英語聽力文摘452 吃菠菜長肌肉？

菠菜,我要吃菠菜.菠菜給予我力量.每次被狂揍之后,某一個瞬間,大力水手Popeye以迅雷不及掩耳之勢吞下一罐菠菜.隨后,肱二頭肌開始急劇的膨脹,膨脹到與體型極其不對稱.擺幾個健美造型后,把反動人物打的落花流水.當(dāng)然,這是動畫片大力水手的情節(jié).那菠菜究竟有沒有那么神奇呢?一起來看看吧...

The Strength of Spinach?

Don: Yaël, have you ever heard of Popeye the Sailorman? Whenever he is getting beaten up he eats some spinach and becomes really strong. His muscles bulge out and everything.

Yaël: I do burst your bubble Don. But eating spinach has nothing to do with strength.

D: Popeye is a lie?

Y: Not a lie, exactly. See, some time in the 1920s it was reported that a half cup of cooked spinach has thirty-four milligrams of iron, which is a lot. Iron is important because it carries oxygen in the blood. We need oxygen for energy; without enough of it people become weak and tired.

D: So spinach does make you strong, or at least puts extra pep in your step.

Y: Well, it might if it did have much iron. It turns out that the thirty-four milligrams was a typo. A half cup of cooked spinach really has only three point four milligrams of iron. Plus, spinach is actually worse than other iron-containing vegetables because it has a chemical that blocks most of its iron from being absorbed by the blood.

But when the typo was published the idea caught on that spinach was a muscle-building vegetable. That’s where the idea for Popeye came from.

D: So now I have to came up with another point.

Y: Or, how about just being happy with who you are!

D: Or, maybe I'll learn koradji.

Y: Whatever!

菠菜的神力?

Don: 你有聽說過大力水手波沛嗎?每次他被痛打的時候，他就會吃菠菜，吃完了之后他就變得非常強(qiáng)壯——肌肉凸出，一切的一切,變得好強(qiáng)壯啊!

Yaël: Don，我可就要打破你的幻想了!吃菠菜與變得強(qiáng)壯根本就沒什么聯(lián)系。

D: 波沛是一個謊言?

Y: 確切地說，不是謊言。在上世紀(jì)20年代，有報(bào)道稱，每半杯已烹飪菠菜含有34毫克鐵元素，含量相當(dāng)?shù)母?。由于在血液中的運(yùn)氧功能，鐵元素頗為重要。氧是人類的動力之源——一旦缺氧，人類便會變得虛弱、易疲乏。

D: 因而，菠菜確實(shí)能讓人強(qiáng)壯——至少能積存下多余的精力。

Y: 嗯，如果鐵元素的含量很多的時候確實(shí)如此。事實(shí)證明，那34毫克的鐵元素是排版的錯誤——每半杯已烹飪菠菜僅含3.4毫克鐵元素。再者，事實(shí)上菠菜還不如其他含鐵的蔬菜好。原因在于，菠菜含有一種化學(xué)物質(zhì)會大大的阻礙鐵元素被血液吸收。

但是，當(dāng)34毫克的“版本”出來的時候，人們就認(rèn)定了菠菜有助于肌肉的塑成。這就是大力水手波沛的得來吶!

D: 那么也就是說，我得重去找其他的方法啦!

Y: 抑或，就高高興興的做你自己!

D: 或者，我還可以去學(xué)巫術(shù)!

Y: 這個就要看你自己啦!