雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界地理07 瑪麗的領(lǐng)地、弗吉尼亞的領(lǐng)土和佩恩的森林

DID you ever trade a top for some marbles or an apple for an orange? Long before there was any Washington or any United States there used to be trader Indians living on the shores of the river that flows by Washington. These Indians paddled their canoes up and down the river and traded with other Indians, swapping things they had for things they wanted—beads for furs, bows for arrows, corn for potatoes. In the Indian language the name for Traders was Potomac, so we call the river after these trader Indians, the Potomac River. The Potomac separates two States with girls’ names: Maryland and Virgina. They are named after two queens. The Potomac Indians paddled their canoes down the river till they came to a much broader piece of water. This piece of water was so big it seemed to them like the ocean, and they called it “the Mother of Waters,” which in their own language was “Chesapeake.” You can see it on the map. Chesapeake Bay is not the ocean, but it is the biggest bay in the United States.
華盛頓或者美國誕生以前，就有一條河流經(jīng)現(xiàn)在的華盛頓，河邊住著很多印第安商人。這些印第安人劃著獨(dú)木舟，在河上來來往往，與其他印第安人做交易，用已有的東西去換需要的東西——珠子換毛皮，弓換箭，玉米換土豆。在印第安語中商人被叫做“波托馬克”，于是我們現(xiàn)在就以這些印第安商人的名字把這個(gè)河流稱為波托馬克河。波托馬克河分隔開兩個(gè)有女孩子名字的州，馬里蘭州和弗吉尼亞州。它們是以兩位女王的名字命名的。波托馬克的印第安人劃著獨(dú)木舟順流而下，直至來到一片更開闊的水域。這片水域很大，他們覺得就像海一樣寬廣，于是他們管它叫“河之母”，用他們的語言說就是“切薩皮克”。這個(gè)地方地圖上可以找得到。切薩皮克灣不是海洋，但卻是美國最大的海灣。
Did you ever eat snails or terrapin or frogs’ legs? Some people like them. The Indians found oysters growing in the Chesapeake Bay. At first no one thought of eating oysters—they didn’t look good to eat. But one day an Indian who was very hungry broke an oyster-shell open and ate the oyster inside. It tasted good and it didn’t hurt him, so others began to eat oysters, and now almost every one likes oysters, either raw or cooked. Oysters grow in other parts of the World too, but many people say that those in the Chesapeake Bay are the largest and best, but they are not supposed to be good unless they are eaten during the eight months that have an R in their names. They are good in MaRch but not in June.
你吃過蝸牛、水龜或青蛙腿嗎？有些人喜歡吃。印第安人發(fā)現(xiàn)了生長在切薩皮克灣的牡蠣。最初沒人想到吃牡蠣——因?yàn)槟菛|西看起來不像是能吃的樣子。但是有一天一個(gè)印第安人饑餓難耐，就敲開了一只牡蠣殼，吃了里面的肉。他覺得味道鮮美，也沒有感到什么不舒服，于是其他人也開始吃牡蠣，現(xiàn)在幾乎人人都喜歡吃牡蠣，無論是生吃還是燒熟了吃。世界上其他地方也有牡蠣，不過很多人說切薩皮克灣的牡蠣最大也最好吃，不過只有在有“R”字的八個(gè)月份里才好吃[1]。三月（“MaRch”）的牡蠣就很好吃，而六月（“June”）的就不好吃。
Near “the Mother of Waters” are two cities. One is named Annapolis. The other is named Baltimore. Annapolis means Anna’s City, and it too was named after a queen. That makes three places—Anna’s City, Mary’s Land, and Virginia’s State—named after queens. Annapolis is the capital of the State of Maryland, just as Washington is the capital of all the States. At Annapolis the United States has a school for teaching boys to be sailors and fit to fight the sea battles of the United States if the country should ever have any. This school is called the Naval Academy. Some of the best boys chosen from each State in the United States go to Annapolis. They study all about boats and fighting and about geography; they visit other countries and learn to command ships.
