2 EVERYTHING’S UNDER CONTROL

1 EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL

一切尽在掌握之中

DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO Our story starts about 10,000 years ago, in the Middle East. People there, like people everywhere at the time, were hunter-gatherers. They hunted wild sheep, gazelles, rabbits, and ducks. They gathered wild wheat plants, onions, lentils, and figs. They fished along the seacoast and in the lakes and rivers, catching fish, crabs, and oysters. Humans were already the most powerful animal around. But they didn't try to control anybody. They gathered plants but didn't tell them where to grow. They hunted animals but didn't tell them where to go.

我们的故事要从一万年前的中东说起。 那里的人，和当时其他地方的人一样，都是狩猎采集者。 他们捕猎野羊、瞪羚、兔子和鸭子。 他们采集了野生小麦、洋葱、扁豆和无花果。 他们沿着海岸、湖泊和河流捕鱼，捕捉鱼、螃蟹和牡蛎。 人类已经是最强大的动物了。 但他们并没有试图控制任何人。 他们收集植物，但没有告诉他们在哪里种植。 他们猎杀动物，但不告诉它们去哪里。

Life wasn't always pleasant. There were still some dangerous creatures around, like snakes, and there were all kinds of disasters, from snowstorms to heat waves. Occasionally there were also brawls with the neighbors—all through history some people could have been nasty to one another. Yet, most of the time, people had enough to eat, and a lot of free time to tell ghost stories, doze off in camp, or visit neighbors to celebrate some festival. Wars were rare. Plagues were rare. And famines were rare. When the gazelles migrated somewhere else, or when there were no more ripe figs nearby, people just moved their camp to another place, following the gazelles and the figs. THE PLANT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD But in some special places, there was so much to eat that people rarely needed to move their camps. They could stay in the same place all year round. These special places were full of unique plants. The plants weren't big or beautiful, but they changed the entire world. These plants were the cereals. You probably eat cereals every day. Wheat, barley, rice, maize, and millet are cereals. Bread, cookies, cakes, pasta, and noodles are made from cereals. Breakfast cereals are also made from cereals—the clue's in the name! But until about 10,000 years ago, humans seldom ate cereals. Cereals weren't very common. Wheat, for example, didn't grow at all in America, China, or Australia. Only some areas in the Middle East had wheat, and even there, we're not talking entire wheat

生活并不总是愉快的。 周围仍然有一些危险的生物，比如蛇，还有各种各样的灾难，从暴风雪到热浪。 偶尔也会与邻居发生争吵——纵观历史，有些人可能会互相讨厌。 然而，大多数时候，人们有足够的食物，还有很多空闲时间讲鬼故事，在营地打瞌睡，或者拜访邻居庆祝一些节日。 战争很少发生。瘟疫很少发生。 饥荒也很罕见。当瞪羚迁徙到别的地方，或者附近没有成熟的无花果时，人们就跟着瞪羚和无花果搬到另一个地方去。 改变世界的植物但是在一些特殊的地方，有如此多的食物，以至于人们很少需要移动他们的营地。 他们可以一年四季都呆在同一个地方。 这些特殊的地方充满了独特的植物。 这些植物既不高大也不美丽，但它们改变了整个世界。 这些植物就是谷物。 你可能每天都吃谷物。 小麦、大麦、大米、玉米和小米都是谷物。 面包、饼干、蛋糕、意大利面和面条都是由谷物制成的。 早餐麦片也是由谷物制成的——从它的名字就可以看出！但直到大约1万年前，人类很少吃谷物。 谷物不是很普遍。 例如，小麦在美国、中国或澳大利亚根本不生长。 只有中东的一些地区有小麦，即使在那里，我们说的也不是全麦

