Most Americans think that ice cream is as American as baseball and apple pie．But ice cream was known long before America was discovered．

The Roman emperor Nero may have made a kind of ice cream．He hired hundreds of men to bring snow and ice from the mountains．He used it to make cold drinks．Traveler Marco Polo brought back recipes for chilled and frozen milk from China．

Hundreds of years later，ice cream reached England．It is said that King Charles I enjoyed that treat very much．There is a story that he bribed his cook to keep the recipe for ice cream a royal secret．

Today ice cream is known throughout the world．Americans alone eat more than two billion quartsa one year．

譯文：

誰是冰淇淋的首創(chuàng)者

大多數(shù)美國人認(rèn)為，冰淇淋像棒球和蘋果派一樣，是屬于美國的。但是，早在人們發(fā)現(xiàn)美洲大陸之前，冰淇淋就已經(jīng)問世了。

古羅馬國王尼祿可能配制過一種冰淇淋。他曾雇用幾百人從山上搬來雪和冰，用以制作冷飲料。旅行家馬可·波羅也曾從中國帶回了冷凍奶和冰奶的配方。

幾百年后，冰淇淋傳到了英國。據(jù)說國王查理一世十分欣賞這種食品。有一個這樣的故事說，他曾賄賂御廚，要他把制作冰淇淋的配方作為皇家秘密，守口如瓶。

今天全世界都知道冰淇淋了，僅美國人一年的消耗量就超過20億夸脫。