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许国璋英语的学习方法 但是，同时我们也应该注意到，许国璋英语历史悠久的特点也不可避免的带来了教材时效性上的局限，部分单词和习语已经跟不上语言的发展而显得陈旧。学习的时候如果不考虑到这一点完全按照教材学习的话，则说出来的英语在听者耳中会觉得时光倒流了至少四十年。 另外，许国璋英语为了照顾国内学习者的特点，在语法规律的总结与说明方面很细致，练习题在这方面的针对性也很强，可是在运用与交流方面的篇幅却不是很多。其结果是，国内很多学习者忘了学习英语的根本目的是运用与交流这一点，认为背单词与学语法就是学英语，在这方面的时间与精力投入过多，结果很多学生只是成了作英语填空题的专家，在阅读、口语以及写作等需要运用英语交流的能力方面几乎是空白。 对此笔者的建议是可以把许国璋英语当作英语语法与基本知识的学习教材，同时选择一些其他教材如新概念英语或者走遍美国等作为补充单词与交流训练的教材。特别是对初学者来说，在学习许国璋英语第一册的同时按照新概念英语第一册的内容进行对话交流练习是非常必要的。而对已经学习到许国璋英语第二册后半册，在语法与单词方面有一定的基础的同学来说，更关键的是通过走遍美国等较新的教材补充对时下流行的单词与习语的知识。 另外，对于绝大多数初学者来说，英语学习存在一个门槛的概念。这个门槛就是英语的词性与句子结构之间的关系。这个貌似简单的语法知识可以说是英语学习是否能够入门的关键，在迈过这个门槛之前，会觉得学习非常吃力，不得其法，根本不知道课本或者老师说的是什么。特别是学习到第一册第六课以后，从简单的字母与音标的学习转入语法与句型的学习时，这种感觉特别明显。对此，一方面要加强语法特别是词性等基础知识的学习理解，更重要的是要不断熟读课文，做到深刻理解、脱口而出，在脑海中形成对正确的英语句子形象化的概念之后，再回头看看语法与句型的知识则会起到事半功倍的效果。 但是，同时我们也应该注意到，许国璋英语历史悠久的特点也不可避免的带来了教材时效性上的局限，部分单词和习语已经跟不上语言的发展而显得陈旧。学习的时候如果不考虑到这一点完全按照教材学习的话，则说出来的英语在听者耳中会觉得时光倒流了至少四十年。 另外，许国璋英语为了照顾国内学习者的特点，在语法规律的总结与说明方面很细致，练习题在这方面的针对性也很强，可是在运用与交流方面的篇幅却不是很多。其结果是，国内很多学习者忘了学习英语的根本目的是运用与交流这一点，认为背单词与学语法就是学英语，在这方面的时间与精力投入过多，结果很多学生只是成了作英语填空题的专家，在阅读、口语以及写作等需要运用英语交流的能力方面几乎是空白。 对此笔者的建议是可以把许国璋英语当作英语语法与基本知识的学习教材，同时选择一些其他教材如新概念英语或者走遍美国等作为补充单词与交流训练的教材。特别是对初学者来说，在学习许国璋英语第一册的同时按照新概念英语第一册的内容进行对话交流练习是非常必要的。而对已经学习到许国璋英语第二册后半册，在语法与单词方面有一定的基础的同学来说，更关键的是通过走遍美国等较新的教材补充对时下流行的单词与习语的知识。 另外，对于绝大多数初学者来说，英语学习存在一个门槛的概念。这个门槛就是英语的词性与句子结构之间的关系。这个貌似简单的语法知识可以说是英语学习是否能够入门的关键，在迈过这个门槛之前，会觉得学习非常吃力，不得其法，根本不知道课本或者老师说的是什么。特别是学习到第一册第六课以后，从简单的字母与音标的学习转入语法与句型的学习时，这种感觉特别明显。对此，一方面要加强语法特别是词性等基础知识的学习理解，更重要的是要不断熟读课文，做到深刻理解、脱口而出，在脑海中形成对正确的英语句子形象化的概念之后，再回头看看语法与句型的知识则会起到事半功倍的效果
Wang Qing gets up very early. He dresses, washes, and goes out to do exercises in the fresh morning air. Then he has breakfast. For most of the morning he attends lectures or practises his English. After class he reads in the library or reviews his lessons. Lunch is at twelve. After lunch Wang Qing takes a nap. In the afternoon he does his homework and reads the newspaper. Then he has an hour for sports. He runs round the track or plays ball games. After supper he often goes for a walk in the college gardens. Sometimes he listens to the English broadcast. In the evening he prepares his lessons. He goes to bed at half past ten.
校园一日 王清起得很早。他穿好衣、洗完脸，就走到室外，在清爽的晨风中做早操，然后去吃早饭。 上午的大部分时间他听课或者练习英语，课后他到图书馆看书，或者复习功课。 12点吃午饭，饭后王清休息一会儿。下午他做作业、看报纸，随后有一小时的体育活动时间，他或者沿跑道跑跑步或者打打球。 晚饭后他常常去学校花园里散步，有时还收听英语广播。晚上他预习功课，10点半睡觉。
A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER Mrs. Cox teaches English in a high school in San Francisco, a big city on the West Coast of the United States. She had wanted to become a teacher when she was young. She has taught eight years now and always enjoyed her work. A school day at Mrs. Cox's high school is divided into six periods of one hour each. Mrs. Cox teaches five of these six periods. During her "free" period from 2 to 3 p.m., Mrs. Cox has to meet with parents, order supplies, make out examinations, check assignments, and take care of many other things. So Mrs. Cox works steadily from the time she arrives at school in the morning until she leaves for home late in the afternoon, and her "free" period isn't really free at all. An English teacher usually divides her time among three subjects: language (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.), composition, and literature. Mrs. Cox's favourite subject is literature, and her most exciting classes are those on the literature of Black Americans. For Mrs. Cox, like most of the students in her school, is Black. In her sixth period today, Mrs. Cox taught a poem by a well-known Black writer in the United States. She wrote the poem on the blackboard and read it aloud. No sooner had she finished reading the poem than students' questions began pouring in. One boy said the poem was heartbreakingly sad. Another student, a girl, said she had read a book by the same writer, but she wasn't able to enjoy it as much as her mother did, and she didn't know why. A third, a keen viewer of TV theatre, recognized a phrase in the poem which had been used as the title of a recent play. As she answered the questions, Mrs. Cox made sure that her students understood every line of the poem. She asked them to discuss if the poem contained any message. The discussion became so lively that no one wanted to stop when the bell rang. Some said there was no message, some said there was, some said it really didn't matter, and the class ended at that. As she drove home, Mrs. Cox thought about the class she had just left. Today she could feel good about what she had accomplished as a teacher. Not one of her students looked bored. Every one of them seemed interested in the poem. Once they started to talk, they forgot about the time. She did not have to make them learn; she only had to answer their questions and to guide the discussion. This, she thought to herself, is what teaching is all about!
一位中学教师 科克斯夫人在旧金山(美国西海岸大城市)的一所中学里教英语。她从小就想当一名教师。现在她已教了八年书，始终热爱自己的工作。 科克斯夫人所在的学校，一天六节课，每节课一小时，她一天教五节课。下午2点到3点是她的“空闲”时间，她在这段时间里会见家长，定购教学用品，出考试题，批改作业，还要料理许多杂事。实际上，科克斯夫人从早上一到校就不停地工作，一直到下午很晚离开学校为止，她的“空闲”时间实在一点也不空闲。 英语教师一般都分三种课程来安排时间，即语言(语法、标点、拼写等)，作文和文学。科克斯夫人特别喜爱文学课，她讲的最富有激情的课就是美国黑人文学，这是因为科克斯夫人和学校大多数学生一样是黑人。 今天第六节课，科克斯夫人讲一位美国著名黑人作家写的一首诗。她把这首诗写在黑板上，大声朗诵。 她刚朗诵完，学生们就接连不断地提开了问题。一个男生说，这首诗真令人伤心。一个女生说，她读过这位作家写的一本书，但不像她母亲那样喜欢它，不知道为什么。第三个学生是电视剧的热心观众，他记起了最近有一出剧就是用这首诗中的一句话作为剧名。科克斯夫人回答了学生的问题，力求使他们把每一行诗都弄懂。她让学生们讨论一下这首诗有无含义，讨论十分活跃，下课铃响了，大家还不愿停下来。有的学生说没有，也有的说有，还有的说有没有都无关紧要。这节课就这样结束了。 科克斯夫人在驱车回家的路上想着她刚上完的这节课。今天她完成了一个教师该完成的任务，她可以感到满意了。没有一个学生显得厌烦，每个学生都对这首诗感兴趣。他们一谈论起来，就忘记了时间。她没有向学生灌输，她只是回答学生的问题，引导讨论。这就是教学的真正目的吧，她想。
This is a pen. Is this a pen? That is a pencil. Is that a pencil? This is a desk. Is this a desk? That is a table. Is that a table? This is a disc. Is this a disc? That is a tape. Is that a tape?
这是一支钢笔。 这是一只钢笔吗？ 那是一支铅笔。 那是一只铅笔吗？ 这是一张课桌。 这是一张课桌吗？ 那是一张桌子。 那是一张桌子吗？ 这是一张唱片。 这是一张唱片吗？ 那是一盘磁带。 那是一盘磁带吗？
Is this a pen? Yes, it is. It is a green pen. It that a pencil? Yes, it is. It is a red pencil.
Is this a desk? No, it isn't. It is a table. Is that a pick? No, it isn't. It is a spade.
These are desks. Are these tables? No, they aren't. They are desks. Those are knives. Are those pencils? No, they aren't. They are knives.
这是一支钢笔吗？ 是的。 这是一支绿色的钢笔。 那是一支铅笔吗？ 是的。 那是一支红色的铅笔。
这是一张课桌吗？ 不，不是。 它是一张桌子。 那是一把镐吗？ 不，不是。 它是一把锹。
这些是课桌。 这些是桌子吗？ 不，不是。 它们是课桌。 那些是刀子。 那些是铅笔吗？ 不，不是。 它们是刀子。
What is this? It is a book. What are these? They are books. What is that? It is a notebook. What are those? They are notebooks.
I am a student. We are students. You are a teacher. You are teachers. He is a farmer. They are farmers. She is a doctor. They are doctors.
Is he a farmer? Yes, he is. Is she a nurse? No, she isn't. She is a doctor. Are you students? Yes, we are. Are they students? No, they aren't. They are teachers.
这是什么？ 它是一本书。 这些是什么？ 它们是书。 那是什么？ 它是一个笔记本。 那些是什么？ 它们是笔记本。
我是一名学生。 我们是学生。 你是一名教师。 你们是教师。 他是农民。 他们是农民。 她是医生。 她们是医生。
他是农民吗？ 是的，他是。 她是护士吗？ 不，她不是。她是医生。 你们是学生吗？ 是的，我们是。 他们是学生吗？ 不，他们不是。他们是教师。
Good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening! Good night! Good-bye!
Open your books. Let's open our books. Close your books. Let's close our books. Read the text. Let's read the text. Write down the sentence. Let's write down the sentence.
AN ENGLISH LESSON Mr Smith: Good morning, everybody. Students: Good morning, Mr Smith. Mr Smith: Please open your books. Let's read the text. (The students read the text.) Mr Smith: Now, let's have dictation.
早上好! 下午好! 晚上好! 晚安! 再见!
翻开书。 让我们翻开书。 合上书。 让我们合上书。 朗读课文。 让我们朗读课文。 抄写句子。 让我们抄写句子。
一堂英语课 史密斯: 大家早上好。 学 生: 早上好，史密斯。 史密斯: 翻开书，我们来朗读课文。 (学生朗读课文。) 史密斯: 现在我们进行听写。
— Have you any brothers? — Yes, I have two brothers. — Have you any sisters? — No, I haven't. — Has Jane any brothers and sisters? — She has three sisters, but she has no brother. — Have the Jacksons any children? — Yes, they have two sons and a daughter.
MY HOME My home is in Shanghai. My father is a teacher. My mother works in a nursery. My father teaches physics. My mother also teaches. She teaches children to sing and speak clearly. I have a brother and a sister. I am eighteen, my brother is eleven, and my sister is seven. My brother and my sister go to school. I am in my first year at college. I like my subject and I work very hard.
— 你有兄弟吗? — 我有两个兄弟。 — 你有姐妹吗? — 我没有。 — 简有兄弟姐妹吗? — 她有三个姐妹，没有兄弟。 — 杰克逊夫妇有子女吗? — 有的，他们有两儿一女。
我的家 我家在上海。我父亲是一位教师，我母亲在一家托儿所工作。父亲教物理；母亲也教课，教孩子们唱歌、说话要口齿清楚。 我有一个弟弟、一个妹妹。我18岁，弟弟11岁，妹妹7岁。弟弟妹妹都上学，我念大学一年级。我喜欢我的专业，学得很用功。
LIFE AT GATESHEAD HALL It was a cold winter day. The wind had brought dark clouds and heavy rain, so it was impossible to take a walk. Eliza, John and Georgiana were gathered round their mother in the sitting-room. She lay on a sofa by the fireside, looking perfectly happy with her darlings about her. But she told me not to come near them because I was not a good child. I went to a small room next to the drawing-room. Taking a book from a bookcase, I climbed up into the window-seat. Here I sat behind the curtains and started reading. I was quite happy until I heard the voice of John Reed. "Where is she?" he said, calling to his sisters."Eliza! Georgiana! Jane is not here." I was glad that I had drawn the curtains, and I prayed that I should not be discovered. But Eliza was quicker than John. She said at once, "She is in the window-seat of course." I came out immediately. "What do you want?" I asked. "Say 'What do you want, Master Reed'," was his reply. "I want you to come here," he added. And he sat down in an armchair. John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen: four years older than I, for I was only ten. He was big and stout for his age, with a large face and an unhealthy skin. John had not much love for his mother and sisters, but he really hated me. As I came up to his chair, he spent about three minutes in putting out his tongue at me. Then he hit me suddenly and hard. "What were you doing behind the curtains?" "I was reading." "Show me the book." I returned to the window and brought the book. "You have no business to read our books," John Reed continued. "You are a dependent, Mama says. Your father left you no money. You ought to beg, and not live with a gentleman's children. Go and stand by the door." I did so. I turned round and saw that he was going to throw the book at me; I tried to avoid it, but it was too late. I was knocked over and fell against the door, striking my head and cutting it badly. The pain was very sharp. "Wicked, cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer - you are like a slave-driver!" "What!" he cried. "What did you say to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? I'll tell Mama. But first - " He ran at me and grasped my hair and my shoulder. But I was desperate now. I don't know what I did with my hands, but I heard him cry for help. Mrs. Reed came. "Take her away to the red room and lock her in," she said. Four hands then quickly carried me upstairs. "For shame!" cried the maid. "To strike a gentleman, your young master!" "Master? How is he my master? Am I a servant?" "You ought to know, Miss," said the nurse, "that you owe much to Mrs. Reed. She keeps you. If she turns you away, you will have to go to the poor-house." These words were not new to me; so I did not answer.
