Yuan Longping is the greatest hero in my heart. He solved the food problem for millions of people.

He was born in 1930 in Beijing. In the 1960s, people in China didn’t have much food to eat. Many people lost their lives because of this. Yuan was very worried, and he decided to work on a kind of hybrid rice (杂交水稻) to feed more people. He developed a new kind of rice in 1974. To help more people, he travelled around the world and gave advice about growing rice in the 1980s. He helped people not only in China, but also in many other areas (地区) around the world. He died in Changsha in 2021. Yuan Longping won World Food Prize for his work in 2004.

He played an important role in ending hunger. It’s Yuan’s dream to sit under the ears of rice and enjoy the cool day. He once said, “I dream that rice will grow as high as sorghum (高粱).” People nowadays can live a better life, because he did a great job on rice growing. We should save food and never waste any food. It’s the best way to remember him.

Tomatoes taste great. With a lot of vitamins, they are good for you, too! People all over the world enjoy this amazing fruit.

Not all tomatoes are red. They can be yellow, orange, pink, or white. All tomatoes are green before they are ready to be picked. Then the tomatoes turn their true color. That’s when they’re ready to eat!

Tomatoes first grew in the Americas. The Incas grew them over 1,000 years ago. They were introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The Spanish and Italians seem to have been the first Europeans to accept them as food. In France, people grew tomatoes in the garden just to enjoy their beauty. Many people there thought tomatoes would make them sick. It was years before some of them would eat tomatoes.

Tomatoes are fruits. They grow from seeds. They won’t grow in cold weather. But with water, sunlight and warmth, tomatoes grow fast. They can grow in pots or in the ground. As the plant grows taller, people may tie it to a stick. Next is the blooming stage. Flowers appear. The flowers turn into fruit. Some kinds of tomatoes can be picked in about six more weeks. Some tomatoes are large. One kind of tomato can weigh as much as two pounds.

You can eat raw tomatoes. First, wash them. Then, cut them up for salads or sandwiches. Tomatoes can be cooked, too. They can be grilled, boiled, or even fried. Do you use ketchup? It is made from tomatoes. Tomatoes don’t have a smell. But they taste great in foods around the world. Many dishes from India use tomatoes. Spaghetti sauce and pizza from Italy use them, too. Raw tomatoes are in Mexican salsa.

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“Peanuts! Get your red-hot peanuts!”

Americans have loved the taste of peanuts ever since 1870. That was the year when P.T. Barnum introduced hot peanuts as a snack. He sold them at his theatre. Soon everyone wanted peanuts to eat. But many people around the world ate peanuts long before that. Peanuts have been a popular food in Africa for hundreds of years. In South America, scientists found bowls which were filled with dried peanuts. These bowls were over 30000 years old! Ancient dried peanuts have also been found in China.

African slaves (奴隶) probably brought peanuts to the USA in the 1700s. At first, farmers grew peanuts as food for their cows. But a man named George Washington Carver thought that peanuts could be useful in other ways. George was born during the Civil War. His parents were slaves on a farm. From boyhood, George showed great interest in plants. Later, he got an education and began studying plants. He worked hard and became a famous botanist.

George used peanuts to create over three hundred products, such as soap, ink, plastic and paper. He also helped make peanuts an important crop(农作物). He was famous for his work. There is a monument (纪念碑) to hum in Missouri where he was born.

The peanut plant produces many small yellow flowers. When the flowers die, the plant begin to dig into the soil in which peanuts grow. When the autumn comes, it’s time to dig them out of the ground. If the soil is too wet or too dry, many of the peanuts will remain in the ground. And then they are dried and sent to factories where they are made into snacks or other products.

Next time if you go to a theatre or a baseball game, listen carefully. You may hear someone shouting, “Peanuts! Get your red-hot peanuts!”