Hidden Stories about Plants
Popeye and the Great Spinach
____ is a world-famous cartoon character.
He gets his super power by ____ spinach.
____ Popeye became popular in the 1930s in the United States, a lot of children began to eat spinach.
Crystal City in Texas, which is called the spinach capital of the world, even built a statue of ____.
Although ____ spinach will not give us super powers, spinach does have a lot of nutrients.
It is actually considered one of the ____ healthiest foods on the planet.
Spinach can be used in a ____ way.
When it absorbs water, spinach ____ absorbs many other things from the soil.
Some scientists have ____ this characteristic of spinach to find bombs hidden in the ground.
They ____ special spinach plants with sensors on their leaves.
When these ____ soak up traces from bombs, the sensors light up.
Carrots in World War II
In 1940, the Royal Air Force defeated German fighters during World ____ II by using a radar system.
The British government wanted to keep this technology a secret, so it ____ an article in the newspaper.
It said that British ____ improved their night vision because they ate a lot of carrots.
Everybody believed the story and began to eat a lot more ____ than before.
Can we really improve ____ vision by eating lots of carrots?
Not really, but ____ contain a lot of vitamin A, which does keep our eyes healthy.
In the future, carrots may ____ be used in wars.
Scottish researchers have discovered a way to turn carrots into a ____ strong and light material.
It can even be used to ____ battleships.
This new material has already been used to make ____ and bicycles.
Tomatoes, the Scariest Vegetables
We all ____ that tomatoes are good for our health.
Up until the 1800s, however, most Americans ____ that tomatoes were poisonous.
In 1820, a man named Robert Johnson wanted to prove that tomatoes were ____ to eat.
So, he ____ a basket of tomatoes in front of many people watching him.
They ____ expected him to die, but nothing happened to him.
Ever since ____, Americans have enjoyed eating tomatoes.
We are no longer afraid of ____, but some insects are still scared of them.
If you want to keep insects away from your room, place a bowl of crushed tomatoes in a corner of your ____.
Insects will ____ come near the tomatoes.