在盖兹海德府的生活 那是一个寒冷的冬日。风卷乌云，大雨倾盆，出去散步是不可能了。起居室里伊丽莎、约翰、乔治安娜簇拥在他们母亲的周围，她斜靠在火炉边的沙发上，有心爱的孩子们在身边，她很是快活。但是她不让我挨近，因为我不是好孩子。 我溜进了会客室隔壁的一间小屋子，从书架上拿下一本书，爬上了窗座。我坐在窗帘后面开始看起书来。有一阵儿我很快活，但接着就听到了约翰·里德的嚷嚷声。 “她在哪儿？”他大声问，叫来了他的妹妹。“伊丽莎，乔治安娜，简不在这儿了。” 幸好我拉上了窗帘，我祈祷上帝别被他们发现。可是伊丽莎比约翰脑子灵活，她马上说：“她肯定在窗台上。” 我赶紧出来。“有什么事？”我问道。 “说‘里德少爷，有什么事？’”他这样答道。“我要你到这儿来！”他接着说。然后他在一张扶手椅上坐了下来。 约翰·里德是个14岁的孩子，比我大4岁，那年我才10岁。从年龄上看，他不该长得这么肥胖粗大。他脸盘很大,而肤色灰白。约翰对他的母亲和姐妹没有多少感情，对我则是恶狠狠的样子。我来到他椅子前，他伸出舌头冲着我达三分钟之久,然后突然使劲打我。 “你躲在窗帘后干什么？” “我在看书。” “把书给我拿来。” 我回到窗口把书拿了回来。“你没权看我们的书，”约翰·里德接着说，“妈妈说你是个靠别人养活的人，你父亲没给你留下钱。你应该去要饭，不应该和我们这些大户人家的孩子们一起生活。走，站到门口去。” 我照他说的做了。我转过身，看见他举起书朝我扔来，我往旁边一闪，但已经来不及了。书砸在我身上，我跌倒了，头撞在门上，磕破了，疼得很厉害。 “你这个狠毒的坏蛋！”我说，“你真像个杀人犯——你像个奴隶主。” “什么？”他嚷道。“你对我说些什么？伊丽莎，乔治安娜，你们听见她说的话没有？我要告诉妈妈，不过我先要——” 他朝我扑过来，抓住我的头发和肩膀。那时我什么也不顾了，我不知道自己的双手干了些什么，只听见他大声呼救。 里德太太来了。“把她带到那间红屋子里去关起来，”她说。当即就有四只手抓住我，把我拖上楼去。 “真不像话！”侍女说，“居然打起体面人家的少爷，你的小东家来。” “东家？他怎么是我的东家？难道我是佣人？” “你该放明白些，小姐，”女保姆说，“你受着里德太太的恩惠，是她在养活你。她要是把你撵出去，那你只好进贫民院了。” 这些话对我来说并不新鲜，因此我没有回答。
This is our classroom. There is a blackboard in our classroom. There are two doors and four windows in it. There are many desks and chairs. There are some pictures on the wall. There is a wall calendar near the windows. And there is a TV set near the blackboard.
Is there a map on the wall? Yes, there is. Is there a clock on the wall? No, there isn't. Are there many desks and chairs in the room? Yes, there are. Are there any tables in the room? No, there aren't.
OUR CLASS There are six classes in Grade One. We are in Class Five. Our class is not very big. There are fifteen students in it. Among them there are seven boys and eight girls. Liu Yang is our monitor and he is from Shanghai. We work very hard. We help each other.
这是我们的教室。 教室里有一块黑板。 教室里有两扇门和四扇窗户。 有很多课桌和椅子。 墙上有几幅画。 靠窗有一本挂历。 黑板旁有一部电视机。
墙上有张地图吗? 是的，有一张。 墙上有只挂钟吗? 不，没有。 房间里有很多课桌和椅子吧? 是的，有很多。 房间里有餐桌吗? 不，没有。
我们班 一年级有六个班，我们在五班。 我们班不算很大，共十五名学生，其中有七名男生、八名女生。刘扬是我们的班长，他是上海人。 我们学习很努力，大家互相帮助。
How many classes are there in Grade One? There are five. How many students are there in Class Three? There are fifteen. How many boys are there in your class? There are seven. How many girls are there in your class? There are eight.
— Who is he? — He is our monitor. — What is his name? — His name is Liu Xinwen. — How old is he? — He is twenty. — Where is he from? — He is from Shanghai. — Who is she? — She is my classmate. — What is her name? — Her name is Zhang Yin. — How old is she? — She is nineteen. — Where is she from? — She is from Beijing.
MY FRIEND Sally is my friend. She is nineteen. She is from New York. She studies Chinese. She works hard. She likes singing and dancing. She is good at sports, too. Everybody says she is a good student.
一年级有几个班? 有五个班。 三班有多少学生? 有十五名学生。 你们班有几名男生? 有七名。 你们班有几名女生? 有八名。
— 他是谁? — 他是我们班长。 — 他叫什么名字? — 他叫刘新文。 — 他多大了? — 他20岁了。 — 他是什么地方人? — 他是上海人。 — 她是谁? — 她是我的同学。 — 她叫什么名字? — 她叫张荫。 — 她多大了? — 她19岁了。 — 她是什么地方人? — 她是北京人。
我的朋友 萨利是我的朋友。她十九岁。她是纽约人。她学中文。她学习刻苦。她喜欢唱歌与跳舞。她也擅长体育运动。大家都说她是个好学生。
What time is it? It is six o'clock. What time is it? It is a quarter past six. What time is it? It is half past six. What time is it? It is twenty to seven.
When do you get up? We get up at six. When do you have breakfast? We have breakfast at seven. When do you have lunch? We have lunch at twelve. When do you have supper? We have supper at six. When do you go to bed? We go to bed at ten.
A DIALOGUE — Do you have English classes every day? — Yes, we do. — How many English classes do you have in a week? — We have fourteen classes. — Do you have your classes in the morning? — Well, most of them are in the morning. But on Tuesday we have two classes in the afternoon.
现在几点钟? 6点。 现在几点钟? 6点1刻。 现在几点钟? 6点半。 现在几点钟? 差20分7点。
你们什么时候起床? 我们6点起床。 你们什么时候吃早饭? 我们7点吃早饭。 你们什么时候吃中饭? 我们12点吃中饭。 你们什么时候吃晚饭? 我们6点吃晚饭。 你们什么时候睡觉? 我们10点睡觉。
对话 — 你们每天都有英语课吗? — 是的，每天都有。 — 你们一周有多少英语课? — 有十四节。 — 你们是在上午上课吗? — 嗯，大部分课都在上午，不过星期二我们有两节课在下午。
THE DAYS OF THE WEEK There are seven days in a week. They are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
— Do you do homework every day? — Yes, we do. — What do you do on Monday? — We read the text. — What do you do on Tuesday? — We copy sentences from the text. — What do you do on Wednesday? — We do spelling exercises. — What do you do on Thursday? — We review English grammar. — What do you do on Friday? — We do grammar exercises. — What do you do on Saturday? — We review the whole lesson.
Spring is gay with flower and song, Summer is hot and the days are long, Autumn is rich with fruit and grain, Winter brings snow and the New Year again.
星期 一星期有七天，即星期日、星期一、星期二、星期三、星期四、星期五和星期六。
— 你们每天都做家庭作业吗？ — 是的，我们每天都做。 — 你们星期一干什么？ — 我们阅读课文。 — 你们星期二干什么？ — 我们抄写课文里的句子。 — 你们星期三干什么？ — 我们做拼写练习。 — 你们星期四干什么？ — 我们复习英语语法。 — 你们星期五干什么？ — 我们做语法练习。 — 你们星期六干什么？ — 我们复习整课书。
春光明媚，鸟语花香， 夏日炎炎，夜短昼长， 秋天丰收，谷果满仓， 冬飘瑞雪，新年在望。
THE SEASONS There are four seasons in a year. March, April and May make the spring season. June, July and August make the summer season. September, October and November make the autumn season. December, January and February make the winter season. Near the North Pole there are two seasons: winter and summer. The winter nights are long. For more than two months you can't see the sun, even at noon. The summer days are long. For more than two months, the sun never sets, and there is no night. In the tropics there are also two seasons: a rainy season and a dry season.
四季 一年有四季。三、四、五月是春季，六、七、八月是夏季，九、十、十一月是秋季，十二、一、二月是冬季。 靠近北极的地方一年只有两季：冬季和夏季。冬季夜长，两个多月里即便是在中午也见不着太阳。夏季日长，两个多月里太阳一直不落，没有夜晚。 赤道地区一年也只有两季：雨季和旱季。
CHALLENGES Human beings enjoy challenges. Many of them like physical challenges. They ask themselves questions like this: How fast can I run? How high can I climb? How deep can I dive? How far can I swim? How long can I hold my breath? How much can I lift? How high can I jump? Because people enjoy challenges, they like to play sports and watch other people play sports. They like climbing, running, diving, swimming, lifting, jumping, and so on. Every four years, millions of people all over the world enjoy the international sports competition called the Olympics. People also enjoy the excitement of climbing mountains or of riding in a boat on a river that is moving very quickly or of racing in a car around a track. Why do people enjoy these challenges? There are probably many reasons. One is curiosity. Another is the personal feeling of success, of achievement. And nowadays, for some people, it is a business. There are challenges that are not physical challenges. There are social and intellectual challenges, too. Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived in Italy during the fifteenth century, enjoyed every possible challenge. He was an artist and painted the well-known picture, the Mona Lisa. He was an inventor who invented a device to let people breathe under water. He was a scientist, and he learned a great deal about human anatomy. Another kind of challenge faced the Egyptians between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago when they decided to build the first Pyramid. People are not sure why they built this pyramid, but it must have been important. They used six million tons of rock. Four hundred thousand men worked for twenty years to build it. So, for thousands of years, people have accepted challenges. Today we still have many challenges before us. Medical science faces the challenge of conquering the many diseases which still attack human beings. Engineers and planners must build new cities and new kinds of transportation. Scientists must develop new forms of energy. And many of us are interested in the challenge of space. We live in an age of challenges.
挑战 人类愿意接受挑战。很多人喜爱体力上的挑战。他们自问诸如此类的问题：我能跑多快？我能登多高？我能潜多深？我能游多远？我能屏息多长时间？我能举起多重的东西？我能跳多高？因为人们喜欢挑战，他们就喜爱参加体育运动，也喜欢观看他人比赛。他们喜欢登山、赛跑、潜水、游泳、举重及跳高等。每四年，世界上千百万人就会欣赏一次被称为奥林匹克的世界性大赛。从登山中，从在湍急的河流里扬帆荡桨中以及从竞技车赛中人们获得刺激。 人们为什么从挑战中得到乐趣呢？可能有许多原因。一是好奇，另一个是出于个人的成功感，成就感。而现在对某些人来说却成了买卖。 有些挑战并不是针对体力的，还有社会的和智能方面的挑战。里奥纳多·达·芬奇生活在十五世纪的意大利，他喜欢各种可能的挑战。他是一名艺术家，画出了著名的油画 “蒙娜丽莎”；他是一个发明家，发明了让人能在水下呼吸的装置；他还是一位科学家，对人体解剖学也颇有研究。 四千到五千年之前，埃及人建造第一座金字塔时面临着另外一种挑战。现在人们不能肯定他们建造这一金字塔的原因，但在当时一定是很重要的。他们共用了六百万吨石头。四十万人花二十年时间才建成了这座金字塔。 因此千万年来人们一直在接受着挑战。当前我们也仍然面临着许多挑战。医学界面临着征服那些侵害人体的多种疾病的挑战；工程师与设计师必须建设出新型的城市，制造出新型的交通工具；科学家必须开发出新型能源。我们很多人还对来自太空的挑战深感兴趣。我们生活在一个充满挑战的时代。
A LETTER TO A FRIEND Beijing October 21, 1961 Dear Liying, How time flies! This is already my seventh week at college. We are very busy here and life is very interesting. There are so many new things to learn. We have English lessons every day and I like them very much. We also study Chinese and World History. After class we have all kinds of activities. Sometimes we work on the college farm. On Saturday afternoon we usually have our class meeting. Sometimes we listen to a report. On Saturday evening there is a film or a dance. Autumn is the best season in Beijing. The days are warm and sunny. We are planning an outing for next Sunday. How are you? Are you still busy with the harvest? Please write to me soon and tell me about your life as a teacher. Yours ever, Wu Ming
给朋友的一封信 亲爱的丽英: 时间过得真快!现在是我上大学的第七周了。我们这儿很忙，生活也很有意思，有那么多的新东西要学。我们每天都有英语课，我很喜欢它。另外我们还学习汉语和世界史。 课后我们开展各种活动。有时去校办农场劳动。星期六下午通常是开班会，有时也听报告。星期六晚上不是有电影就是有舞会。 秋天是北京最美的季节，每天都暖融融的，充满阳光，我们正筹划下星期天出去郊游呢。 你怎么样?还在忙着秋收吗?请快快写信告诉我你当教师的生活。 朋友:吴明 1961年10月21日于北京
A SERVICE CENTRE Look at this service centre. How busy everybody is! The man in the middle is mending shoes. At a counter on the right, a woman is showing an old man a towel and some soap. We see a girl at the door. She is going to do housework for the families in the neighbourhood. Two women are sewing by the window. One of them is making a shirt and the other is making a pair of trousers. The workers at the service centre help their neighbours in many ways. They play an important part in people's life.
服务中心 瞧这家服务中心，大伙儿多忙呀！ 中间这位男子正在修鞋，靠右边的柜台里，女售货员拿出毛巾和肥皂给一位老人看。还可以看见门口有一位姑娘，正准备去帮邻里各家做家务呢。 靠窗有两位妇女在做针线活儿，一个做衬衣，另一个补裤子。 服务中心的工人们在很多方面为四周邻居提供帮助，他们在人民生活中发挥着重要作用。
SUNDAY IN THE PARK It is Sunday. There are hundreds and hundreds of people in the park. Some are walking by the lake. Others are sitting on the benches and chatting. Over there, under a huge pine tree, a group of boys and girls are playing games. Nearby, an interesting game of chess is going on between two old men. Some people are watching. Near a flower garden, two white-haired grannies are knitting in the sunshine. Their grandchildren are playing on the grass. Not far off, some students are singing and dancing. It is Sunday in the park. Everybody is having a good time after a week of work and study.
公园里的星期天 今天是星期天，公园有成千上万的游人。他们有的在湖边漫步，有的坐在长凳上聊天。那边一棵大松树下一群孩子正在做游戏。旁边，一盘精彩的棋赛正在两位老人之间展开，有几个人正在观战。 在一处花圃旁，两位白发老太太在阳光下织毛衣，她们的孙子、孙女们在草地上玩耍。不远处，一群学生在唱歌、跳舞。 这就是公园里的星期天，一周的工作和学习之后，人人都玩儿得很开心。
THE GREAT PYRAMID The kings of ancient Egypt planned strong tombs to keep their bodies safe after death and to hold their treasures. Over these tombs huge stone pyramids were built. There are over 80 pyramids in Egypt, but the Great Pyramid is the largest of all. The Great Pyramid was built nearly five thousand years ago for a king called Khufu. It is located on the west bank of the Nile River, not far from Cairo. In fact, all the pyramids along the Nile are on the west bank. The ancient Egyptians compared the rising of the sun to the beginning of life and the setting of the sun to the end of life. This is why their dead were buried on the west bank of the Nile. It is very hard to realize just how big the Great Pyramid is. It has over 2,300,000 blocks of solid stone. These huge stone blocks weigh an average of two and a half tons each, as much as a small car. Some even weigh fifteen tons. Without machinery, the ancient Egyptians cut and moved and lifted each of these stones. Many of the blocks came from the east bank of the Nile, and they were taken across the river in boats at flood time. It took more than 100,000 slaves twenty years to build the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid is over 450 feet high today, and it was once higher. Its base covered thirteen acres. Each of the sides of the pyramid is 755 feet long, or about as long as two city blocks. It takes about twenty minutes to walk all the way round the pyramid. Every king wanted his tomb to be the best. But Khufu outdid them all. The surface of his pyramid used to shine with smooth white limestone, and its top came to a sharp point. Inside, the body of Khufu rested in a great stone coffin. His body was preserved to last forever, and many treasures were buried with him. Now after many centuries, the shining surface is worn away, and men have taken some of the huge blocks of stone to build other things. Thieves have stolen the treasures, and they have stolen the body of Khufu himself. No doubt this is a matter for regret, but the same thing has happened to many other ancient tombs. Although the limestone surface is gone, the huge stones are exposed and you can climb on them, like steps, to the top. When you have reached the top, you can see for miles about you. You can see the smaller pyramids and the Sphinx, the great stone statue of the lion with a human head. To the west you can see the Libyan Desert, and to the east you can see the green Nile Valley and the modern city of Cairo.
