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 Polobrought back recipes for chilled and frozen milk from China．

Hundreds of years later，ice cream reached England．It is said that King Charles Ienjoyed that treatvery 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 year．

誰是冰淇淋的首創者

大多數美國人認為，冰淇淋像棒球和蘋果餅一樣，是屬于美國的。但是，早在人們發現美洲大陸之前，冰淇淋就已經問世了。

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。據說國王查理一世十分欣賞這種食品，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。