介绍:
正确原文：
In the late 1400s, when Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from the western hemisphere, he brought with him a sample of what the native Americans called maize, or, as we call it more often today, corn. The corn that Columbus introduced to Europe was the distant descendant of a grass native to Mexico. The peoples of the Americas probably started to domesticate this grass as early as 5000BC. After about a thousand years, they had developed a highly productive strand of corn which later became the basis for the great pre-Columbian civilizations. Figuratively speaking, both the cities of the Incas and the temples of the Mayas were built on corn. Domesticated corn and the people who cultivated it developed together. Without humans to care for it, domesticated corn could not survive. The kernels are crowded together beneath the strong protected husk and silk. And the young corn shoot is not strong enough to break through the husk on its own. If people did not strip away the husk and plant individual kernels, the corn would die out.
生词摘录：
1.Christopher Columbus: 克里斯托夫·哥伦布
2.hemisphere: n. 半球
3.sample: n. 样品
4.maize: n. 玉米
5.domesticate: v. 驯养
6.strand: n. 绳索之一股
7.pre-Columbian: adj. 哥伦布发现美洲大陆以前的
8.figuratively speaking: 比如说
9.Inca: 印加人
10.Maya: 玛雅人
11.cultivate: v. 培养,耕作,栽培
12.kernel: n. （坚果或种子的）核，仁
13.husk: n. 外壳
14.strip: v. 剥去
