The Origin of Watermelons
今天我们来看一下，为什么说读一篇文字质量高的文章，胜读10篇水文。
这是6月5日的《经济学人》中的一篇文章选段，讲的是西瓜的起源。就在这短短一段话里，我们可以看到作者使用了7种不同的表示起源的说法，为我们展示了高超的文字拿捏功力。
第一个origins和最后一个beginning是我们熟悉的表达。
剩下的我们还看到了更多的花式表达
- derive from
- descend from
- native to
- hail from
- trace back to
derive from 也是表示起源于…，从…衍生出的意思 to come or develop from something
例句
A lot of the words in English are derived from Latin.
derive A from B 可以表达从B中收获A get A from B
例句
He derives great satisfaction from his stamp collection.
descend from sth指得是从（过去的东西）继承下来，也就是起源于的意思
to have developed from something that existed in the past
例句
Recent evidence supports the theory that birds descended from dinosaurs.
不过被动语态的用法be descended from somebody，意思略有不同，表示的是“是…的后裔”To come from an ancestor or ancestry
例句
He claims to be descended from a Spanish prince.
native to指的是当地土产的，也可以理解为原产于… existing naturally in a place
所以native to后面通常接的是地方
例句
These fish are native to North America.
同样地，hail from原意是出生于某地 born in a particular place
因此，hail from后面也跟的是个地方
例句
He hails from a small town in western Kansas.
trace back to 的本意是追溯到…to find the origins of when something began or where it came from
因此也可以用于表达起源于的意思
例句
The word “amiable” traces back to the Latin word for “friend”.
最后我们稍微看一下最后一句话
Some crops’ beginnings, though, are lost in the mists of time—among them those of the watermelon.
思考题：
- them指的是什么？
- those又指的是什么？
- among them those of the watermelon是什么意思？这个结构如何理解？