本文选自雅思听力Section 4，难度较大

Summary:味精是许多人在烹调的时候会使用的调料，但却很少有人了解它的历史。实际上，许多种调料在进入人类的厨房之前都经历了一个复杂而又曲折的过程。味精也是一样，它最先是由人们在一种还槽中提炼出来的。

HINTS
Monosodium Glutamate
MSG
kombu


全文听写，英式拼法
In today's lecture, I'm going to talk about Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG, as it's more commonly known. Now, MSG as you probably know, is a flavour enhancer which is used particularly in Chinese and Japanese cooking. Today I am going to explore why it is so popular in these cuisines and, more importantly, how does it enhance the flavour of food? The main reason why MSG is more commonly used in Japanese meals is tradition. For many thousands of years the Japanese have incorporated a type of seaweed known as kombu in their cooking, as they discovered it had the ability to make food taste better.
在今天的课里，我将要讲解味精，或者说是更为大众所知的MSG。如今，正如你们大家所了解的，MSG 是一种常被中国和日本用于烹调的增味剂。今天我将要探究一下为什么味精在烹饪中如此之流行。更重要的是，我将要探究为什么它可以增加食物的风味。 味精（MSG）如此常用于日本菜的主要原因，是因为这是一种惯例。数千年以来，日本将一种叫做“海带”的海草加入了他们的烹调，因为他们发现海带能够使食物尝上去更好吃。 ——译文来自: 小米小米2010