在“河之母”附近有兩座城市。一個(gè)叫安納波利斯，另一個(gè)叫巴爾的摩。安納波利斯的意思是安娜之城，也是以一位女王的名字命名的。這樣一共就有三個(gè)地方是以女王的名字命名的——安娜之城、瑪麗的領(lǐng)地和弗吉尼亞的領(lǐng)土。安納波利斯是馬里蘭州的首府，就像華盛頓是美國的首都一樣。安納波利斯有一所美國專門培養(yǎng)水兵的學(xué)校，萬一美國發(fā)生戰(zhàn)爭，他們可以成為在海上作戰(zhàn)的士兵。這所學(xué)校叫做海軍軍官學(xué)校。只有每個(gè)州挑選出來的最優(yōu)秀的男孩子才會(huì)到安納波利斯去學(xué)習(xí)。他們學(xué)習(xí)與艦船、作戰(zhàn)以及和地理相關(guān)的知識(shí)；他們出訪其他國家，學(xué)習(xí)指揮艦船的本領(lǐng)。
Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland. It was named after an English lord. The first railroad in our country started in Baltimore, and as it ran from Baltimore to the State of Ohio, it was called the Baltimore & Ohio, or the B. & O. for short. Baltimore is famous for the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital. Boys come from all over the World to study at the “Hopkins,” and people come from all over the World to be treated at the “Hopkins Hospital.”
巴爾的摩是馬里蘭州最大的城市，它是以一位英國勛爵的名字命名的。美國的第一條鐵路就開始于巴爾的摩，因?yàn)槭菑陌蜖柕哪νㄍ砗ザ碇?，所以這條鐵路也叫做巴爾的摩—俄亥俄鐵路，或者簡稱為巴俄線。巴爾的摩因有約翰 · 霍普金斯大學(xué)和約翰 · 霍普金斯醫(yī)院而聞名。世界各地的許多孩子到霍普金斯大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)，世界各地也有很多人到霍普金斯醫(yī)院來看病。
A man named Penn once owned the State just north of Maryland. It was then all woods, so it was called Pennsylvania, which means Penn’s Woods. But ages before Penn’s Woods other woods were there—huge forests of trees and giant plants growing high and thick and fast. More ages passed and these forests died and became buried and mashed down under the ground and turned into black rock. More ages passed and men dug up this black rock, and by accident they found that unlike other rock this rock would burn. Of course it would burn, because, as we know now, it was really only hardened wood—which we call coal.
一位名叫佩恩的男子曾經(jīng)擁有馬里蘭州北面的那個(gè)州。當(dāng)時(shí)那里森林密布，于是被叫做賓夕法尼亞，意思是佩恩的森林。早在佩恩的森林存在之前很多年代，那里就長著大片的森林——高大濃密，各種樹木和植物生長迅速。很多年代之后，這些森林死去，深埋地下，被壓成碎塊，漸漸變成了黑色的巖石。又過去許多年代，人們挖出了這些黑色的巖石，偶然間發(fā)現(xiàn)這些巖石和其他巖石不同之處是可以燃燒。這種巖石當(dāng)然可以燃燒，因?yàn)槲覀儸F(xiàn)在都知道，其實(shí)那只是硬化的木頭——我們叫它煤。
There are two kinds of coal. One is called hard and the other is called soft. Soft coal doesn’t mean soft like a cushion; it means it crumbles easily. Hard coal is the best; soft coal is dirtier and smokier, but is a great deal cheaper. Why is it that the best things almost always cost the most? In the eastern part of Pennsylvania the coal that comes out of the ground is hard; in the western part it is soft.
煤有兩種。一種叫硬煤，一種叫軟煤。軟煤并不是說它像墊子一樣柔軟；而是說它容易破碎。硬煤是最好的，而軟煤更污染環(huán)境，冒出的煙也更多，但比硬煤要便宜很多。為什么最好的東西總是價(jià)格最高呢？賓夕法尼亞東部產(chǎn)出的煤是硬煤，西部產(chǎn)出的是軟煤。
Hundreds of thousands of men, called miners, work underneath the ground, where it is like night all day long, digging out the coal to run steam-engines and to heat our houses. They have been digging away for years and years, so that there are huge hollow places underneath parts of Pennsylvania.
成千上萬叫做礦工的人，在地底下挖煤，那里從早到晚好像都是黑夜，他們挖出煤用以運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)蒸汽機(jī)，給我們的房子供熱。這些礦工們年復(fù)一年地挖掘煤礦使得現(xiàn)在賓夕法尼亞地下有些地方成了一個(gè)個(gè)大洞。
Coal is in layers underneath the ground and between layers of rock like the chocolate in a chocolate layer-cake. But there are also iron mines in Pennsylvania, and iron is not in layers; it is all mixed through the rock under the ground and is called ore. To get the iron out of the ore, men build huge fires under the ore and the iron melts and runs out, like water, into troughs which they make in the ground to catch it. When the iron cools, the blocks of iron are called “pigs”—perhaps because they are about the size of pigs—or perhaps because a pig goes into a trough.