大金字塔 古代的埃及国王为了死后尸体不被盗窃，金银财宝得以保全，建筑了坚固的墓穴。在墓穴上用石头建起了巨大的金字塔。在埃及，有80多座金字塔，大金字塔是其中最大的一座。 大金字塔是在大约5000年以前，为胡夫国王建造的。它位于尼罗河西岸，距开罗不远。实际上，所有的金字塔都建在尼罗河西岸。这是因为古代埃及人把日出比作生命的开始，把日落比作生命的结束。所以他们就把死者埋葬在尼罗河西岸。 要弄清大金字塔到底有多大，是很困难的。它由230多万块坚实的石头建成。这些巨大的石块平均每块重２吨半，像一辆小型轿车那样重，有些石块甚至重达15吨。古埃及人是在没有机械装备的情况下，开采、搬运和抬起每一块石头的。石料多取自尼罗河东岸，涨洪水时人们用船将石块运过河。10多万奴隶用了20年的时间才建成这座大金字塔。 今天我们看到的大金字塔有450多英尺高，过去还要高一些。它的基底占地13英亩，每一边长755英尺，大约有两个街区那样长。绕金字塔走一圈需要20分钟左右。 每个国王都希望自己的墓穴建得最好，但是胡夫超过了所有国王。以前，大金字塔表面光滑的白石灰石非常耀眼，塔的顶端很尖。塔内，胡夫的尸体被安放在一个大石棺里，尸体做了防腐处理，可永久保存，另外还有许多金银财宝陪葬。 许多世纪后的今天，闪闪发光的表面已经剥落了，人们搬走了许多大石块去修建别的东西。盗贼偷走了珍宝，还盗走了胡夫本人的尸体。这无疑是一件憾事，不过其他许多古代墓穴也遭受了同样命运。 大金字塔表面的石灰石已经剥落，不过大石块裸露了出来，人们可以像登台阶似的一步一步地爬上顶端。当你上到顶端后，你可以望到周围数英里之外的景物。你可以看到那些小一点的金字塔和狮身人面像，那是一座巨大的人头狮身的石雕像。向西，你可以看到利比亚沙漠，向东，可以看到绿色的尼罗河流域和开罗这座现代化城市。
THE DEVOTED FRIEND Oscar Wilde (adapted) Once upon a time there was an honest little fellow named Hans. He lived in a cottage all alone, and every day he worked in his garden. In all the village there was no garden so lovely as his. Little Hans had many friends, but the most devoted friend was big Hugh the Miller. Indeed, the rich Miller was so devoted to little Hans that when he passed his garden he always picked a large bouquet of flowers, or if it was the fruit season, he would fill his pockets with plums and cherries. "Real friends must share everything," the Miller used to say, and little Hans nodded and smiled and was very proud that he had a friend with such noble ideas. Sometimes, indeed, the neighbours thought it was strange that the rich Miller never gave little Hans anything in return, but Hans never troubled his head about these things. So little Hans worked and worked in his garden. During spring and summer and autumn he was very happy, but when winter came, he suffered from cold and hunger, and often went to bed without supper. Besides, in winter he was very lonely, as the Miller never came to see him. "It's no use going to see little Hans in winter," the Miller used to say to his wife. "When people are in trouble we must leave them alone and not bother them. That is my idea of friendship, and I am sure I am right. So I shall wait till spring comes, and then I shall visit him and he will give me a large bouquet of primroses, and that will make him very happy." "You think so much about others," said his wife. "It is a pleasure to hear what you say about friendship. I am sure the priest himself cannot say such beautiful things as you do, though he lives in a three-storeyed house, and wears a gold ring on his little finger." "But why don't we ask little Hans to come here?" said the Miller's youngest son. "If poor Hans is in trouble I shall give him half my porridge, and show him my white rabbits." "What a silly boy you are!" cried the Miller. "I really don't know what is the use of sending you to school. You do not learn anything. Why, if little Hans comes here, and sees our warm fire, and our good supper, and our red wine, he will envy us, and envy is a terrible thing. Besides, if Hans comes here, he will ask me to give him some flour on credit, and I cannot do that. Flour is one thing, and friendship is another. The words are spelt differently and they mean quite different things." "How right you are!" said the Miller's wife, "Really, I feel quite sleepy. This is just like sitting in church." (To be continued)
忠实的朋友 奥斯卡·王尔德 (改写) 从前，有一个诚实的小伙子叫汉斯。他独自一人住在一间农舍里，每天都在花园里干活。全村没有一个花园比他的花园更漂亮。 小汉斯有很多朋友，但是最忠实的朋友要算磨坊主大休。的确，这位富有的磨坊主对小汉斯非常忠实，他每次路过汉斯的园子时，总要摘走一大束鲜花；在水果成熟的季节，他总要在衣袋里装满李子和樱桃。 “真正的朋友应该不分彼此，”磨坊主常常这样说。小汉斯点头微笑，他为自己有这样一位具有高尚思想的朋友而感到自豪。 说真的，邻居们有时也感到奇怪，富有的磨坊主从来不给小汉斯任何东西作为回报，而汉斯却从不在乎这些。 就这样，小汉斯在园子里不停地干活。在春天、夏天和秋天，他很快活。可是一到冬天，他便饥寒交迫，常常吃不上晚饭就上床睡觉。另外，冬天里他很孤独，因为这时磨坊主从不来看望他。 “冬天去看望小汉斯有什么用？”磨坊主经常对他妻子这样说。“当人们处于困境时，别管他们，也不要打扰他们。这就是我对友谊的看法，而且我相信我的看法是正确的。所以我要等到春天，再去看望他，他会给我一大束樱草花。这样做会使他非常高兴。” “你替别人想得真多，”他妻子说。“听你谈友谊，叫人百听不厌。我相信，就连我们的牧师，尽管他住的是三层楼房，小手指上带着金戒指，也讲不出你这样美妙的话来。” “为什么不让小汉斯到这儿来呢？”磨坊主的小儿子说道。“如果可怜的汉斯处境困难，我会把我的粥分一半给他，还让他看看我的小白兔。” “你真是个傻瓜！”磨坊主喊道。“我真不知道送你上学有什么用。你什么也没有学到。哎，如果小汉斯到咱家来，看到咱们温暖的火炉，丰盛的晚餐，还有红酒，他会嫉妒我们的。而嫉妒却是一件令人可怕的事。还有，要是汉斯来了，他会向我赊借面粉，我是不会答应的。面粉是一回事，友谊是另一回事。这两个词拼法不一样，意思更不相同了。” “你说的太对了！”磨坊主的妻子说。“我真的很困了，这就像坐在教堂里一样。”
THE DEVOTED FRIEND (Continued) As soon as winter was over and the primroses began to bloom, the Miller went to visit little Hans. "Good morning, little Hans," said the Miller. "Good morning," said Hans, smiling from ear to ear. "And how have you been all winter?" asked the Miller. "Well, really," cried Hans, "it is very kind of you to ask. I had a hard time, but now spring has come, and I am quite happy. All my flowers are growing well." "How lovely your primroses are!" exclaimed the Miller. "Yes, they are very lovely," said Hans. "I am going to sell them at the market, and buy back my wheelbarrow with the money." "Buy back your wheelbarrow. That means you have sold it. What a stupid thing to do!" "Well, you see, I had a bad time last winter. So I first sold the silver buttons of my Sunday coat, and then I sold my silver chain, and then I sold my pipe. Finally I sold my wheelbarrow. But I am going to buy them all back again now!" "Hans," said the Miller, "I shall give you my wheelbarrow. It is not in very good condition; one side is gone and there is something wrong with the wheel; but in spite of that I shall give it to you. "Well, really, it is very generous of you," said little Hans. "I have a plank of wood in the house and I can easily repair it." "A plank of wood!" said the Miller, "that is just what I want for my roof. There is a large hole in it and I must mend it. I have given you my wheelbarrow, so you should give me your plank." "Certainly," cried little Hans, and he ran into his house and brought the plank. "And now as I have given you my wheelbarrow, I am sure you will give me some flowers in return. Here is the basket. Fill it quite full." "Quite full?" said little Hans. It was really a very big basket, and he knew that he had to pick all his flowers to fill it. He looked sad. But the Miller told him that true friends must not be selfish, so little Hans ran and picked all his pretty primroses and filled the Miller's basket. "Good-bye, little Hans," said the Miller as he went up the hill with the plank on his shoulder, and the big basket in his hand. The next day the Miller came and asked Hans to carry a sack of flour to the market and sell it for him. The day after, he asked him to mend his roof for him. So little Hans did one thing after another for the Miller and the Miller said all kinds of beautiful things about friendship. One evening little Hans was sitting near the fire when he heard a loud knock at the door. It was a very cold night and a terrible wind was blowing. He ran to the door and there stood the Miller with a lantern in his hand. "Dear little Hans," cried the Miller, "my little boy has fallen from a ladder and hurt himself. I am going for the doctor. But he lives so far away, and it is such a bad night that I have decided to ask you to go instead. You know I am going to give you my wheelbarrow, and you must do something for me in return." "Certainly," cried little Hans. "I shall start at once, but you must give me your lantern; the night is so dark that I am afraid I may fall into a ditch." "I am so sorry," answered the Miller, "but it is my new lantern, and I am afraid something may happen to it." "Well, never mind, I shall go without it," cried little Hans and he put on his coat and hat and set off. It was a stormy night. It was so black that little Hans could hardly see anything, and the wind was so strong that he found it difficult to stand on his feet. It was raining harder and harder. Little Hans lost his way. He fell into a deep hole full of water and was drowned. The next day some goatherds found his body and brought it to the cottage. Everybody went to little Hans' funeral. The Miller walked at the head of the procession in a long black coat, saying: "I was his best friend, so it's only right that I should be the chief mourner." And every now and then he wiped his eyes with a big handkerchief.
忠实的朋友 (续) 冬天一过，樱草花刚一开，磨坊主就去看望小汉斯了。 “早上好，小汉斯，”磨坊主说。 “早上好。”汉斯说着，咧开嘴笑了。 “冬天过得怎么样啊？”磨坊主问道。 “啊，”汉斯说，“真是谢谢你对我的关心。冬天真难熬，好在现在春天到了，我太高兴了。我的花长得多好啊！” “你的樱草花多可爱啊！”磨坊主大声说道。 “是啊，长得很可爱，”汉斯说。“我要到集市上把这些。花卖掉，然后再用钱买回我的手推车。” “买回你的手推车？这么说，你已经把它卖了。你怎么干这样蠢的事啊！” “你知道，去年冬天，我太困难了。我先把我最好的衣服上的银扣卖了，然后又把我的银链卖了，后来又把烟斗卖了，最后把手推车也卖了。不过现在我要把这些东西一一买回来。” “汉斯，”磨坊主说，“我把我的手推车送给你。车子有点破：有一边坏了，车轮子也有点毛病。不管怎么样，我还是要把它送给你。” “啊，你真是太慷慨了，”小汉斯说道。“我家里有块木板，不费力气就能把它修好的。” “一块木板！”磨坊主说。“我的屋顶上正需要这么一块。屋顶上有一个大洞，我得把它补上。既然我把手推车送给你了，你该把这块木板给我才对。” “当然可以，”小汉斯大声说，随即跑到屋里把木板扛了出来。 “现在我把小推车送你了，我相信你会回赠给我一些花的。给你篮子，把它装得满满的。” “满满的？”小汉斯问道。这个篮子确实太大了，他知道只有把所有的花都摘下来才能装满它。他有点为难。但是磨坊主对他说，真正的朋友不应该自私。小汉斯只好跑到花园里把所有美丽的樱草花都摘了下来，才装满了磨坊主的篮子。 “再见，小汉斯，”磨坊主说着，便扛起木板，提着大篮子回他山上的家里去了。 第二天，磨坊主来了，让汉斯帮他运一袋面粉到集市上去卖；第三天，他又要汉斯去帮他修理屋顶。就这样小汉斯为磨坊主干了一件又一件活儿，而磨坊主只说了许多关于友谊的漂亮话。 一天夜里，小汉斯正坐在火炉旁取暖，这时他听到有人在大声敲门。那是一个寒冷的夜晚，狂风呼啸。他跑去开门，门外是磨坊主，手提提灯站在那里。 “亲爱的小汉斯，”磨坊主喊道，“我的小儿子从梯子上掉了下来摔伤了。我想去请医生，但是他住得离这儿那么远，天气又这么糟糕，所以我决定请你替我跑一趟。你知道，我要把我的手推车送给你，你必须做些事情来报答我。” “行啊，”小汉斯喊道。”我马上就去，但是你必须把提灯给我。天这么黑，我怕跌进沟里去。” “真抱歉，”磨坊主说，“这是我的新提灯，我怕你把它弄坏了。” “好吧，没关系，没有提灯我也去，”小汉斯一面大声说着，一面穿上大衣，戴上帽子就起身走了。 夜里，风雨交加，一片漆黑，小汉斯什么也看不清。呼啸的狂风吹得他几乎站立不稳。雨越下越大。小汉斯迷了路，掉进一个深水坑里淹死了。第二天，几个牧羊人发现了他的尸体，把他抬回他的房舍。 大家都参加了小汉斯的葬礼。磨坊主身穿一件长长的黑色外衣，走在送葬对伍的最前面，说道：“我是汉斯最好的朋友，理应当主祭人。”他不时地用一块大手帕擦抹眼睛。
AN ANNOUNCENMENT Hello, everybody. I have a few things to tell you. Tomorrow afternoon there will be a talk on current affairs by a reporter from the People's Daily. He will speak about the situation in South Africa. In the evening he will give us a slide show. A Japanese student delegation will come to visit our school on Friday afternoon. They will come to our class at 2 p.m. If you have any questions about Japanese students' life, you can discuss with them when they come. One more thing: the day after tomorrow our class team will have a basketball match with Class Three. Let's all go and cheer for them. That's all. Thank you.
通知 同学们，我有几件事告诉大家。明天下午《人民日报》社有一位记者来做时事报告。他要谈一谈南非形势。晚上他要给我们演示幻灯片。 星期五下午一个日本学生代表团要来参观我们学校。下午两点钟他们来我们班。如果你们有关于日本学生生活方面的问题的话，他们来后，你们可以和他们讨论。 还有一件事：我们班后天同三班举行篮球比赛，请大家都去为他们加油。 要说的就是这些，谢谢大家。
THE LIBRARY On our library door are two big signs: No Smoking No Littering Library Hours Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. — 10 p.m. Saturday: 8 a.m. — 6 p.m. Sunday: 2 p.m. — 10 p.m. It is Monday. It is 8 o'clock. Many students are waiting for the library to open. This is not unusual during the examination week. Now the doors are open. The students walk in quietly. The library is always quiet even on very busy days. You are here in the library. You must obey library rules. You mustn't smoke. You mustn't litter the floor. You can borrow books from the library, but you can't borrow one without a library card. Sometimes you may want to borrow a book but you don't know its call number. You may ask the librarian to help you. He will be glad to help.
