IELTS Listening · Cam 10

Test 2 Part 4

The tomato is a popular vegetable which figures in the cuisine of many countries around the world.

Level: B2 · 45 sentences

Transcript

  1. The tomato is a popular vegetable
  2. which figures in the cuisine of many countries around the world.
  3. It is particularly prominent in Italian cooking,
  4. but it was unknown in Europe until Spanish explorers brought it back from the Americas.
  5. The tomato originated in the highlands of Peru.
  6. From there, it eventually found its way to Mexico,
  7. where it was cultivated by the Aztecs.
  8. The Aztec tomato wasn't the large red vegetable we know today.
  9. Rather, it was small and yellow.
  10. When this small round fruit arrived in Italy,
  11. it was named golden apple for its bright yellow color.
  12. You'll notice I just called it a fruit.
  13. That's because a tomato is botanically a fruit,
  14. even though most everyone calls it a vegetable.
  15. The actual word tomato comes from the Aztec name for the vegetable,
  16. meaning plump thing.
  17. The tomato arrived in Europe in the 1500s
  18. and quickly became a popular food in Spain and Italy.
  19. In the late 1600s, the Italians began publishing recipes that used tomatoes.
  20. The British, however, had a different attitude toward the vegetable.
  21. It was grown as an ornamental plant in Britain in the 1600s, but it wasn't eaten.
  22. because it was thought to be poisonous.
  23. It wasn't until the 1700s that tomatoes became part of the daily diet in Britain.
  24. In the United States,
  25. tomatoes were also used as ornamental plants rather than as food for a long time.
  26. This attitude began to change in the 1800s.
  27. In 1806, a gardener's calendar mentioned
  28. that tomatoes could be used to improve the flavor of soups and other foods.
  29. Thomas Jefferson did much to enhance the tomato's reputation as a food.
  30. He first served tomatoes to visitors at his home in Virginia in 1809.
  31. Then in 1820,
  32. a man named Robert Gibbon Johnson decided it was time to discard once
  33. and for all the idea that tomatoes were poisonous.
  34. To prove his point, he ate one kilo of ripe red tomatoes in public.
  35. 2,000 people gathered to watch this feat,
  36. which took place on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, Massachusetts.
  37. Amazingly enough, Johnson survived this stunt.
  38. The popularity of the tomato as a food began growing rapidly.
  39. Soon people all around the country were eating tomatoes.
  40. By the 1830s,
  41. American newspapers and magazines were publishing thousands of tomato recipes.
  42. However, all those recipes involved using tomatoes in some cooked form.
  43. Tomato salads and sandwiches were still unknown.
  44. It wasn't until a century later in the 1930s
  45. that it became popular for people to eat raw tomatoes.