A Chinese proverb says "the precious things are not pearls and jade1 but the five grains",of which rice is first. Have you ever wondered about the journey the grains of rice take before they reach your plate or bowl,or fork or chopsticks?

Sowing the seeds First, the seeds are sown. Sometimes, they are planted directly in the paddies2, but often they are sown in nurseries where they spend their first 30 days sprouting3 into seedlings4.

Transplanting to the fields After about 30 days, the seedlings (young rice plants) are transplanted5 to the fields. Transplanting is exhausting, tiring work that requires standing in water and repeatedly bending over.

Harvesting When the mature plants are a golden yellow colour, the new grains are ready to harvest. Sometimes farmers use a mechanical reaper6, but often they use only a sharp knife or sickle.

Threshing7 Threshing separates the grains from the stalks8. This can be done with mechanical threshers or combines, but often the stalks are simply pounded against a hard surface. When threshing is done without machinery, the rice is tied into bundles and dried in the sun first.

Drying the rice Drying is very important because if the moisture content is too high, the freshly harvested grains will spoil easily. In many countries, the grains are laid out to dry wherever space is available, from basketball courts to sections of major highways. Affluent9 farmers may put large quantities of grains into heated air dryers.

Distribution and marketing Grains for the local or international markets are placed in bags for shipping via10 water buffalo11, cart, wagon, truck, boat, train, or any other form of transportation imaginable.

Processing For eating at home, farmers separate the hulls12 from the grains through pounding. Commonly, this is done by placing the grains in a mortar13 in which they are pounded with a pestle14. The hull debris15 (or chaffl6) is separated from the grains by winnowing17 the pounded mixture into the wind from a shallow basket.Rice grains in commercial mills are polished using a mechanical mill.

Preparation Rice grains are commonly boiled or steamed and eaten alone. But, because rice can be part of so many dishes, we will leave the rest of the story to your imagination!

中國(guó)有句諺語(yǔ)：“寶貴的東西不是珍珠和翡翠，而是五谷”，五谷之首就是稻米。你是否想過(guò)飯粒盛到你的盤子和碗里之前，你用叉子或筷子觸及它們之前，它們所經(jīng)歷的路程呢?

播種首先要播種。有時(shí)它們被直接種在水稻田里，但是它們通常被播種在苗圃里，在那里度過(guò)最初的30天，從發(fā)芽到長(zhǎng)成秧苗。

移栽至大田大約30天之后，秧苗(水稻的幼苗)被移栽到大田里。移栽工作既疲勞又枯燥，人們需要站在水里，不停地彎腰。

收獲當(dāng)成熟的稻谷呈現(xiàn)金黃色時(shí)，新糧食就該收獲了。有時(shí)農(nóng)民用機(jī)械收割機(jī)，但是他們往往只使用鋒利的刀子或鐮刀。

脫粒脫粒是將谷粒與稻秸分開。可以用機(jī)械脫谷機(jī)或聯(lián)合收割機(jī)，但是常常只是將稻秸朝一個(gè)堅(jiān)硬的表面摔打。如果不用機(jī)械脫粒，稻谷要被捆成捆，先在太陽(yáng)下曬干。

干燥干燥非常重要，因?yàn)槿绻趾窟^(guò)高，新收獲的稻谷很容易腐壞。在許多國(guó)家，稻谷被晾曬在任何有空?qǐng)龅牡胤竭M(jìn)行干燥，諸如籃球場(chǎng)甚至主干公路路面上。富裕農(nóng)民會(huì)將大量的稻谷放在熱氣干燥機(jī)內(nèi)干燥。

銷售與市場(chǎng)供應(yīng)本地或國(guó)際市場(chǎng)的稻谷被包裝成袋，通過(guò)水牛、手推車、馬車、卡車、船只、火車或任何想得到的交通工具來(lái)運(yùn)輸。

加工如果自家食用，農(nóng)民用舂的方法將谷殼與米粒分開。一般做法是將谷粒放在臼里，用杵擊打。將杵過(guò)的稻谷盛在簸箕里在風(fēng)中揚(yáng)場(chǎng)使谷殼碎片(或谷糠)與米粒分開。商業(yè)磨坊的米粒都經(jīng)過(guò)機(jī)械磨的打磨。

做飯大米一般是經(jīng)過(guò)煮或蒸單獨(dú)食用。但是，由于大米可以是許多菜肴的配料，所以我們將余下的事情留給你去發(fā)揮想象力!

注釋

1．jade n． 碧玉，翡翠

2．paddy n． 稻，谷，稻田

3．sprout vi. 萌芽，發(fā)芽

4．seedling n. 秧苗，樹苗

5．transplant vt． 移植，移栽

6．reaper n． 收割者，收割機(jī)

7．thresh vt． 脫粒，打谷

8．stalk n. 莖，梗，稈

9．a(chǎn)ffluent adj. 豐富的，富裕的

10．via prep． 經(jīng)，通過(guò)，經(jīng)由

11．buffalo n． 水牛

12．hull n． (果實(shí)等的)外殼

13．mortar n． 臼，研缽

14．pestle n． 槌，杵

15．debris n． 碎片，殘骸

16．chaff n． 谷殼，糠

17．winnow vt． 簸，揚(yáng)(谷)，吹開糠皮