图书馆 图书馆门口有两张布告: 禁止吸烟 禁止乱扔废物 * * * 图书馆开放时间 星期一至星期五 上午8点-晚上10点 星期六 上午8点-下午6点 星期日 下午2点-晚上10点 今天星期一，现在是8点钟。许多学生正等着图书馆开门，这种情况在考试周里常能见到。门开了，同学们静静地走进去。图书馆里总是安安静静的，即使在人很多的时候。 你到了图书馆，就必须遵守图书馆的规定，不能吸烟，不能往地板上乱扔东西。 你可以在图书馆借书，但是没有借书证就借不到。 有时你可能想借某本书，但不知道它的书号，你可以找图书馆管理员，他会很乐意帮助你的。
THE STORY OF HELEN KELLER A person who is deaf when he is born, is usually dumb as well. There seems to be nothing wrong with his mouth and tongue, but he cannot speak. This is because, as he is deaf, he cannot hear other people, and therefore has nothing to imitate. He may try to make sounds himself, but he cannot hear his own voice. However, even though he finds it difficult to speak and cannot hear, he can see. He can therefore learn to read. Nowadays he can also be taught to speak because we have modern methods and equipment, but we did not have these when Helen Keller was born. Helen Keller was born in a small Alabama town in 1880. When she was nineteen months old, she fell ill and had a fever. She became blind and deaf. She could not communicate with anyone, and no one could communicate with her. She grew frustrated and angry. She threw things and broke things. Then in 1887, a teacher, Annie Sullivan arrived at the home of the Kellers to be Helen's tutor. Though Miss Sullivan herself had been blind, she had been partly cured, and although she could not see very well, she was not blind. She remained as Helen's tutor and friend for fifty years. Miss Sullivan began to work with Helen. She taught her to make different movements with her fingers. The movements represented the letters of the alphabet. Helen learned to make the movements, but she did not understand their meaning. She did not know that the letters were related to something in the world. But, one morning Miss Sullivan took Helen to a water pond, and she put Helen's hand under the water. At the same time she spelled the letters w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. At that moment, Helen understood. Later in her life, she said, "Somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r was the wonderful cool something flowing over my hand." Helen was smart and learned quickly. Soon she knew many words. When she was eight years old, she went to a school for the blind in Boston, and she learned to read books written for blind people. She even went to college and had a full education. She wrote many books, too. Although other people had written books about her, people agreed that her own books are the ones that best explain how it feels to be deaf, dumb and blind. Her best book is The Story of My Life. Perhaps you have read it. Though it was written in 1902, it still is a very exciting book. Even if you have not read it, you may have heard of Helen Keller.
海伦·凯勒的故事 一个人在出生时就耳聋的话，一般他也会是个哑巴。他的嘴和舌好像没有什么毛病，可是却讲不出话来。这是因为，一个聋人听不见别人讲话，因此没有可模仿的东西。也许他会摸索着发出声音，但他却听不到自己的声音。不过，尽管他觉得讲话有困难，又听不见，但是他能看见，因此他可以学会看书识字。今天，我们可以通过现代化的方法与仪器设备帮助他学会讲话。但海伦·凯勒出生时这些条件都不具备。 1880年，海伦·凯勒出生在阿拉巴马州的一个小镇上。她出生19个月后得了场病，发起高烧，变得又盲又聋。她无法与任何人交流，别人也无法与她交流。她变得又沮丧、又气恼，乱扔、乱摔东西。 后来在1887年，一位叫安妮·萨莉文的教师来到海伦家里作她的家庭教师。萨莉文小姐自己过去也曾失明，但她已经恢复了一些视力，尽管她的视力不算好，但算不上盲人。在以后的那五十年里，她一直是海伦的朋友兼家庭教师。 萨莉文小姐开始教海伦用手指比划出各种动作。不同的动作代表不同的字母。海伦学会了比划，但她并没有明白其中的含义。她不知道那些字母与世上实物之间有联系。直到一天早晨，萨莉文小姐带着海伦来到一个池塘边，她把海伦的手放进水里，同时在海伦另一只手上拼出“水”这个单词的字母“w-a-t-e-r”。就在那一刻，海伦明白了。后来海伦提及此事说：“语言之谜就这样被解开了。那时我才知道w-a-t-e-r这些字母原来就是在我手中流过的那凉爽、美妙的东西。” 海伦天资聪颖，学得很快。不久她就学会了很多单词。8岁时她来到波士顿市的一所盲人学校上学，学会了阅读那些专给盲人出的书。后来她甚至还进了大学，接受了全面的教育。 她还著有很多书。尽管别人也写了她的传记，但大家一致认为她的自传最能体现一个又聋、又哑、又盲的人的切身感受。她写得最好的作品是《我的一生》。也许你读过了。书是1902年写成的，但至今仍是一本很振奋人心的书。即使你从没读过这本书，也该听说过海伦·凯勒吧。
NIGHTINGALE Florence Nightingale came from a rich family and was very pretty. In her family, young girls usually spent their time going to parties until they married rich young men. But Florence found parties boring; she wanted to be a nurse. Finally, in 1850, when she was 30, her parents accepted her decision. So she went to study in a hospital in Germany. Then she was in charge of a nursing-home for women in London. Soon she was asked to go to the Crimea to take charge of the wounded soldiers. The conditions in the Crimean hospital were terrible. Forty per cent of the patients died. Certain beds seemed fatal: soldiers died in them after two days. Nightingale decided that this was because of bad drains, and insisted that the government do something about it. Workmen put in a proper drainage system and supplied pure drinking water. The death rate dropped to two percent. On her return to England people greeted Florence Nightingale as a heroine. She was an important force in the movement to reform hospitals and nursing in England. By 1900 unsafe hospitals and ignorant nurses were things of the past.
南丁格尔 弗罗伦斯·南丁格尔出身于富有家庭，相貌俊俏。在像她这样的家庭里，年轻女子总是把时间打发在舞会上，直到嫁给富家子弟。但是弗罗伦斯觉得舞会无聊；她想当护士。1850年她三十岁的时候，她父母终于接受了她的抉择。她这才得以到德意志的一所医院里学习。后来她在伦敦负责一家妇女护理院。不久就被派到克里米亚照顾伤员。 克里米亚医院的条件非常糟糕。百分之四十的病人在医院里死去。有些床位似乎是致命的：士兵在床上呆两天就死去。南丁格尔认为这是由于恶劣的排污状况引起的。她主张政府要设法改变这种状况。工人安装了合适的排水装置，提供纯净的饮用水。死亡率下降到百分之二。当她返回英国时，人们把弗罗伦斯·南丁格尔作为女英雄来欢迎。她是英国医院改革及护理运动中一个重要的推动力。到1900年，不保险的医院与无知的护士都不存在了。
A SERVICE OF LOVE O. Henry (Adapted) Joe came to New York from the Middle West, dreaming about painting. Delia came to New York from the South, dreaming about music. Joe and Delia met in a studio. Before long they were good friends and got married. They had only a small flat to live in, but they were happy. They loved each other, and they were both interested in art. Everything was fine until one day they found they had spent all their money. Delia decided to give music lessons. One afternoon she said to her husband, "Joe, dear, I've found a pupil, a general's daughter. She is a sweet girl. I'm to give three lessons a week and get $5 a lesson." But Joe was not glad. "But how about me?" he said. "Do you think I'm going to watch you work while I play with my art? No, I want to earn some money too." "Joe, dear, you are silly," said Delia. "You must keep at your studies. We can live quite happily on $15 a week." "Well, perhaps I can sell some of my pictures," said Joe. Every day they parted in the morning and met in the evening. A week passed and Delia brought home fifteen dollars, but she looked a little tired. "Clementina sometimes gets on my nerves. I'm afraid she doesn't practise enough. But the general is the dearest old man! I wish you could know him, Joe." And then Joe took eighteen dollars out of his pocket. "I've sold one of my pictures to a man from Peoria," he said, "and he has ordered another." "I'm so glad," said Delia. "Thirty-three dollars! We never had so much to spend before. We'll have a good supper tonight." Next week Joe came home and put another eighteen dollars on the table. In half an hour Delia came, her right hand in a bandage. "What's the matter with your hand?" said Joe. Delia laughed and said: "Oh, a funny thing happened! Clementina gave me a plate of soup and spilled some of it on my hand. She was very sorry for it. And so was the old general. But why are you looking at me like that, Joe?" "What time this afternoon did you burn your hand, Delia?" "Five o'clock, I think. The iron — I mean the soup — was ready about five. Why?" "Delia, come and sit here," said Joe. He drew her to the couch and sat beside her. "What do you do every day, Delia? Do you really give music lessons? Tell me the truth." She began to cry. "I couldn't get any pupils," she said. "So I got a place in a laundry ironing shirts. This afternoon a girl accidentally set down an iron on my hand and I got a bad burn. But tell me, Joe, how did you guess that I wasn't giving music lessons?" "It's very simple," said Joe. "I knew all about your bandages because I had to send them upstairs to a girl in the laundry who had an accident with a hot iron. You see, I work in the engine-room of the same laundry where you work." "And your pictures? Did you sell any to that man from Peoria?" "Well, your general with his Clementina is an invention, and so is my man from Peoria." And then they both laughed.
爱的奉献 欧·亨利 原著 （改写） 乔怀着对绘画艺术的梦想，从美国中西部来到纽约。德丽雅怀着对音乐的梦想，从美国南方来到纽约。他俩在工作室里相识，不久便结成好友，继而结婚成家。 他们只有一套小小的住房，但是生活很幸福。他们相亲相爱，又都醉心于艺术，诸事顺心如意。可是有一天，他们发现钱已花光了。 德丽雅决定去当音乐家庭教师。一天下午，她对丈夫说： “乔，亲爱的，我找到一个学生啦，是位将军的女儿，非常可爱。我每周给她上三节课，每节课5美元。” 然而乔并不感到高兴。 “那我怎么办？”他说。“你以为我会看着你工作而在一旁搞自己的艺术吗？不行，我也得挣点钱。” “乔，亲爱的，你真傻，”德丽雅说。“你还是得坚持你的学习。我们一礼拜有15美元就可以过得挺不错了。”(注：这是19世纪末期，这点钱足够了。) “好吧，也许我可以卖出几幅画，”乔说。 此后，他们早上分手晚上见，每天如此。一个星期过去了，德丽雅带回家15美元，可是她显得有点疲乏。 “克莱门蒂娜有时弄得我头疼。她恐怕练习得不够。不过那位将军倒是个好老头儿！你要能认识他就好了，乔。” 这时乔从兜里掏出18美元，说： “我卖了一幅画给一位皮奥里亚来的人。他另外还定购了一幅。” “太好了，33美元！”德丽雅说。“我们以前从没有这么多的钱可花。今晚我们可以美食一顿了。” 第二个星期，乔先回到家，又拿出18美元放到桌上。半小时后德丽雅回来了，右手打着绷带。 “你的手怎么啦？”乔问。德丽雅笑笑说： “噢，出了件可笑的事。克莱门蒂娜端给我一盘汤，可溅到了我手上。她非常难过，将军也很过意不去。哎，你干嘛这样看着我，乔？” “德丽雅，你下午什么时候烫伤手的？” “是5点钟吧，我想。那熨斗——我是说那盘汤——是5点左右做好的。怎么啦？” “德丽雅，来，坐到这儿，”乔说。他把她拉到沙发上，然后在她身旁坐下。 “德丽雅，你每天干些什么？你真的是在教音乐课吗？对我说实话。” 她哭了起来。 “我没找到什么学生，”她说。“所以我就到一家洗衣店找了个熨衣服的活儿。今天下午，一个姑娘不小心，把熨斗放在我手上了，我就给烫伤了。告诉我，乔，你怎么猜到我不是在教音乐课？” “很简单，”乔说。“你手上的绷带我完全知道是怎么回事，因为下午是我把绷带送到洗衣店楼上一个被熨斗烫伤的姑娘那儿的。知道了吧，我就在你做事的那家洗衣店的机器间里工作。” “那你的画呢？你真的卖了些画给那个皮奥里亚人吗？” “嘿嘿，你的将军和他女儿克莱门蒂娜是瞎编的，我那位皮奥里亚人也一样。” 说完，两人都开心地笑了。
THE LAST LESSON Alphonse Daudet (Adapted) I was very late that morning on my way to school and was afraid of being scolded. The master had told us he would question us on verbs, and I did not know a thing about them, for I had not studied my lesson. For a moment I thought of playing truant. The air was so warm and bright, and I could hear the blackbirds whistling on the edge of the woods, and the Prussians drilling in the meadows behind the sawmill. I liked this much better than learning the rules of verbs, but I did not dare to stop, so I ran quickly towards school. Passing the mayor's office, I saw people standing before the little bulletin board. For two years it was there that we had received all the news of battles, of victories and defeats. "What is it now?" I thought, without stopping. Then, as I ran along, the blacksmith, who was there reading the notice, cried out to me, "Not so fast, little one, you will reach your school soon enough." I thought he was making fun of me and ran faster than ever, reaching the schoolyard quite out of breath. Usually at the beginning of school, the noise of desks being opened and closed, and lessons repeated at the top of the children’s voices could be heard out in the street. Occasionally the master beat the table with the heavy ruler as he cried, "Silence, please, silence!" I had hoped to be able to take my seat in all this noise without being seen; but that morning the room was quiet and orderly. Through the open window I saw my schoolmates already in their places. The master was walking up and down the room with the iron ruler under his arm and a book in his hand. As I entered he looked at me kindly, and said, without scolding, "Go quickly to your place, little Franz; we were going to begin without you. You should have been here five minutes ago." I climbed over my bench and sat down at once at my desk. Just then I noticed, for the first time, that our master wore his fine green coat and his black silk embroidered cap. But what surprised me most was to see some of the village people seated on the benches at the end of the room. One of them was holding an old spelling book on his knee; and they all looked sadly at the master. While I was wondering at this, our schoolmaster took his place. "Children," he said, "this is the last time that I shall give you a lesson. An order has come from Berlin that no language but German may be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. A new master will come tomorrow who will teach you German. Today is your last lesson in French. I beg you to pay attention." These words frightened me. This was what they had posted on the bulletin board then! This was what the blacksmith was reading! (To be continued)
最后一课 阿方斯·都德 （改写） 那天早上我很晚才去上学，心中害怕要挨训斥。老师说过要问我们动词的问题，可是我没有温习功课，一点也不会。 逃学的念头在我脑子里闪了一下。天气多么暖和，多么晴朗呀！林边树梢上画眉在吟唱，锯木厂后面的草坪上传来普鲁士军人操练的声音。 此情此景比学习动词规则有趣多了，可是我不敢逗留，就赶紧朝学校跑去。 经过镇公所，我看见一群人站在小布告牌前。这两年，我们就是在这儿得到关于战争的各种消息，有打胜仗的，有吃败仗的。 “又有什么事了？”我寻思着，没停下脚步。 我刚跑过去，这时，在那儿看布告的铁匠朝我喊道：“别跑那么快，小家伙，你来得及赶到学校的。” 我以为他是同我开玩笑，便跑得更快了。到学校的时候，已经上气不接下气了。 平时，刚开始上课的时候，在街上就能听到课桌开开关关的乒乓声和孩子们一遍遍高声念课文的读书声。有时，老师还用大戒尺拍打讲桌，喊道：“安静点，请安静点！” 我本想趁着这阵喧闹神不知鬼不觉地溜到自己的座位上。可是这天早上，教室里却安安静静，规规矩矩。 从开着的窗子望进去，我看到同学们已端坐在自己的座位上，老师手里拿着一本书，胳膊下夹着铁戒尺，在教室里走过来走过去。 我走进教室，老师慈祥地看着我，口气不带责备地说：“快到座位上去吧，小弗朗茨，我们就要开始上课了，不准备等你了。你应该5分钟前到教室才是。” 我跨过板凳，坐到座位上。这时我才发现，老师第一次穿上了他那件漂亮的绿上衣，戴着黑色绣边丝帽。 但是最叫我吃惊的是看到教室后面的凳子上坐着好些村民，有个人还在膝上放着一本旧拼写书。他们个个都忧郁地望着老师。 我正感到纳闷，只见老师登上了讲台，对我们说：“孩子们，这是我最后一次给你们上课了。柏林已下令，阿尔萨斯和洛林的学校只准教德语。明天新老师就来教你们德语。今天是你们最后一次法语课，我恳求你们用心听讲。” 听了这几句话，我吓坏了。原来布告牌上讲的是这么回事！原来铁匠看的是这么一个布告！
LADY GODIVA Godiva was the beautiful wife of the Lord of Coventry. She lived in the eleventh century. According to an old legend, the Lord taxed the people of Coventry heavily and unjustly. If they did not pay those cruel taxes, they were thrown into prison. Lady Godiva asked her husband to have mercy on the people, but her stony-hearted husband showed no pity. Again and again she asked him to be merciful, until at last, he answered jokingly, "I will do what you ask only if you will ride naked through the streets of Coventry at noon." Lady Godiva rode naked through the empty streets of Coventry the next day. Every door was closed and every window was shuttered. The Lord kept his promise, and lightened the burden of taxes that he laid upon the citizens. Only one man, a tailor, had watched Lady Godiva as she rode through the streets. He cut a small hole in the door of his house, and peeped through this hole. The legend says that he became blind, and he has been known ever since as Peeping Tom.
