经典英文文章8篇-通用打基础.doc

Dont Eat the Tomatoes: Theyre Poisonous! The first tomatoes were found growing wild by Indians in Peru and Ecuador thousands of years ago. The Indians brought the tomato plant with them when they moved north to Central America. The Spanish soldiers, who conquered Mexico in the early 1500s took tomato plants to Spain. The tomato soon made its way across Europe, but the English were wary of it. They thought it was not meant to be eaten. English doctors warned patients that tomatoes were poisonous and would bring death to anybody who ate one. For hundreds of years, both the English and the Americans would decorate their homes with tomato plants, but they never dared to eat the vegetable. This myth might still prevail today had it not been for a New Jersey man named Robert Johnson. In 1808, Johnson returned from South America with a large quantity of tomato plants. He had hoped to sell them to the American market. He gave the plants to local farmers and offered a prize for the largest tomato grown. But the tomato was still rejected in his hometown of Salem, New Jersey, and everywhere else as well. Johnson decided to take a desperate measure. He publicly announced he would stand on the steps of the local courthouse and eat a basket of tomatoes in public. The townsfolk were shocked. Johnsons doctor warned he would foam at the mouth, then fall down and die in a few minutes. Finally, the important day arrived. Two thousand people surrounded the courthouse to watch a man kill himself(or so they thought).The crowd fell into a dead silence as Johnson, dressed in a bright suit, walked up the steps of the courthouse. When the clock struck noon, he picked up a tomato and held it up. He then talked to the crowd. Friends, I will now eat my first tomato. When he took his first bite, a woman in the crowd shrieked and fainted. After finishing the tomato, Johnson picked up another and started eating it. Another woman in the crowd fainted. Soon the basket w