煤炭在地下是一層層分布在巖石之間，就像巧克力夾心蛋糕中的巧克力一樣。但是在賓夕法尼亞還有鐵礦藏，鐵不是分層的，而是和地下的巖石混為一體，叫做礦石。為了把鐵從礦石中提煉出來，人們生起大火，把礦石放在上面燒，鐵熔化成鐵水從礦石里流出來，流入地上的槽中，那是人們?yōu)榻幼¤F水事先在地上挖好的。鐵水冷卻后形成的鐵塊叫“生鐵”[2]——也許是因?yàn)樗鼈兒拓i的大小差不多，或者因?yàn)樨i也到槽里吃食。
To get iron out of iron ore you must have heat, and to have heat you must have something to make heat with, like coal. Some places have iron ore but no coal, and some places have coal but no iron. It is as if some boys who wanted to play baseball had a ball but no bat, and some other boys had a bat but no ball. But Pittsburgh, in the western part of Pennsylvania, had both iron and coal near-by. That is like boys who have both a bat and a ball.
要把鐵從礦石中提煉出來就得有熱量，要有熱量就得有像煤那樣的東西來產(chǎn)生熱量。有的地方有鐵礦卻沒有煤炭，而有的地方有煤炭卻沒有鐵礦。就好像有的男孩想打棒球卻只有球沒有球棒，而其他的孩子卻只有球棒沒有球。賓夕法尼亞西部的匹茲堡附近既有鐵礦又有煤炭，就像有些男孩既有球棒又有球一樣。
From the ore they make iron, and from the iron they make steel, and from the steel they make rails for railroad tracks and beams for tall buildings and bridges to cross rivers.
人們從礦石中提煉出了鐵，將鐵制成了鋼，用鋼造出鐵路的鐵軌、高樓的橫梁和跨河的橋梁。
A name that is in the Bible is the name of a city, Philadelphia. It means the City of Brotherly Love. This name was chosen to give to the largest city in Pennsylvania, in fact, the third largest city in all the United States, but I don’t know whether it suits or not. Philadelphia was the capital of the United States before there was any Washington, D. C., but now it isn’t even the capital of its own State. Here in an old building, called Independence Hall, is the bell that rang out the news when the United States was first made a country. It is now cracked, so will not ring any more, but is more treasured than any bell in the United States that can ring.
有座城市的名字是取自于《圣經(jīng)》——非拉鐵非（簡稱費(fèi)城），意思是兄弟之愛的城市。費(fèi)城是賓夕法尼亞最大的城市，也是美國第三大城市，但我不知道這合不合適。華盛頓特區(qū)成立之前，費(fèi)城曾是美國的首都，但現(xiàn)在連自己本州的首府都不是了。費(fèi)城有一座古老的建筑，名叫獨(dú)立大廳，廳內(nèi)有一口大鐘，美國剛剛成立時(shí)，這口大鐘響起，宣示了美國獨(dú)立?，F(xiàn)在鐘已經(jīng)破損了，再也不能響了，但是卻比美國任何一口能敲響的鐘都要珍貴。
The biggest bathtub in the World is not far from Philadelphia. It is an ocean bath called Atlantic City, on the coast of New Jersey. People from all over the World go there to take salt baths and sun baths and to be amused. There is a boardwalk miles long and as wide as a street close by the ocean, and along its side is every kind of thing to amuse you and your “stummick.” If you want to see a board “walk,” go to Atlantic City.
世界上最大的“浴缸”離費(fèi)城不遠(yuǎn)。那是一個(gè)叫大西洋城的海洋浴場，位于新澤西州海岸。來自世界各地的人到那里去享受鹽浴和日光浴，盡情玩樂。大西洋城海濱有一條幾英里長的木板人行道，有街道那么寬，兩旁有各種各樣供你娛樂的東西，也有各種美食滿足你的胃口。如果你想享受這樣一條人行道，就去大西洋城吧。

[1] 英語中含字母“R”的月份有：“January”，“February”，“March”，“April”，“September”，“October”，“November”，“December”。不含字母“R”的月份有：“May”，“June”，“July”，“August”——譯者注。
[2] 英語用“pig”,與“豬”同用一詞——譯者注。