葛黛瓦夫人 葛黛瓦是考文垂勋爵的漂亮太太。她生活在十一世纪。 根据古老的传说，勋爵摊在考文垂人身上的税既重又不公平。如果人们付不出这些苛捐杂税，就会被投入监狱。 葛黛瓦夫人恳求丈夫给人们一些怜悯，但她的铁石心肠的丈夫毫不动心。她一遍又一遍地恳求她丈夫宽厚些，直到最终，他开了个玩笑说：“如果你在中午一丝不挂骑着马穿过考文垂的大街小巷，你要我干什么我就干什么。” 第二天葛黛瓦夫人一丝不挂骑着马穿过了空无一人的街道。家家门窗紧闭。勋爵未食前言，减轻了他加在市民头上的税负。 葛黛瓦夫人骑着马穿过大街时，只有一个裁缝偷看了。他在房门上挖了一个洞。透过洞眼，他窥视、偷看。据传说他（因此）成了个瞎子。从此后，他就得名“扒眼汤姆”。
THE LAST LESSON (Continued) My last lesson in French! I hardly knew how to write, and I never should learn now. How I regretted the hours wasted in the woods and fields, the days when I had played and should have studied! My books that a short time ago had seemed so tiresome, so heavy to carry, now seemed to me like old friends. I was thinking of this when I heard my name called. It was my turn to recite. What would I not have given to be able to say the rules without a mistake! But I could not say a word, and stood at my bench without daring to lift my head. Then I heard the master speaking to me. "I shall not scold you, little Franz. You are punished enough now. Every day you have said to yourself, 'I have plenty of time. I will learn my lessons tomorrow.' Now you see what has happened." Then he began to talk to us about the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful tongue in the world, and that we must keep it among us and never forget it. Finally he took the grammar and read us the lesson. I was surprised to see how well I understood. Everything seemed easy. I believed, too, that I had never listened so attentively; and it almost seemed as if the good man were trying to teach us all he knew at this last lesson. When the lesson in grammar was over we began our writing. For that day the master had prepared some cards on which were written, "Alsace, France; Alsace, France." They seemed like so many little flags dotted about the schoolroom. How we worked! Nothing was heard but the voice of the master and the scratching of pens on paper. There was no time for play now. On the roof of the schoolhouse some pigeons were softly cooing, and I said to myself, "Will they, too, be obliged to sing in German?" From time to time, when I looked up from my page, I saw the master looking about him as if he wished to impress upon his mind everything in the room. After writing, we had a history lesson. Next, the little ones recited in concert their "Ba, be, bi, bo, bu". Oh, I shall always remember that last lesson! Suddenly the church clock struck twelve. The master rose from his chair. "My friends," said he, "my friends, ... I ... I ..." But something choked him; he could not finish the sentence. He returned to the blackboard, took a piece of chalk, and wrote in large letters, "VIVE LA FRANCE." Then he stood leaning against the wall, unable to speak. He signed to us with his hand. "The lesson is over. You are dismissed."
最后一课 (续) 我最后一次上法语课了！我几乎还不会作文呢，就再也不能学了。想起浪费在树林和田野里的时光，想起本应学习却只顾玩耍的那些日子，我真后悔极了！ 就在刚才还觉得那么讨厌、那么沉重难带的课本，此时对于我却像老朋友一般亲切！ 我正想着，忽然听见老师叫我的名字。轮到我背书了。唉，要是我能一点不错地说出动词的规则该多好哇！可是我一个字也说不出，站在座位上不敢抬头。这时，听到老师对我说： “我不批评你，小弗朗茨。你现在心里够难过的了。你以前总是在想：‘时间有的是，明天再学不迟。’这下你知道后果了吧。” 然后他开始对我们讲起了法兰西语言。他说法语是世界上最美的语言，我们一定要经常讲，永远不要忘掉。 说完这些，老师拿起文法书，给我们讲课。真怪，我今天全能听懂，老师讲的似乎都挺容易。这才明白，我从来没有这么用心听课。这个好心的人仿佛要在这最后一堂课把他的全部知识教给我们。 文法讲完了就开始习字。老师专门为那一天准备了一些卡片，上面写着：“法兰西，阿尔萨斯；法兰西，阿尔萨斯。” 这些卡片就像无数面小旗点缀着教室。我们个个都那么用功！课堂里一点声音也没有，只听见老师的讲课声和铅笔在纸上写字的沙沙声。现在谁也顾不上玩了。教室的屋顶上，几只鸽子在咕咕咕地轻声叫着，我心想：“会不会叫鸽子唱歌也用德语？” 我不时从练习纸上抬起头，每一次都看见老师在望着周围，仿佛要把教室里的一切都印在心上。 写完字，老师又给我们讲历史。然后教小班的同学齐声念着“Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu”来拼音。 啊，我永远忘不了这最后的一次课！ 突然，教堂的钟声敲响了12下。老师从座位上站起来。“朋友们……”他说，“朋友们……我……我……” 他的声音哽咽了，说不下去。他回到黑板前，拿起一根粉笔，写下几个大字：“法兰西万岁！” 写完字，老师靠着墙站在那儿，说不出话来。他对我们摆了摆手，好像说：“下课了，你们走吧。”
A DAY OF HARVESTING (A Page from a Student’s Diary) October 24. Today we began harvesting. We got up at daybreak, and after an early breakfast we started off for the rice fields. We got there after half an hour's walk. The fields around us looked like a golden sea. I have never seen anything so beautiful! We worked side by side with the farmers. At first some of us were rather slow. The farmers showed us how to cut the rice and how to tie the bundles. Soon we learned to work faster. We worked in three groups. "Faster, faster! We mustn't fall behind the others!" That was the thought in everybody's mind. Evening came before we realized it. We put down our sickles and looked at each other. Our clothes were wet with sweat. On every face there was a smile. We harvested thirty mu altogether. That was not bad for the first day. But tomorrow we shall certainly do better - much better.
收割的一日 (学生日记一则) 10月24日 我们今天开始收割。天刚亮我们就起了床，早早吃过早饭，就动身去稻田。走了半个小时便到达那里。 周围的稻田像一片金色的海洋，我从来没看见过如此美丽的景象!我们同社员们并肩劳动。开始我们有些人干得很慢。农民教我们如何割稻子，如何打捆，我们很快就学会了，干得就快起来了。 我们分三组干活。“快一点，再快点!不要落到别人后面!”每个人心里都这么想。 不知不觉已是黄昏时分了，我们放下镰刀，你看看我，我看看你，衣服都被汗水湿透了，每个人的脸上都挂着笑容。 我们总共割了三十亩稻田，这在第一天算是不错的了。明天我们肯定会干得好些，更好些。
TOURISM Modern means of transportation, communication, advertising and credit have all played a part in the growth of a giant new industry, tourism. Tourism is a service industry. It does not sell a product that you can own but provides services on a temporary basis. The customer gets such things as a seat on a plane, a room in a hotel, and a chance to sit on a beach in the sunshine. Until modern times, a trip was often a long and difficult adventure. People had to travel by horse or camel or on foot. The first development in modern transportation was the steamship. More recently, automobiles and planes have made travel both faster and more convenient. Advertising has played a large part in the growth of tourism, when hotels and travel agencies began to advertise the attractions of different tourist areas, the airlines and other transportation companies advertised the low fares to reach them. Modern means of communication have enabled the travellers to reserve a plane seat or a hotel room from a long distance. And they can travel now and pay later by using their credit cards. All these means have become one of the features of modern life.
旅游业 现代交通、通信、广告以及信用手段对新兴的庞大的行业——旅游业的发展起到了作用。旅游业是一种服务业。它并不出售你可以拥有的产品，而是提供暂时的服务。顾客可以得到诸如飞机上的座位、旅馆里的房间以及在海滩晒太阳的机会。 直到近代，旅行还常常是个漫长而又艰难的历险。人们不得不靠着骑马、骑骆驼或步行去旅行。现代交通工具的首次飞跃是轮船。在最近些时候，汽车和飞机使旅行变得既快又方便。 广告业对旅游业的发展起了很大作用。当旅馆和旅行社做旅游胜地的广告时，航空公司和其他运输公司就做开了到达这些地方的便宜票的广告。现代通信手段使得游客可以从遥远的地方预定机座和旅馆房间。他们可以先旅行然后再用信用卡付帐。所有这些手段都形成了现代生活的特色之一。
TWO FRIENDS AND THE BEAR Two friends were travelling together through a forest. One of them said, "If we meet any wild beasts, I'll help you and you'll help me." "That's fine," said his friend, and they walked on. Suddenly a big bear ran out from behind a tree. The man who said he would help his friend at once got up a tree and hid himself among the leaves. The other man could not climb trees. So he threw himself on the ground, closed his eyes and pretended to be dead. The bear came up and sniffed at the man's head. It put its nose close to his mouth and ears. The man held his breath. The bear thought he was dead and walked away, for bears never touch dead men. When the bear was gone, and all was safe, the man in the tree came down. With a smile, he asked his friend, "What did the bear tell you when he put his nose so close to your ears?" "Well," said his friend, "the bear said, 'Don't trust those who leave their friends the moment they get into difficulty!'"
两个朋友和熊 两个朋友在一道旅行，穿过一座森林。其中一人说:“要是碰到野兽，我就帮助你，你也要帮助我。”“好的，”他的朋友说。接着，他们继续往前走。 突然，一只大熊从一棵树后面跑出来。那个说要帮助他朋友的人马上爬到树上，把自己藏在树叶丛里。另外一人不会爬树，于是便倒在地上，闭住眼睛装死。 熊走过来，闻闻这个人的头，又把鼻子凑近他的嘴和耳朵。这人屏住呼吸。熊以为他已经死去，便走开了，因为熊从来不碰死人。 熊走了，一切都平安无事了。树上的人爬了下来，他笑嘻嘻地问他朋友:“熊把鼻子凑到你耳朵旁，跟你说了些什么?” “噢”，他的朋友答道:“熊说，不要信任那些一遇困难就背弃朋友的人。” (摘自《伊索寓言》)
INSPECTOR HORNBERG VISITS A SCHOOL The classroom was very quiet. Outside, the leafless trees were white with the first snowfall. But not one pair of eyes strayed from the history books which twenty-five little girls were studying so earnestly. This was the year 1877, and the school was in Warsaw, Poland. A large part of Poland had been conquered by Russia. The Russian Tsar would not allow Polish children to study the history of their own country or even their own language. But here the teacher and her pupils were doing just that, although the Russians had spies everywhere in Warsaw. Among the children was Manya Sklodovska. She was a very bright pupil. She was deep in the book she was reading. Suddenly there came the faint sound of a bell. Manya listened fearfully. Was it the signal? Yes! Two long rings, two short rings. Every head came up. Quick hands grabbed all the Polish history books off the desks, and hid them away. The girls swiftly took sewing materials from their desks. They began to embroider little squares of cloth. The outer door opened. There stood Inspector Hornberg. Hornberg had been put in charge by the Russians of the private schools of Warsaw. He was a heavy man in a tight-fitting yellow and blue uniform. With him was Mademoiselle Sikorska, the head of the school. "We have two sewing classes a week, Mr. Inspector," explained Mademoiselle Tupalska, the teacher. "I read to the children while they work." "And what have you been reading to your pupils, Mademoiselle?" Inspector Hornberg demanded. She held up the book. "Russian fairy tales," she said. The inspector gave a grunt of approval. "Now," he said, "I should like to question one of your pupils." "Manya Sklodovska, please stand up," the teacher said quietly. Manya rose from her seat without a word, trying not to tremble. "Recite the Lord's Prayer - in Russian," Inspector Hornberg ordered. Manya recited the prayer in a low voice, careful not to show her feelings. "Now name the members of the Imperial Russian Family." Manya gave the names. "Now tell me," Hornberg demanded, "who is our ruler?" Manya's face went pale. She opened her mouth, but the words would not come. "So, my little Polish patriot, you do not wish to tell me who rules over us," the Russian inspector said. "Answer me!" "His Majesty AlexanderⅡ, Tsar of All the Russias," she said. But her voice was trembling. "That's more like it," Hornberg rose from his chair. "Now Mademoiselle Sikorska, I wish to visit one of the other classes." "Certainly, Mr. Inspector," Mademoiselle Sikorska answered. When the door had closed upon them, the schoolgirls began to stir. Without a word, the teacher put her arms around Manya and kissed her. Manya was in tears.
霍恩伯格督学查看学校 教室里鸦雀无声。窗外，一场初雪给光秃秃的树裹上了素装。25个小女孩正在认真地学习历史，没有一双眼睛离开课本。 这是1877年，波兰华沙的一所学校。当时波兰大部分地区已经被俄国占领。俄国沙皇不允许波兰儿童学习本国的历史，甚至不许他们学习本族语言。但是，此时此地老师和她的学生们正在学习波兰历史，尽管俄国人在华沙各处都有密探。 玛妮雅·斯克洛道夫斯卡就在这些孩子当中。她是一位非常聪明的学生，这时正在全神贯注地读书。突然，传来了微弱的铃声，玛妮雅惊恐地听着。这是那信号吗？是的！两长两短的铃声。 女孩子们个个都抬起头来，双手敏捷地从课桌上抓起波兰历史课本就藏了起来，然后迅速地从课桌里拿出缝纫材料，开始在小方布上绣花。 外面的门开了，霍恩伯格督学站在那里。 俄国人指派霍恩伯格负责华沙的私立学校。他笨重的身体紧裹在黄蓝相间的制服里。陪同他的是学校的校长，西科尔斯卡小姐。 “我们每周有两次缝纫课，督学先生，”老师图帕斯卡小姐解释说，“孩子们工作的时候，我就给她们读书。” “那么你刚才给你的学生读了些什么，小姐?”霍恩伯格督学严厉地问道。 她举起书本，说:“俄罗斯童话。” 督学咕哝着表示赞同。“那么，”他说，“我要问你的学生一些问题。” “玛妮雅·斯克洛道夫斯卡，请站起来，”老师平静地说。 玛妮雅默默地从座位上站起来，尽量克制不颤抖。 “背诵主祷文，要用俄语，”霍恩伯格督学命令道。 玛妮雅低声背诵了主祷文，谨慎地不流露自己的感情。 “说出俄帝国皇室成员的名字。” 玛妮雅说出了他们的名字。 “现在告诉我，”霍恩伯格命令道，“谁是我们的统治者?” 玛妮雅脸色变得苍白，她张开口，但没有讲出话来。 “那么我的波兰小爱国者，你还不想告诉我是谁统治我们，”俄国督学说。“回答我!” “全俄沙皇亚历山大二世皇帝陛下，”她说了，但是声音在颤抖。 “这还差不多，”霍恩伯格从椅子上站起来。“西科尔斯卡小姐，我想去看看另外的班。” “请吧，督学先生，”西科尔斯卡小姐回答。 教室的门在他们身后关上了。女学生们开始活跃起来。老师默默无言地抱住玛妮雅，吻了吻她。玛妮雅的眼里噙着泪水。
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS Christopher Columbus discovered America on the 12th of October, 1492. He had spent eighteen years in planning for that wonderful voyage which he made across the Atlantic Ocean. He had talked and argued with sailors and scholars and princes and kings. "By sailing west across the great ocean," he would say, "I am sure I can reach lands that have never been visited by Europeans." But he had been laughed at as a foolish dreamer, and few people had any faith in him. Finally the Spanish king and queen, who were interested in finding a sea route to India, offered him ships and men so that he could carry out his plan. He crossed the ocean and discovered strange lands, inhabited by a people unknown to Europeans. He believed these lands to be part of India. Early in 1493 Columbus returned to Spain. There was great rejoicing in the country, and he was hailed as the hero who had made an epoch-making discovery. Crowds of people lined the streets to do him honour, and the king and queen welcomed him to their palace. Never had such great respect been shown to any common man. But there were people who were jealous of the discoverer. "Who is this Columbus?" they asked. "What has he done? Is he not an ordinary seaman from Italy? And could not any other person sail across the ocean as he has done?" One day Columbus was at a dinner given in his honour. At the party were several of these conceited fellows, who very soon tried to make him uncomfortable. "You have discovered strange lands beyond the sea," they began. "But what of that? We do not see why there should be so much fuss about it. Anybody can sail across the ocean, and anybody can coast along the islands on the other side, just as you have done. It is the simplest thing in the world." Columbus made no answer; but after a while he took an egg from a dish and said to the guests, "Who among you, gentlemen, can make this egg stand on end?" One guest after another tried the experiment. When the egg had gone the rounds and none had succeeded, all said that it could not be done. Then Columbus took the egg and struck its small end gently upon the table so as to break the shell a little. After that there was no trouble in making it stand upright. "Gentlemen," said he, "what could be easier than this? And yet you said it was impossible! It is the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it — after he has been shown how."
