In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, had a problem. He'd 1 his sugar-growing islands in the Caribbean. He couldn't buy 2 from his enemies (敌人). So where was he going to get sugar to keep his people happy?
Napoleon knew that years before, a German scientist had 3 that all plants have sugar. And he had even found one almost as 4 as sugarcane (甘蔗)—the white beet (甜菜)!
Napoleon ordered his science team to 5 how to get the sugar out of the beets. They soon did. This 6 everything! Sugar beets could 7 in the cold north, instead of on tropical (热带的) islands. And because beets (unlike sugarcane) could be stored for a long time, they could be shipped far away. So sugar factories didn't have to be near the 8.
Soon, sugar beet farms spread all over Europe and Russia, and later in the United States. Even Napoleon's enemies 9 cheap beet sugar.
During WW Ⅱ, farmers in both America and Germany were asked to grow sugar beets so that their countries would have 10 sugar.
Today, about half the table sugar in the world comes from beets, and half from sugarcane.
