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English Idiom
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Chewing gum 口香糖
We all know about chewing gum. It's the sweet substance people buy just to chew but not swallow.
History tells us that the man most responsible for chewing gum was Mexican dictator, General Antonio Lopez Santa Ana. He was interested in a strange material called chicle (糖胶，树胶). It was the dried juice of a tree found in the jungles of Mexico and Central America. General Santa Ana believed that chicle could replace rubber. And he looked for an American inventor to help him.
Thomas Adams agreed to experiment with chicle. But after many weeks Adams admitted failure. Huge amounts of chicle remained and Adams wondered what to do with it.
One day, he was in a store when he saw a little girl buy a piece of wax to chew. Adams had seen the General break off small pieces of chicle from time to time and chew it. He told the store owner that he had something better than wax and he made several hundred little balls of chicle.
The store owner sold them all and asked for more.
Adams went to Mexico for more chicle. And the chewing gum industry was born.
Many stories were spread about chewing gum in the early days. Some warned it was dangerous. If swallowed, they said, the gum would make the intestines (肠子) stick together. And painful death would follow.
Some Americans use "chewing gum" in a funny expression to joke about someone's lack of intelligence. They say the person does not have the mental ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.
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