克利斯托弗·哥伦布 1492年10月12日，哥伦布发现了美洲大陆。为了这次横渡大西洋的惊人航行，他准备了18年。他同水手和学者们，同国王和王子们不知交谈和辩论了多少次。他总是说：“我敢肯定，往西航行跨过大洋，就能到达欧洲人从未到过的陆地。”可是人们都嘲笑他是个糊里糊涂的梦想家，几乎没人相信他的话。最后，还是西班牙国王和王后，因为想寻找一条通往印度的海路，才给了他船只和水手，使他得以实施他的计划。他横渡大西洋，发现了一块奇怪的陆地，那里居住着欧洲人不知道的一个民族，他以为这些地方是印度的一部分。 1493年初，哥伦布回到了西班牙。全国一片欢腾，人们把他誉为做出了划时代发现的英雄，并成群结队地排在街道两旁向他欢呼致意。国王和王后把他请进皇宫。还从来没有一个普通人受过如此礼遇。 但是也有一些人嫉妒他的发现。他们问：“哥伦布是个什么人？他干了些什么？不就是个普普通通的意大利水手吗？像他那样横渡一下大西洋哪个不会？” 一天，哥伦布出席一个为他举行的晚宴。宴会上就有那么几个趾高气扬的人物，他们迫不及待地想使哥伦布难堪。 “你发现了大洋彼岸的新大陆，”他们开始进攻。“可是那算得了什么？我们可看不出那有什么值得大惊小怪的。谁都能横渡大西洋，谁都能沿着大洋彼岸的岛屿航行，就像你做的那样。这实在是世界上最简单不过的事。” 哥伦布没有答话。过了一会儿，他从盘子里拿出个鸡蛋对宾客们说：“诸位，你们谁能把这只鸡蛋竖起来？” 客人们一个接一个地尝试过了，鸡蛋在大家手里传了一圈也没有一个人能使它竖起来，都说这是不可能的。 于是哥伦布拿起那只蛋，把尖的一头轻轻往桌上一磕，敲碎一点蛋壳，这样就毫不费力地使鸡蛋笔直地立在桌上。 “先生们，”他说，“还有什么事比这更容易？而你们却说这是不可能的！这实在是世界上最简单不过的事了。在别人已经示范过后----谁都会做。”
THE ART SCHOLARSHIP Scene Ⅰ Principal's office, Sommerset High School, Philadelphia. When the curtain rises, MISS OGDEN, Principal, is sitting at her desk, and MISS DIETRICH, a young teacher, in an armchair near the fireplace. MISS OGDEN is looking at a water-colour painting and appears quite interested.
MISS OGDEN: It's a rather good picture, isn't it? I must really congratulate you, Miss Dietrich. You have a bright pupil there. What's her name? MISS DIETRICH: Nancy Lee Johnson. The girl has real talent in drawing. And she is good at other subjects, too. [Looks at her watch] She ought to be here by now. MISS OGDEN: I understand the girls are very friendly with Nancy Lee. MISS DIETRICH: Why shouldn't they be? MISS OGDEN: Why not indeed? And of course I wouldn't allow race discrimination in my school. But you know, there have always been those silly prejudices. MISS DIETRICH: Miss Ogden, I wonder how long such things will last. It's a shame. [There is a knock at the door.] MISS OGDEN: Hush! Here she comes! Come in! [NANCY LEE comes in. She looks like a girl of 14 or 15. Her eyes are big and a little shy, her voice is soft, her skin a light brown colour.] NANCY: Good morning, Miss Ogden. [To MISS DIETRICH] Good morning, Miss Dietrich. MISS OGDEN: Sit down, my child. We've something to tell you. But I must ask you to promise me not to tell anyone yet. NANCY: I won't, Miss Ogden. MISS OGDEN: Miss Dietrich, will you explain why we wanted to see Nancy Lee? MISS DIETRICH: Yes, Miss Ogden. Nancy Lee, your picture has won the Artist Club award. NANCY: [Unable to believe her ears, because the news seems too good to be true.] The award? Oh, Miss Dietrich! MISS OGDEN: It's a great honour, Nancy Lee. [They shake hands.] NANCY: I'm sure this will be great news to my mother — she has been saving every cent to send me to an art school. MISS DIETRICH: You'll have famous painters for teachers and become a real artist yourself. Accept my congratulations, Nancy. We're so proud of you. MISS OGDEN: Listen, Nancy Lee, the Committee will be here tomorrow morning. You will have to make a speech of thanks, Nancy, when the award is given you. NANCY: Do I have to make a speech before all those important people? Oh, I couldn't! MISS OGDEN: Don't get over-excited. Think of what you are going to say. NANCY: May I ask Mother to come with me? MISS OGDEN: Your mother? Oh, I don't know. It might be... MISS DIETRICH: I'm sure Nancy can invite her mother. After all... MISS OGDEN: All right, I'll think it over. You may go now, Nancy Lee, and remember to get your speech ready. NANCY: I will, Miss Ogden. [To MISS DIETRICH] Miss Dietrich, you taught me how to draw, and I really feel most grateful to you. [Goes out.] MISS DIETRICH: A very sweet girl, isn't she? I hope the Committee won't change its mind. I hope nothing will happen before Nancy gets the scholarship. MISS OGDEN: I hope not. MISS DIETRICH: [Taking Nancy's picture] It's just a simple scene in the city park. The grass fresh and green, a flag on a tall pole in the centre, children playing, and a Negro woman looking at it with so much hope! It seems Nancy is very proud of her people. MISS OGDEN: Proud of being an American, Miss Dietrich. MISS DIETRICH: I hope she'll always feel like a daughter of American, and not like a stepchild. MISS OGDEN: I hope so too!
艺术奖学金 第一场 费城，萨默西特中学校长办公室。 幕启。校长奥格登小姐坐在办公桌旁。年青教师迪特里希坐在壁炉旁的扶手椅上。奥格登小姐兴致勃勃地在看一幅水彩画。
奥格登小姐: 这是一幅相当好的画，不是吗？迪特 里希小姐，我真应该向你祝贺。你有一个聪明 的学生。她叫什么名字？ 迪特里希小姐: 南茜·李·约翰逊。这个姑娘的确 有绘画才能。其他学科也不错。（看表）现在 她该来了。 奥格登小姐: 我晓得，姑娘们对这个女孩非常友 好。 迪特里希小姐: 为什么她们不能跟她友好呢？ 奥格登小姐: 真的，为什么不呢？当然，我就不允 许在我的学校里有种族歧视存在。不过，你知 道，那些愚蠢的偏见一直存在。 迪特里希小姐: 奥格登小姐，我真不知道这种情况 要持续多久？太不像话了。（敲门声） 奥格登小姐: 嘘！她来了！进来！ （南茜·李上场，她看上去约摸十四、五 岁。大眼睛，有点羞答答的，柔和的声音，浅 褐色的皮肤） 南茜: 奥格登小姐，早上好。（向迪特里希小姐） 迪特里希小姐，早上好。 奥格登小姐: 坐吧，我的孩子。我们有件事要告 诉你。但是你要向我保证，暂时不要告诉任何 人。 南茜: 奥格登小姐，我不会告诉别人的。 奥格登小姐: 迪特里希小姐，请你说说我们为什么 要见南茜·李，好吗？ 迪特里希小姐: 好的，奥格登小姐。南茜·李，你 的画获得了艺术家俱乐部奖学金。 南茜: （这个消息太好了，南茜·李不敢相信她自 己的耳朵）奖学金？啊，迪特里希小姐！ 奥格登小姐: 南茜·李，这是很高的荣誉。（她们 握手。） 南茜: 我相信，对我妈妈来说，这是一个重大的消 息——她一直在一分钱一分钱地攒着，要把我 送到艺术学校上学。 迪特里希小姐: 你会有著名的画家当你的老师， 你将成为一个真正的画家。南茜，接受我的 祝贺吧。我们真为你感到骄傲。 奥格登小姐: 南茜·李，听我说。委员会明天上 午要在这里开会。在给你发奖时，你得发言 表示感谢。 南茜: 要我在这些重要人物面前发言吗？唉呀，不 行！ 奥格登小姐: 不要太激动了。想一想你打算怎样发 言吧。 南茜: 我可以请我妈妈一同来吗？ 奥格登小姐: 你妈妈？啊，我不知道。也许…… 迪特里希小姐: 我想南茜可以请她妈妈来，不管怎 么说…… 奥格登小姐: 行啦，我要考虑考虑。南茜·李，你 现在可以走了。记住准备好你的发言。 南茜: 奥格登小姐，我一定。（向迪特里希小姐） 迪特里希小姐，你教了我绘画，我的确非常感 谢你。（南茜·李下场） 迪特里希小姐: 一个非常可爱的姑娘，不是吗？ 我希望委员会不会改变主意；我希望南茜获 得奖学金以前不要发生什么事。 奥格登小姐: 我也这样希望。 迪特里希小姐: （拿起南茜的画）这是城市公园 内一处朴素的景色，绿茵茵的草地，中间高高 的旗杆上挂着一面旗子，孩子们在玩耍，一 个黑人妇女望着旗子满怀希望！似乎南茜为她 的民族感到非常自豪。 奥格登小姐: 迪特里希小姐，她对自己作为一个美 国人而感到自豪。 迪特里希小姐: 我希望她始终感觉自己是美国的亲 生女儿，而不是养女。 奥格登小姐: 我也希望如此！ （第一场完）
THE LARGEST AND MOST POPULOUS Asia is the largest of the continents of the world. It is larger than Africa, larger than either of the two Americas, and four times as large as Europe. Asia and Europe form a huge land mass. Indeed Europe is so much smaller than Asia that some geographers regard Europe as a peninsula of Asia. Many geographers say that the Ural Mountains form the dividing line between Europe and Asia. Some think differently. But all geographers agree that Asia was once linked to North America. Or, to be more exact, Alaska was at one time connected with the tip of Siberia. The ancestors of American Indians, geographers say, were Asians. 30,000 years ago they went across the land bridge and settled down in new homes. Only a small canal separates Africa from Asia. But before the Suez Canal was cut in 1869, Asia was also linked to Africa. The highest point of the earth is in Asia. This is the peak of the Himalaya Mountains. It is over 8,848 metres high. At this altitude, the air is very thin and the weather is uncertain. So the climbing is very difficult. People take great pride in getting to that peak. The world's great religions originated from Asia: Buddhism from India, Christianity from Palestine, Islam from Arabia. Today Buddhism and Islam are the principal religions of much of Asia. Asia is also the most populous continent. China, the country with the largest population in the world, is in Asia. One half of the world's population are Asians. A Chinese is an Asian, a Japanese is an Asian, and an Indian is an Asian. So is an Iranian, a Palestinian, an Iraqi, a Filipino, a Singaporean. A meeting of Asians is usually a large gathering. The Asian Games meet every four years, sometimes with as many as nations taking part. There was a time when Asia led the world in civilization. Today most of the Asian countries are still developing countries. They are working very hard to catch up in science and technology. They must. They have little time to lose.
面积最大人口最多的洲 亚洲是世界第一大洲。它比非洲大，比北美洲大，也比南美洲大，它有四个欧洲那样大。亚洲和欧洲连成一片广大的陆地。与亚洲相比，欧洲确实太小，有些地理学家把欧洲看作亚洲的一个半岛。 许多地理学家认为，乌拉尔山脉是欧亚两洲的分界线。有些地理学家不这么想。但是地理学家一致认为，亚洲和北美洲曾经是连在一起的，或者更确切地说，阿拉斯加曾经和西伯利亚的东端（顶端）连在一起。地理学家们认为，美洲印第安人的祖先是亚洲人。三万年前，他们跨过连接两洲的地峡，在美洲建立了新居。 把亚洲和非洲分隔开来的不过是一条不大的运河，而在这条苏伊士运河1869年开凿之前，亚洲与非洲也是连在一起的。 地球的最高点在亚洲，这就是喜马拉雅山脉的顶峰，高8848米以上。在这样高度上，空气十分稀薄，气候变幻无常，因此攀登非常困难。人们以能登上这座山峰而感到自豪。 世界上的几大宗教起源于亚洲：佛教源于印度，基督教源于巴勒斯坦，伊斯兰教源于阿拉伯。今天，佛教和伊斯兰教是亚洲许多国家和地区的主要宗教。 亚洲又是人口最多的洲。中国，这个世界上人口最多的国家就是在亚洲。世界人口的一半是亚洲人。 中国人是亚洲人，日本人是亚洲人，印度人是亚洲人，伊朗人、巴勒斯坦人、伊拉克人、菲律宾人、新加坡人也是亚洲人。亚洲人的聚会往往是大型集会。亚运会每四年举行一次，参加的国家有时多达34个。 过去，亚洲的文明进程曾一度居世界领先地位。今天，亚洲多数国家仍然是发展中国家。这些国家的人民正在勤奋工作，以求在科学和技术方面赶上去。他们一定要赶上去。他们必须抓紧时间。
THE ART SCHOLARSHIP Scene Ⅱ The same office － the next day. MISS OGDEN: [At her desk] Of course I'm very, very sorry. But I think you understand, my dear Miss Dietrich, that something was wrong from the very beginning. MISS DIETRICH: [Walking up and down nervously] But didn't you say that you would not allow any race discrimination in your school? MISS OGDEN: Who's talking of discrimination? I was speaking about the picture, about its artistic value. Of course the trees and grass are not bad, but I never liked that old Negro woman looking at our American flag. There are some very wrong ideas in the picture. MISS DIETRICH: Is the idea of democracy and equal rights for all people wrong? MISS OGDEN: Now Miss Dietrich, you must stop talking like that. The Committee decided not to give Nancy the scholarship just because the picture was not worth it. MISS DIETRICH: But you know very well that the Committee changed its mind when it learned that Nancy was coloured! MISS OGDEN: In my opinion it was quite right. I must warn you, Miss Dietrich, that your sympathy for that little Negro girl is going a little too far. I will send for the girl and you must tell her about the decision. I am rather busy. [Looking at her watch] I must leave you. Good-bye. MISS DIETRICH: [Alone] What shall I do? What can I say? [Enter NANCY and her mother.] NANCY: Good morning, Miss Dietrich. This is my mother. This is Miss Dietrich, Mother. MISS DIETRICH: Hello, Nancy. How are you, Mrs. Johnson? MRS. JOHNSON: Thank you, Miss Dietrich. I am so glad to meet you. My little girl always talks to me about your kindness to her. MISS DIETRICH: Sit down, Mrs. Johnson. Come here, Nancy. NANCY: Would you like to hear my speech, Miss Dietrich? I've learned it by heart. MISS DIETRICH: You won't need your speech today, Nancy. NANCY: [Completely taken aback] Oh, why not? MISS DIETRICH: I really don't know how to tell you. You see, Nancy, you are not going to get the award. NANCY: Oh, Miss Dietrich! I am not going to get the scholarship? MISS DIETRICH: Here is the letter from the Committee. [Gives the letter to NANCY] Read it. NANCY: [Begins to read] "The Committee has decided that Miss Nancy Lee Johnson is not to have the award of the Artist Club. There have never been any coloured students at our Art School, and it might not be convenient to have one now. Of course we think Miss Nancy Lee Johnson is very talented. But it is impossible to honour her with the award." [NANCY lowers her head.] MISS DIETRICH: I'm so sorry. NANCY: But my speech was about...about America, about liberty and justice for all... [Cries softly] MISS DIETRICH: My poor child! [Wants to take NANCY in her arms, but the latter breaks away and hides her head in her mother's lap.] MRS. JOHNSON: Don't cry, Nancy dear, don't cry! NANCY: Oh, Mother, let's go away! Let's go back to the South! I would rather have them kill me as they killed Roy! MISS DIETRICH: What is she talking about? Who is Roy? MRS. JOHNSON: Her brother. He was murdered by the Ku-Klux-Klan, back in 1928, when we lived in the south. NANCY: That was one reason why we moved up to the North, a few years ago, and now look what has happened. Come, Mother, let's go. MISS DIETRICH: Wait, Nancy Lee! Listen to me. In this world of ours we still have to fight for democracy. Those who refuse you this award don't know what democracy means. We must fight to see that no one is refused his rights because of race or colour. Lift up your head, Nancy Lee, and smile at me! You and I have many friends － people who believe in a better America. We must get together and fight － fight with our work, with our books, with our art. Then we shall make America a land of true liberty and justice for all! Do you understand me, Nancy? NANCY: Yes, Miss Dietrich! I'll fight to see that those things which happened to my brother and me won't happen any more! MRS. JOHNSON: Yes, Nancy, we will.
