English Reading(The Origin of Popcorn)

The Origin of Popcorn

  Popcorn is a very popular snack nowadays. Americans alone eat 400 million pound of popcorn each year. However,popcorn wasn't always popular.Farmers grew only a small amount of corn for popping, and it could be bought only by the sack.A 25-pound sack cost one dollar in 1879.

  Cloid Smith found a new idea for increasing popcorn sales.He sold the corn in one-pound boxes with colorful pictures.Smith;s popcorn was an instant success;more than 75,000 pounds of popcorn were sold within one year.

  There was one problem with Smith's popcorn box. It was made of paper.Sometimes the corn would dry out and lose its pop.A new air-tight metal can solve the problem in the 1920s.

  At first,owners of the movie theaters tried to keep popcorn out of the theaters. The chewing noises bothered movie fans. However,the owners changed their minds when they saw that popcorn could bring in as much money as movie ticket.

nowadays----(ad)現今,時下

alone----(ad)單獨,僅僅

instant----(adj)立即的

air-tight----(adj)密閉的

in quantity----大量地

bring in----賺進

dry out----變乾