READING 3: TOEFL
The pineapple has been cultivated and enjoyed by humans for thousands of years. According to archaeologists, evidence from drawings on ancient Peruvian pottery shows that Native Americans were cultivating the pineapple in about. Furthermore, some botanists believe that people in South and Central America began cultivating it. Cultivated pineapples do not produce seeds. This fact indicates that the plant has been dependent on humans for its reproduction for such a long time that it no longer can reproduce by itself.
When Europeans discovered the pineapple at the end of the fifteenth century, it was a case of love at first sight. Many of the early explorers reported favorably about this new fruit, saying that it had a delightful smell and a sweet, refreshing taste. In fact, of all the new American fruits that were brought back to Europe, the pineapple was the most successful. While other fruits, such as the tomato, were regarded with great suspicion and believed to be poisonous, the pineapple was accepted relatively quickly.
Throughout the sixteenth century, the ships of the European explorers carried pineapples from Central and South America to other parts of the world. During voyages, the fruit provided an excellent source of fresh food and vitamins for the ship’s crew. Furthermore, when they arrived the travelers found that, if the climate was suitable, it was easy to grow more fruit from the cut-off tops of pineapples. In the sixteenth century, pineapples were being cultivated in parts of India, Africa, and China. In Europe, the climate was generally too cold, so the fruit could be grown only by wealthy people with heated greenhouses.
Pineapples remained a luxury food until the early twentieth century, when they became more easily available. Faster shipping and improved rail and road connections made it possible to bring the pineapples to new markets. With the advent of safe industrial canning methods, factories could produce canned pineapple for mass markets. As the fruit became more available and better known, demand rose rapidly for both fresh and canned pineapple. Production quickly expanded to meet that demand, most notably in Hawaii, which dominates the world market. Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Kenya, and Thailand are also important pineapple products.