艺术奖学金 第二场 第二天。校长办公室，同第一场。 奥格登小姐: （在办公桌旁）当然我感到非常、非 常的遗憾。不过，亲爱的迪特里希小姐，我想 你明白，这事从一开始就搞错了。 迪特里希小姐:（不安地踱来踱去）你不是说过， 在你的学校里不允许有种族歧视存在吗？ 奥格登小姐: 谁在说什么种族歧视？我是在说这 幅画和它的艺术价值。当然，树和草还不坏， 但是我从来不喜欢那个望着我们美国国旗的 黑人老太婆。这幅画里有一些非常错误的思 想。 迪特里希小姐: 难道全民享有民主和平等权利的这 个思想是错误的吗？ 奥格登小姐: 迪特里希小姐，你必须停止这样的 谈论。委员会决定不给南茜奖学金，只是因为 这幅画不值得给奖学金。 迪特里希小姐: 但是你很清楚，委员会之所以改变 主意是他们得知南茜是黑人！ 奥格登小姐: 我认为委员会做得很对。我必须警 告你，迪特里希小姐，你对那个黑人女孩的 同情太过分了。我要派人去叫她。你必须把 这个决定告诉她，我很忙。（看了看表）我得 走了，再见。 迪特里希小姐:（独自一人）我怎么办呢？我能说 什么呢？（南茜和母亲上场） 南茜: 迪特里希小姐，早上好。这是我妈妈。妈 妈，这是迪特里希小姐。 迪特里希小姐: 你好，南茜。你好，约翰逊夫人。 约翰逊夫人: 谢谢你，迪特里希小姐，见到你真高 兴。我的女儿常对我讲起你对她的关怀。 迪特里希小姐: 请坐，约翰逊夫人。南茜，到这儿 来。 南茜: 迪特里希小姐，你愿意听听我的发言吗？我 已经背下来了。 迪特里希小姐: 南茜，今天不需要你发言了。 南茜: （十分惊愕）呵，为什么？ 迪特里希小姐: 我真不知道怎样告诉你。南茜，你 听我说，你不会得到奖学金了。 南茜: 啊，迪特里希小姐！我不会得到奖学金了 吗？ 迪特里希小姐: 这是委员会的信。（把信交给南 茜）念念吧。 南茜: （开始念信）“本委员会决定： 南茜·李·约翰逊不能获得艺术家俱乐部的 奖学金。本艺术学校过去从未招收过黑人学 生，现在恐亦未便招收。当然，我们认为 南茜·李·约翰逊小姐很有才能，但她不能 享受艺术奖学金之荣誉。”（南茜低下了 头。） 迪特里希小姐: 我感到非常遗憾。 南茜: 但是我的发言是……是讲美国，讲大家都享 有自由和公平待遇……（轻轻地哭） 迪特里希小姐: 我可怜的孩子！（想搂住南茜，可 是南茜挣开了，把头放在她母亲的膝上。） 约翰逊夫人: 不要哭，亲爱的南茜，不要哭！ 南茜: 啊，妈妈，我们走吧！我们回到南方去吧！ 我宁愿他们像杀死罗伊一样杀死我！ 迪特里希小姐: 她在讲什么？谁是罗伊？ 约翰逊夫人: 她的哥哥，他是1928年被三Ｋ党杀 害的，当时我们住在南方。 南茜: 这就是我们几年前搬到北方来的一个原因。 现在你看这样的事情又发生了。好啦，妈妈， 我们走吧！ 迪特里希小姐: 等一等，南茜！听我说，在我们 这个世界上，我们还要为民主而斗争。那些 拒绝给你奖学金的人并不了解民主的含义。 我们必须斗争直到不因人种和肤色而妨碍人 的权利为止。南茜·李，抬起头来，对我笑 一笑！你和我都有许多朋友——相信美国会变 得更好的人们。我们必须共同战斗——用我们 的工作，我们的书本，我们的艺术来斗争！ 这样我们就会使美国成为大家都享有真正民 主和公正待遇的国家！南茜，你明白我的意 思吗？ 南茜: 我明白，迪特里希小姐，我一定要斗争，直 到像我和我哥哥遇到的这类事不再发生！ 约翰逊夫人: 对，南茜，我们要斗争。 （幕落）
THE GOLDEN TOUCH Long, long ago there lived in Greece a king whose name was Midas. He was a greedy man and loved gold better than anything else in the world. One day he asked the gods to give him still more gold. The gods decided to punish him and said, "Very well. In the morning everything that you touch will become gold." Midas was overjoyed when he heard this. "I shall be the richest man in the world," he said to himself. He got up early next morning. When he touched his bed, it turned to gold. He began to dress, and his clothes became gold. Midas was delighted. Midas loved flowers and kept a beautiful garden. He went into the garden to look at his flowers. The day was fine, the sun was bright and the roses were lovely. The king picked one of them, but it turned to gold in his hand. He picked another, and the same thing happened. He was sorry that the flowers changed as soon as he touched them, for he loved their rich colours. The king went to have his breakfast. He took a cup of milk, but it immediately turned to gold. Then he took a piece of bread, and that also changed into gold. Midas now began to feel unhappy. It was good to be the richest man in the world, but he was hungry, and he could not eat or drink gold. Midas went out into the garden again. His little daughter was there. When she saw her father, she ran up to him. King Midas was very fond of his daughter and he kissed her tenderly. Then and there she turned into a golden statue. Midas was now very unhappy. He went into his palace. His eyes filled with tears, and he begged the gods to take away the Golden Touch. "I was very foolish to love gold so much," he said. "Take all my gold and give me back my daughter." "Go," said the gods, "and wash your hands in the river near your garden, and the water will take away the Golden Touch." Midas went to the river and washed his hands. Then he ran quickly to the golden statue of his little girl. He kissed her again and she changed back into his pretty little daughter. Midas never forgot this lesson. He knew now that gold did not bring happiness.
点金术 很久很久以前，希腊有个国王，名叫迈达斯。他是个贪婪的人，喜欢金子胜过世界上任何东西。 一天，他要求众神给他更多的金子。众神决定惩罚他，就说：“好的，明天一早，你摸到的任何东西都会变成金子。” 迈达斯听到这话，高兴极了。“我要成为世界上最富有的人，”他自言自语地说。 第二天一大早他就起床了。他一摸床，床就变成了金子；他一穿衣服，衣服也变成了金子。迈达斯心里乐开了花。 迈达斯喜欢花，他有一座美丽的花园。他走进花园去赏花。这天天气晴朗，阳光明媚，玫瑰花香醉人。他摘了一朵，但花儿在他手里变成了金子。他又摘下一朵，也变成了金子。他一碰花，花就变成金子，这使他很难过，因为他喜爱花朵鲜艳的色彩。 国王去吃早餐，他端起一杯牛奶，牛奶立刻凝结成一块金子。接着，他拿起一块面包，面包也变成了金子。迈达斯开始感到不高兴了。做世界上最富有的人固然好，但是他饿呀，他不能吃金子喝金子呀！ 迈达斯走出宫殿，又来到了花园。他的小女儿正在那儿。女儿一见到他，就跑到他跟前。迈达斯国王非常喜爱他的女儿，便亲切地吻她，一刹那间，他女儿变成了一尊金塑像。 迈达斯这时非常伤心。他走进宫去，两眼噙满了泪水。他乞求众神除去他的点金术。 “我真是太傻了，这么贪爱金子，”他说。“把金子都拿去吧，把女儿还给我。” “到你花园旁边的那条河去，”众神说，“洗一洗手，河水就会把点金术除掉。”迈达斯走到河边洗了双手。然后，赶快朝已经变成了金塑像的小女儿跑去。他又亲吻了她一下，他美丽的小女儿就变回来了。
ROBERT BRUCE, KING OF SCOTLAND Many centuries ago, Scotland was ruled by a king named Robert Bruce. He was a wise king and a brave soldier. When the English army invaded Scotland, Bruce took up arms and led his people in the defence of their country. Battle after battle was fought. Six times Bruce led his brave little army against the enemy, and six times his men were beaten. His army was scattered, and he was forced to go into hiding - in the woods or in lonely places in the mountains. One rainy day, Bruce lay on the ground in a hut, listening to the sound of the rain on the roof. He was tired and sad, and ready to give up all hope. It seemed to him that it was no use trying to do anything any more. As he lay thinking, he saw a spider over his head, trying to spin a web. He watched her as she toiled slowly and with great care. Six times she tried to reach the opposite wall to fix her thread, and six times she failed. "Poor thing!" cried Bruce, "You, too, know what it is to fail." But the spider did not lose hope. With still more care, she tried for the seventh time. Bruce almost forgot his own troubles as he watched her swing herself out upon the slender line. Would she fail again? No! The thread was carried safely from one wall to the other. "I, too, will try a seventh time!" cried Bruce. He got up and called his men together. He told them of his plans, and sent them out with messages of cheer to his disheartened people. Soon there was an army of brave Scotsmen gathered around him. Another battle was fought. This time the Scots won and the English invaders were driven out of Scotland.
苏格兰国王罗伯特·布鲁斯 许多世纪以前，苏格兰由一位名叫罗伯特·布鲁斯的国王统治着。他是一位明智的君主，又是一位勇敢的战士。当英格兰军队侵略苏格兰时，布鲁斯拿起武器领导人民起来保卫自己的国土。 战斗一场接一场地打开了。布鲁斯带领着他那支勇敢但人数不多的军队六次抗击敌人，但六次都被打败了。他的军队溃散了，他自己也被迫躲藏起来，有时躲进森林里，有时躲到偏僻的山区。 一个下雨天，布鲁斯躺在一间茅屋的地上，听着雨打屋顶的声音。他疲倦而忧郁，简直不抱什么希望了。他觉得再做任何努力也没用。 他正躺在地上想着，忽见头上有一只蜘蛛在织网。他看着蜘蛛慢慢地、非常小心地织着网。它六次试图把吐出的丝接到对面的墙上，六次都失败了。 “可怜的小东西，”布鲁斯失声说。“你也尝到了失败是什么滋味。” 但是蜘蛛并没有灰心，它更加小心地试第七次。布鲁斯凝视着蜘蛛的身子，它挂在纤细的丝上摆向对面的墙，他几乎忘却了自己的烦恼。这次它会不会又一次失败？不！蜘蛛终于安全地将丝从这一面墙拉到了另一面墙。 “我也要试第七次，”布鲁斯叫道。他站了起来，把手下人召集在一起。他把自己的计谋告诉大家，然后叫他们奔赴四方，鼓动陷于绝望的人民。不久，在他周围集结了一支英勇的苏格兰队伍。接着，又打了一仗。这一次，苏格兰人胜利了，英格兰侵略者被赶出了苏格兰。
AN OUTING We were discussing where to go for an outing during the spring holidays. Some suggested the Guanting Reservoir. Others wanted to see the Great Wall. Then someone said, "Why not go back to Anzhuang for a visit?" At this we all cheered. Of course, we would revisit that beautiful mountain village on the banks of the Yongding River! The place was dear to us all. We had gone there the year before to plant trees in the surrounding mountains. We had formed close ties with the villagers. So early next morning we were off to Anzhuang on the 7:30 train. It was a fine day in April. Everyone was in high spirits. We could hardly sit still, for there were so many interesting sights outside the window. We saw new factories and well-cultivated fields all along the line. At Shijingshan we passed the huge steel mill and the power plant. Then suddenly we saw the green Yongding River in the valley below. Our hearts gave a leap, for we knew that in a few minutes we would be with our friends at Anzhuang again. They were overjoyed to see us. The old villagers kept asking how we were. They were pleased to see how much stronger some of us had become. Then some old friends of ours took us to see what they had achieved. New houses, larger schools, more sheep, more pigs and chickens, more cows and horses - everywhere we saw signs of prosperity. Then we climbed the mountains. The villagers showed us the trees we had planted. We were happy to see that most of them were growing well. At one place we found some young people digging pits. They were getting things ready for this year's tree-planting. We all joined them in the work. But the time soon came for us to return. It was getting dark. We told our friends that we would soon come back to plant trees again. Back in the train, we told each other what a wonderful time we had had that day. "An outing like this is certainly more exciting than picnicking in the Summer Palace," one student said. "Or on the Great Wall," another added. They spoke for us all.
