A. One million people died of hunger.
B. But in the past this was not true.
C. You can't eat this type of potato leaves.
D. Today, each country has its potato dish.
E. This made them sick because there are harmful things in the leaves.
F. But the people in Europe did not like this strange vegetable.
Can you imagine life without French fries (炸薯条)? Potatoes are very popular today. Potatoes grew in South America five thousand years ago. They only became popular in other places two hundred years ago.
In the 16th century, the Spanish took the potato from South America to Europe. Some people thought that if you ate the potato your skin (皮肤) would look like the skin of a potato. Other people could not believe that you ate the underground part of the plant. So they ate the leaves instead.
In the 1800s people started to eat potatoes. In Ireland potatoes became the main food. Then, in 1845, a disease killed all the potatoes in Ireland. At least another million were forced to leave their homeland.
Germans eat potato salad, and the United States has the baked (烤) potato. And, of course, the French invented French fries. Now French fries are popular all over the world. The English and the French eat them with salt, and the Americans with tomato sauce.
