LESSON 65 Raleigh's Two PlantsIn the reign of Queen Elizabeth, two plants were brought to England, for the first time, by Sir Walter Raleigh,both of which are now very much used -- the tobacco-plant and the potato.Sir Walter had sailed across the seas to America, in search of new lands; and he brought back both these plants with him.When he was in America, he had seen the Indians smoke, and before long he acquired the habit himself.He became extremely fond of smoking, and frequently indulged in the practice.When he returned to England, he was sitting by the fire one day, and began to smoke.In the middle of his smoking, the door opened, and in came his man-servant.Now, this man had never in his life seen any one smoke, and did not know that there was such a plant as tobacco.So, when he saw the smoke coming from his master's mouth, he thought that he was on fire!He cried out in alarm, and ran to fetch a bucket of water to put the fire out;and Sir Walter was deluged before he had time to explain what he was really doing.But very soon the old servant got used to seeing people with smoke coming out of their mouths;and all the young nobles of the court began to smoke because Sir Walter did so.At first, people did not like the potato at all: nobody would eat it.
第六十五课 雷利爵士的两种植物在伊丽莎白女王统治时期，有两种植物第一次出现在了英国，这两种植物是沃尔特・雷利爵士带到英国的，现在都很常用--分别是烟草和马铃薯。当时沃尔特爵士为了寻找新大陆而漂洋过海来到美洲，然后他就把这两种植物带了回去。当他在美洲的时候，他看到印第安人在抽烟，不久之后他自己也养成了这种习惯。他变得非常喜欢吸烟，而且经常沉溺于此。回到英国之后，有一天他坐在火旁开始抽烟。他正抽着烟，这时门开了，他的仆人走了进来。这个仆人这辈子从来没有见过任何人抽烟，也不知道有烟草这种植物。所以，当他看到浓烟从他的主人的嘴里冒出来时，他以为他的主人着火了！他惊恐地叫了起来，跑去拿一桶水来把火扑灭了；沃尔特爵士甚至还没来得及解释他到底在做什么，就被泼了一头的水。但很快，这位老仆人就习惯了看到嘴里的烟的人；宫廷里的所有年轻贵族都开始抽烟，因为沃尔特爵士这样做了。起初，人们一点儿也不喜欢马铃薯：根本没人会吃它。
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