fields. Some wheat plants grew on one hill, and others on another hill. So even in the Middle East, most bands hardly bothered with cereals… but some did. We don't know exactly when or where some humans became particularly interested in cereals, but we can try to imagine it. Perhaps one day a girl from a band that roamed around looking for all kinds of plants and animals met a girl from another band that spent most of the time in just one place and gathered lots of wheat. "Hello there," said the first girl. "They call me Wanda 'cause I like to wander around! What's your name?" "People call me Wheaty 'cause I really like wheat!" "Wheat? Pah… I don't bother picking that stuff. You can spend all day gathering wheat and still not have enough. And even if you do, the wheat grains are so hard. The one time I found a lot of wheat, I broke a tooth, got a terrible headache from all the chewing, and had a stomachache for three days!" "You didn't do it right!" cried Wheaty. "You can't just eat wheat grains like that! You have to bring them back to camp, remove the tough outer shells, and grind them into tiny bits. Then you mix the grain powder with water, put it on a big flat stone by the fire—wait a

字段。一些小麦种在一座山上，另一些种在另一座山上。 因此，即使在中东，大多数乐队也很少为谷物而烦恼，但有些乐队却这样做了。 我们不知道人类在何时何地开始对谷物特别感兴趣，但我们可以试着想象一下。 也许有一天，一个四处寻找各种植物和动物的乐队的女孩遇到了另一个乐队的女孩，她大部分时间都在一个地方，收集了很多小麦。 “你好，”第一个女孩说。 “他们叫我旺达，因为我喜欢到处闲逛！”你叫什么名字？”“人们叫我小麦，因为我真的很喜欢小麦！”“小麦? 我才懒得挑那些东西呢。 你可以花一整天收集小麦，但仍然不够。 就算你这么做了，麦粒也太硬了。 有一次我发现了很多小麦，我摔坏了一颗牙齿，咀嚼得很厉害，头疼得厉害，胃疼了三天！”“你做得不对！” “你不能就这样吃麦粒！”你必须把它们带回营地，去掉坚硬的外壳，把它们磨成小块。 然后你把谷物粉和水混合，放在火旁的一块大平石头上，等等

little—and you get yummy bread! Plus, no broken teeth, headaches, or stomachaches!" "That's so much work!" gasped Wanda. "I'll stick to figs and fish." "Well, it is difficult," agreed Wheaty. "But wheat has one really big advantage over figs and fish." "What's so great about that dry little thing?" "The thing is that unless you dry or smoke them very carefully, juicy figs and fish rot quickly. Ever tried eating a fish that's been lying around for three days?" "Uhhh, disgusting!" "You see? With grains it's a whole other story. You can store them for months, no problem! During harvest season, our band collects as much grain as we can and stores it in our camp. When we're not harvesting, we hunt and gather lots of other things like you do. We might pick figs or even manage to catch a gazelle. But sometimes there's nothing to hunt or pick." "So you move to another valley, right?" "No! We go back to camp, take some grain from storage, grind it, and make bread or porridge! If we gather enough grain in harvest season, we can stay in our camp all year!"

一点点——你就会得到美味的面包！另外，不会有牙齿破损、头痛或胃痛！”“工作量太大了！”旺达喘着气说。 “我只吃无花果和鱼。” “嗯，这很难。”惠蒂同意道。 “但与无花果和鱼相比，小麦有一个很大的优势。” “这个干瘪的小东西有什么了不起的？”“问题是，除非你非常小心地晾干或熏制，否则多汁的无花果和鱼很快就会腐烂。 你试过吃一条放了三天的鱼吗？”“呜,恶心!”“你看到了什么? 而谷物则完全是另一回事。 你可以保存几个月，没有问题！在收获季节，我们的乐队尽可能多地收集粮食，并储存在我们的营地里。 当我们不收割的时候，我们就像你们一样打猎和采集其他东西。 我们可能会摘无花果，甚至设法抓住一只瞪羚。 但有时没有什么可捕猎或采摘的。” “所以你搬到了另一个山谷，对吗？”“不!我们回到营地，从仓库里拿一些谷物，磨碎，做面包或粥！我们若在收割的时候收足粮食，就可以全年住在营里！”