英語聽力文摘680 有名的西紅柿辯論

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In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case that hinged on whether the tomato was a fruit or a vegetable.

Defining A Vegetable

According to botanists, most of the edible parts of a plant are vegetables. Vegetables can be a root, stem, leaf, or flower. Even bulbs, like onions, and buds like brussels sprouts are vegetables.

Defining Fruits

A fruit, on the other hand, is always the matured ovary of a flowering plant. Fruit is formed when pollen, which carries sperm, lands on the sticky part of the flower.

The sperm travel from the pollen grain into the ovary then into the ovule where one fertilizes the egg. Once the egg is fertilized, the ovule becomes a seed, and the whole ovary becomes a fruit. This is why fruits usually contain seeds.

An Unlikely Fruit

Of course, when we generally think of fruit we think of sweet fruits like apples and pears that are eaten raw or baked in dessert. We don’t think of tomatoes or cucumbers as fruit, although they are fruit because they develop from the ovary of the plant.

Scandalous!

Back to the 1893 court case. The Supreme Court declared that tomatoes were vegetables because they are usually eaten cooked like vegetables. The decision allowed the court to uphold a tax on imported tomatoes because, at that time, vegetables were taxed but fruits were not.

有名的西紅柿辯論

1893年，美國最高法院有一場關(guān)于西紅柿到底是水果還是蔬菜的案子。

蔬菜的定義

根據(jù)植物學家的觀點，一種植物中，可以吃的部分大都稱為蔬菜。蔬菜可以是根、莖、葉或者花。甚至球根植物，如洋蔥，芽類如球芽甘藍都是蔬菜。

水果的定義

另一方面，水果通常是一種花類植物的成熟子房。當花粉攜帶精子著落在花朵粘性的部分，水果就形成了。

精子從花粉顆粒進入子房，然后進到受精的地方--胚珠。一旦受精卵形成，胚珠就變成一顆種子，整個子房就變成一個水果。這就是為什么水果通常都包含種子的原因。

不可能的水果

當然，我們通常認為水果是我們想象中的那種甜味的水果，像蘋果和梨子，可以生吃或烘焙作為餐后甜點。我們不認為西紅柿或黃瓜是水果，盡管他們確實是水果，因為他們是由植物的子房發(fā)育而來的。

丑聞!

回到1893年的案子，最高法院判定，西紅柿是蔬菜，因為西紅柿通常用烹飪蔬菜那樣的方法來吃。這個決定允許法庭對進口西紅柿征稅，因為那時候，蔬菜是要收稅的，但水果不用。