestor plant‘s leaves bigger， and were the first brassica domesticated， sometime before 300 BCE. Collard greens were developed in Europe， while Chinese broccoli was domesticated in China.

通過使得前人培育植物的葉子更大，我們培育出了羽衣甘藍和芥藍;公元前300年左右，人們培育出了第一批蕓苔。羽衣甘藍是歐洲人培育出來的，而薺藍是中國人培育出來的。

Red， green and savoy cabbages were created from a kale cultivar (likely the European collard greens) in the 1200s by selecting for a large terminal bud — the growing end at the top of the plant. The leaves are tightly wound around a short， wide stem (the cabbage‘s core).

13世紀左右，通過對羽衣甘藍變種的芽進行選擇性培育，人們培育出了紅球甘藍、卷心菜和薩沃伊白菜。他們的葉子緊緊地纏在那又短又寬的莖上(白菜心)。

Brussels sprouts are like tiny cabbages， except they grow from the buds along the plant’s stem. They first hit the scene in the 1200s as well.

球芽甘藍很像微型的大白菜，但是球芽甘藍的果實沿著莖生長。球芽甘藍也是在13世紀左右首次出現(xiàn)的。

Kohlrabi was created by selecting for a thicker stalk in a kale plant around the 1400s.

通過對莖體較粗的羽衣甘藍進行選擇培育，人們又在15世紀左右培育出了大頭菜。

Broccoli was created from a kale predecessor in the 1500s by selecting for the larger flower clusters， which are then harvested before they bloom. Cauliflower was developed from one of hundreds of broccoli varieties.

通過對花體較大的羽衣甘藍進行選擇性培育，人們又在16世紀左右培育出了西蘭花;這種植物開花前就可以進行收割了。而花菜又是從上百種西蘭花變種中培育出來的。

The amazing evolution of Brassica Oleracea just goes to show： Humans have been tinkering with the genetics of our food for much longer than we‘ve been creating what are now known as genetically modified foods， or GMOs. These new lab techniques just let us do it in a more precise and directed way.

花椰菜的衍變歷史讓人驚訝，從中不難發(fā)現(xiàn)，人類改善食物基因所用的時間要長于創(chuàng)造轉基因食物的時間。這些新技術讓我們能夠更加精確直接的培育植物。