26 A2+ sugar

CHAPTER 1 The History of Sugar HAVE WE ALWAYS EATEN SUGAR? Today, people eat a lot of sugar. It is easy for most people to buy sweet things and to cook with sugar. It is part of our daily lives. But sugar has not always been so easy to get. 300 years ago it was unusual for people to have sugar. Where did sugar come from and what is its history? How has the sugar business changed the world? The first sugar cane grew on the island of New Guinea around 6000 BCE. Around 1000 BCE, sugar cane was brought in boats to India. People first chewed sugar cane because they knew that a very sweet juice came out. It tasted good!

第一章糖的历史我们一直吃糖吗？ 今天，人们吃了很多糖。 对大多数人来说，买甜食和用糖做饭是很容易的。 这是我们日常生活的一部分。 但糖并不总是那么容易得到。 300年前，人们吃糖是不寻常的。 糖是从哪里来的，它的历史是怎样的？ 糖业是如何改变世界的？ 大约在公元前6000年，第一个甘蔗生长在新几内亚岛。 大约公元前1000年，甘蔗被船运到印度。 人们第一次咀嚼甘蔗是因为他们知道会产生一种非常甜的果汁。 味道好极了！

People soon learned how to take the juice out of the cane. They cooked the cane in water, dried it, and were left with small pieces of sugar, called crystals. In the 8th century CE, Arabs brought sugar cane to Spain. When Columbus went to the West Indies for the second time, in 1493, he took a sugar cane plant with him. The weather there, with lots of sun and rain, was excellent for growing sugar cane.

人们很快就学会了如何从甘蔗中榨汁。 他们把甘蔗放在水里煮，晾干，剩下小块的糖，叫做晶体。 公元8世纪，阿拉伯人把甘蔗带到了西班牙。 1493年，当哥伦布第二次去西印度群岛时，他带着一棵甘蔗。 那里的天气阳光充足，雨量充沛，非常适合种植甘蔗。

The weather in the southern United States was also excellent for growing sugar cane. By the 18th century, farmers there were growing sugar cane on plantations. But sugar was expensive because making sugar from cane was not fast or easy. People used it as a spice, like cinnamon, curry, or ginger, not as a main ingredient. In 1879, in California, a new factory found a way to make sugar faster and cheaper. The plantation owners and the factory owners were making a lot of money because sugar was cheaper to make and people were buying a lot of it. Making sugar became an important business. By 1900, there were more than 30 sugar factories in the United States. Suddenly there was a lot more sugar in the shops.

美国南部的天气也非常适合种植甘蔗。 到了18世纪，那里的农民开始在种植园里种植甘蔗。 但是糖很贵，因为用甘蔗制糖既不快也不容易。 人们把它当作香料，就像肉桂、咖喱或姜一样，而不是主要的配料。 1879年，在加利福尼亚，一家新工厂找到了一种更快更便宜的制糖方法。 种植园主和工厂主赚了很多钱，因为糖的制造成本更低，人们买了很多糖。 制糖成了一项重要的生意。 到1900年，美国有30多家糖厂。 突然间，商店里的糖多了很多。

In 1700, the average American ate less than two kilos of sugar a year. But as sugar became cheaper and easier to buy, people in Europe and the United States ate much more of it. They started to drink their tea and coffee sweetened with sugar. They started to eat more chocolate, jams, and candies made with sugar. By 1900, the average American ate over 30 kilos of sugar a year! Sugar has not only changed what people eat and drink. The big business of growing sugar cane and making sugar has also changed the history of several countries. Sometimes these changes have been good, and sometimes the changes have been very bad.

1700年，美国人平均每年摄入的糖不到两公斤。 但随着糖变得更便宜、更容易买到，欧洲和美国人吃了更多的糖。 他们开始喝加糖的茶和咖啡。 他们开始吃更多的巧克力、果酱和糖做的糖果。 到1900年，美国人平均每年吃下超过30公斤的糖！糖不仅改变了人们的饮食。 种植甘蔗和制糖的大生意也改变了几个国家的历史。 这些变化有时是好的，有时是非常坏的。

CHAPTER 2 The Colonies HOW THE EUROPEAN COLONIES CHANGED THE WORLD. As sugar became more popular, Europeans wanted to grow as much of it as possible and sell it in Europe. By the 17th century, there were many new sugar plantations in colonies all over the world. The island group of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean is a good example of what happened in the colonies. Hawaii is an excellent place for growing sugar cane. When Captain Cook went to Hawaii in 1778, he was surprised to see native people growing sugar cane on small farms. In 1835, an American company started the first large sugar cane plantation in Hawaii. It made a lot of money so other American companies built plantations there also. In 1937, a factory to make refined sugar from the cane was built.

第二章殖民地欧洲殖民地如何改变了世界。 随着糖越来越受欢迎，欧洲人希望尽可能多地种植糖，并在欧洲销售。 到17世纪，世界各地的殖民地都有许多新的甘蔗种植园。 太平洋上的夏威夷群岛是殖民地发生的一个很好的例子。 夏威夷是种植甘蔗的好地方。 当库克船长1778年去夏威夷时，他惊讶地看到当地人在小农场种植甘蔗。 1835年，一家美国公司在夏威夷建立了第一个大型甘蔗种植园。 它赚了很多钱，所以其他美国公司也在那里建立了种植园。 1937年，一家用甘蔗生产精制糖的工厂建成了。

The sugar business changed Hawaii in many ways. The sugar companies took the best land for the plantations. They did not pay the workers very much money, and the hours of work were very long. Many people died from the hard work and new diseases. Life became very difficult for the native Hawaiians. Life became even worse after a law was passed in 1848. The law said that foreigners could buy land in Hawaii. By 1890, much of Hawaii belonged to foreigners. The sugar companies needed more workers, so they brought people to Hawaii from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. Being a colony brought many problems to the people working on plantations in Hawaii and other places. But the worst problem was slavery.

糖业在很多方面改变了夏威夷。 糖业公司把最好的土地用于种植园。 他们付给工人的工资不多，而且工作时间很长。 许多人死于艰苦的工作和新的疾病。 夏威夷原住民的生活变得非常艰难。 1848年通过一项法律后，生活变得更加糟糕。 该法律规定，外国人可以在夏威夷购买土地。 到1890年，夏威夷的大部分地区都属于外国人。 制糖公司需要更多的工人，所以他们从中国、日本、韩国和其他国家带人来夏威夷。 作为一个殖民地，给在夏威夷和其他地方的种植园工作的人带来了许多问题。 但最严重的问题是奴隶制。