郊游 我们在讨论春假期间上哪儿去郊游。有人建议去官厅水库，又有人想去长城。后来有个人说：“为什么不回安庄一趟呢？” 听到这个提议我们都高兴地叫了起来。不用说，大家都很想再去看看永定河畔那座美丽的山村。 这个地方使我们感到亲切。一年前我们曾到那儿周围的山上种过树，我们和村子里的人建立了亲密的感情。 于是，第二天一大早，我们就乘坐7点半的火车出发去安庄。这是4月的一个晴天，大家兴高采烈。火车窗外美不胜收的景色，使我们兴奋得坐不住。铁路沿线到处可见新建的工厂和精耕细作的田地。我们还经过了石景山的大钢铁厂和发电厂。接着，山谷下碧绿的永定河突然出现在眼前。我们的心跳加快了，因为我们知道，几分钟后就要和安庄的老朋友见面了。 老乡们见到我们非常高兴。村里的老人不停地向我们问好。看到我们长得这么壮实，他们很高兴。然后，一些老朋友带我们去参观他们取得的成就。新房子盖起来了，学校扩大了，猪、羊、鸡、牛、马都比原来多了——到处是一片繁荣的景象。接着我们爬上山去。乡亲们把我们过去种的树指给我们看。我们高兴地看到这些树大部分都长得很好。一些小伙子在一处挖坑，为今年的植树做准备，我们就和他们一道干起来。 但很快就到了我们要回去的时间了，天快黑了。 我们告诉朋友们，过不久我们还会来种树。 回去的火车上，大家都说，这一天过得真愉快。 “这样的郊游的确比去颐和园野餐有意思，”一位同学说。 “也比去长城好，”另一位补充说。 他们说出了我们大家的心里话。
THE RED CROSS Henri Dunant, a Swiss banker, was travelling in northern Italy in the year 1859 when he witnessed the horrors of the Battle of Solferino. This battle, one of the fiercest of the century, was fought between the armies of France and Italy on the one side and Austria on the other. At the end of the day, some forty thousand dead and wounded lay on the battlefield. Appalled by the sight of so much suffering, Dunant organized a volunteer service to help in feeding and caring for the wounded soldiers. Men and Women and even boys and girls worked side by side, nursing friend and foe alike. In 1862, when he was 34 years of age, Dunant published a book called "A Memory of Solferino". In it he described vividly the scenes of pain and distress he had witnessed, and suggested that a relief society should be formed to give help to all those wounded in wars. This society, he explained, would consist of trained volunteers who would always be ready to travel to the scene of any war that might break out. This could be done only if all the countries would allow the society to carry out its work without hindrance, he insisted. Dunant's book was a great success. It was read by many rulers and statesmen in Europe. As a result, a conference was held at Geneva and representatives from seventeen states were present. It was decided to go ahead and form an international relief organization. In 1864 a treaty — The Convention of Geneva — was signed and the Red Cross came into being. The design of its badge, a red cross on a white field, was obtained by reversing the colours of Switzerland. The Red Cross emblem is now used by many medical services of hospitals, ambulances, and hospital ships. All countries have agreed that whatever bears the Red Cross must never be attacked. It is recognized and respected everywhere as the emblem which means service to the sick and suffering. The Red Cross did much work for prisoners-of-war during the two world wars. Many thousands of prisoners remember with gratitude the Red Cross food parcels, the warm clothing, the books and the medical supplies that were sent to them. Many mothers and fathers were thankful for news of their missing sons first brought to them by the Red Cross. In peace, too, the Red Cross is quick to send help wherever there is human suffering. Earthquakes, floods, forest fires, tidal waves, tornadoes — all these and many other disasters too — mean pain and distress for the victims. The members of the Red Cross are always among the first who hurry to the scene and are always equipped to bring help and relief. All this became possible because one man was so deeply moved and worried by the sufferings of his fellow men that he could not rest until he had done his best to help them. Through the years his story has inspired millions of men, women, and children to devote time and care to the service of others. Today the work goes on, for at any moment disaster may strike somewhere, and the Red Cross must be ready to journey to the ends of the earth, if necessary, and bring relief.
红十字会 亨利·杜兰特是瑞士一位银行家。1859年他在意大利北部旅行，曾目睹了索尔伏里诺大战的惨状。这场战役是十九世纪最激烈的大战之一，交战国一方是法国和意大利的军队，另一方是奥地利。一天下来，大约有四万死伤的士兵躺在战场上。目睹如此惨状，杜兰特大为震惊，便组织了一支志愿服务队帮助照料伤兵。成年男女甚至少年儿童肩并肩齐心协力，对伤兵不分敌我进行同样护理。 1862年，杜兰特34岁时，他发表了名为《回忆索尔伏里诺战役》一书。书中他栩栩如生的描述了那些充满痛苦和不幸的景象，并提出建议，组织一个救济团体，对所有战时伤亡人员给予救助。他解释说这一团体应由受过集训并随时准备开赴任何战场去的志愿人员组成。他还强调说只有所有国家允许这个团体不受阻碍地进行工作才能实现这一目标。 杜兰特的书获得了极大的成功。欧洲的很多领导人和政治家都读了这本书，并专为此事在日内瓦召集了会议，与会成员有来自十七个国家的代表。会议决定着手组建一个国际救济组织。1864年，一项协议——日内瓦公约得以签署，红十字会诞生了。红十字会的旗帜，即白底上红色十字，是由瑞士国旗红白两面色互换而成。 现在，红十字会的标志用在医院、救护车、医疗船上。所有国家一致同意不得攻击一切标有红十字的车、船和建筑物。在全世界，红十字会被公认为是对受苦受难的人们进行救援的标志。 在两次世界大战中，红十字会都为战俘提供了很多救助。成千上万的战俘现在仍感激红十字会曾为他们送去食品、御寒衣、书籍及药品。许多父母非常感激红十字会最先给他们带来了下落不明的儿子的消息。 在和平时期，无论哪里的人遭难，红十字会总是及时提供救援。地震、水灾、森林火灾、海啸、飓风——所有这些及其他灾难对受害者都意味着痛苦与不幸。红十字会总是最先出现在现场并随时准备提供帮助和救济。 所有这一切都归功于一个叫杜兰特的人——他被他同类所遭受的苦难而触动并感焦虑，直到他竭尽全力帮助了他们才得以安心。多年来他的事迹激励了数百万男人、妇女及儿童将他们的时间与关怀献给他人。如今，红十字会的工作仍在照常进行，因为随时都可能出现灾情，一旦需要，红十字会将奔赴天涯海角，提供救援。
GOLDEN TRUMPETS Dr. Hornsnagle, an American explorer, asked the ruler of Yap Yap whether free speech was allowed under his rule. "Yes, indeed," said the ruler. "My people enjoy complete freedom of speech and we decide everything according to public opinion." "But how do you find out what the public thinks?" asked Dr. Hornsnagle. "That's very simple," said the ruler. "Whenever any question has to be settled, we gather all the people together in my palace. Then we decide our policy by just listening to the Golden Trumpets." "And what are the golden trumpets?" asked Dr. Hornsnagle. "Golden Trumpets," said the ruler, "are used to express public opinion here. I raise my right hand above my head and shout: 'Those in favour, blow.' Immediately those who are in favour of the proposal blow their golden trumpets. Then I raise my left hand and shout: 'All those against, blow.' This time those who are opposed, blow theirs. The side which makes the greatest noise is naturally the majority and the policy is decided in their favour." "That," said Dr. Hornsnagle, "is the most complete democracy that I have ever heard of. I would like very much to see one of these meetings." On the next afternoon, the people of Yap Yap, both rich and poor, were called into the palace courtyard to decide an important matter. There were only four rich men. All the rest were poor. When all were assembled, the ruler stepped forward and raised his right hand. "All those in favour, blow," he shouted. The four rich men all lifted their golden trumpets and blew hard. Then the ruler lifted his left hand. "All those against, blow," he shouted. Not a sound came from the poor people. Thus the policy was decided and the meeting over. Dr. Hornsnagle asked the ruler why only the four rich men blew trumpets. "Because they are the only people who have golden trumpets," said the ruler. "The others are all poor people." "Well, that doesn't seem very much like free speech to me," said Horsnagle. "In America, we have real freedom of speech." "Is that so?" said the ruler. "And how do you do it in America?" In America," said Horsnagle, "instead of golden trumpets, we have newspapers, magazines and radio stations." "That is very interesting," said the ruler. "But who owns all these newspapers, magazines and radio stations?" "The rich," said Hornsnagle. "Then it is the same as Yap Yap," said the ruler.
金喇叭 美国探险家洪斯纳哥博士问汪汪国的国王，在他统治下是否允许言论自由。 “当然允许，”这位国王答道，“我的国民充分享有言论自由。凡事不分巨细，我们都根据舆论来决定。” “但你怎么了解舆论呢？”洪斯纳哥博士问道。 “这很简单，”国王答道，“只要有问题需要解决，我们就把国人召集到我的大殿上。随后，靠听金喇叭来决定政策。” “金喇叭是怎么回事？”洪斯纳哥博士又问。 “金喇叭，”国王解释说，“在我国是用来反映舆论的。我把右手举过头顶喊道：‘赞成的，吹喇叭’。紧接着，那些赞成提案的人就会马上吹响他们的金喇叭。随后我又把左手举过头顶喊道：‘反对的，吹喇叭’。这回反对提案的人就会吹响他们的喇叭。声音大的自然是多数，于是政策就按他们的意志决定下来。” 洪斯纳哥博士说：“这是我听到的最充分的民主。我很想观看一次这样的集会。” 第二天下午，汪汪国的国民不分贫富，都被召集到大殿上，来决定一件大事。只有四个富有人，其他的都是穷人。 众人到齐后，国王上前举起右手。 “赞成的，吹喇叭。”他喊道。 那四个富人就举起金喇叭，拼命地吹起来。 随后国王举起左手，喊道：“反对的吹喇叭。”穷人里却无声无息。就这样定了政策，散了会。 洪斯纳哥博士问国王，为什么只有四个富人吹喇叭。 “因为只有他们才有金喇叭，”国王说，“其他人都是干活的。” “啊，依我看，这不太像言论自由，”洪斯纳哥博士说，“我们美国才有真正的言论自由。” “是吗？”国王说，“那你们美国是怎么做的呢？” 洪斯纳哥博士说，“在美国，我们有报纸、杂志和电台，而不是金喇叭。” “这倒很新鲜。”国王说，“但是谁拥有这些报纸、杂志和电台呢？” “富人，”洪斯纳哥答道。 “如此说来，与汪汪国没什么两样。”国王说道。
KILLERS OF BACTERIA Modern medicine owes a great deal to the discovery of certain tiny disease-carrying organisms. Louis Pasteur was the discoverer of bacteria. Much later, scientists discovered viruses. But it was left to scientists of our own time to develop powerful killers of these hateful micro-organisms. One such powerful killer was discovered in the autumn of 1928. The discovery came about quite by accident. In his basement laboratory in London, a bacteriologist, Dr. Alexander Fleming, was searching for a substance that would kill deadly bacteria. On his desk were small plates containing the bacteria. One evening one of the plates happened to be left uncovered. When Fleming arrived the next morning, he saw that the plate had gathered mould during the night. This was no surprise, for the basement was quite damp, with only one window. But what he saw next did surprise him. On the uncovered plate the bacteria on the outer ring were flourishing, but close to the mould there were none left. They had somehow disappeared. He transferred the mould to a clean plate and let it grow for two weeks. It too would destroy bacteria in a test tube. Would it, he wondered, do the same to bacteria in the human body? Fleming presented the result of his experiment in a report to a medical association, giving the name penicillin to the mould he had discovered. But for ten years, while he continued to experiment with penicillin, his discovery was largely ignored by the medical world. Meanwhile, another powerful killer of bacteria and viruses was discovered, again by accident. A group of German scientists were working on dyes for textiles. One of them, Gerhard Domagk, injected a tiny amount of a red dye into some mice that were dying from an infection. Almost immediately the infection was gone and the mice recovered. After further experiments Domagk developed a drug from the red dye, and this was the first of the sulfa drugs. The discovery started scientists in many parts of the world on the search for new and better sulfas, and a number of them were found and perfected. Dreaded diseases like scarlet fever and leprosy responded to the sulfas. Two British scientists developed a sulfa that could cure pneumonia, a disease that up to that time had caused thousands of deaths yearly. Pretty soon they earned the name of wonder drugs. Unfortunately, many of them have side effects. For the sulfas are tiny crystals that do not dissolve in human blood, and might collect in the kidney and interfere with its functioning. Some people develop skin rashes when they take sulfas. Then in 1938 a team of British scientists came upon Dr. Fleming's report in an old medical journal and made further experiments with the drug. In 1941 it was declared safe for use on humans. The drug was produced in quantity and became cheaper. The reduced cost made possible worldwide use of penicillin in treating many infections. But it was really a re-discovery. Unlike sulfa drugs, penicillin is made up of plant material that the body can absorb. But penicillin, too, has its side effects. Frequently the reaction it causes is only a skin rash or a light fever. But to people who are allergic to it, its use could be fatal. Still, since it was first introduced, it has saved millions and millions of lives. Meanwhile, man continues in his search for new drugs, always with the hope of some day discovering more powerful — and safer — healing agents.
杀灭细菌的药物 某些传染疾病的微生物的发现，对现代医学的发展作出了巨大的贡献。路易·巴斯德发现了细菌。过了很久以后，科学家发现了病毒。但是，研制消灭这些可恶微生物的特效药的责任落在了当代科学家的肩上。 1928年秋，人们发现了一种强效药物。这一发现相当偶然。当时细菌学家亚历山大·佛来明博士正在地下试验室里研制一种能够杀灭致命细菌的物质。在他桌上放着一些装有细菌的小盘子。一天晚上，一个盘子碰巧没有盖上盖儿。第二天，他来到试验室，发现盘子在夜间生了霉菌。这本来不足为奇，因为地下室只有一扇窗户，又非常潮湿。但接着看到的却使他大吃一惊；那只没有盖上盖儿的盘子的外围细菌很多，而靠近霉菌的地方却一点也没有。那儿的细菌神秘地消失了。于是他很快把霉菌移到了一只洁净的盘子里，让它生长了两个星期。这种霉菌在试管里也同样能杀灭细菌。因此，他思索着：这种霉菌是否也能杀灭人体内的细菌呢？ 佛来明把试验结果写成一份报告，呈交给一个医学协会，他把发现的霉菌取名为“盘尼西林”。以后的十年里，他继续做盘尼西林试验，但他的发现根本没有引起医学界的重视。 与此同时，人类又发现了一种杀灭细菌和病毒的有效药物，这次也纯属偶然。当时一些德国科学家正研制纺织染料，其中一位名叫格哈特·杜马克。他把微量红色染料注射到患有传染病而奄奄一息的老鼠体内。转眼间，传染病消灭了，老鼠痊愈了。杜马克继续试验，从红色染料中研制出了一种新药，这就是最初的磺胺药。这一发现促使世界许多地方的科学家去寻求更新、更有效的磺胺药，他们也确实发现了若干种磺胺药，并做了改进。磺胺药物对一些可怕的疾病，如猩红热和麻疯病，都有良好的疗效。英国两位科学家研制了一种可以医治肺炎的磺胺药。在研制出此药之前，每年都有成千上万人死于肺炎。因此，不久这种磺胺药就赢得了特效药的美名。 美中不足的是，许多磺胺药都有副作用，这是因为磺胺药是一些不溶于人类血液的小晶体，可能在肾脏中集结，使肾功能衰减。还有人吃了磺胺药后，出现皮疹反应。 后来，1938年，英国一些科学家在一份旧医学杂志上偶然发现了佛来明博士的报告，并对该种药物重新做了进一步的试验。1941年，这种药物被宣布可安全用于人体。于是这种药投入大批量生产，价格也比以往便宜。成本降低后，全世界在治疗许多传染病时均可选用盘尼西林。然而，这其实是一种重新发现。 与磺胺药不同，盘尼西林是由人体可吸收的植物材料制成的，不过也有副作用，通常只是皮疹、低烧。但是，如果用在对这种药物过敏的患者身上，可能会有生命危险。尽管如此，这种药从开始使用以来已经拯救了千百万人的生命。 与此同时，人类仍在寻求新的药物，总希望有朝一日能发现更有效、更安全的制剂。
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT There were once six blind men in India, who stood by the roadside every day, begging from the people who passed. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen one; for being blind, how could they? It so happened one morning that an elephant was being driven down the road where they stood begging. When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Of course they could not see him with their eyes, but they thought that by touching him they could learn just what kind of animal he was. For, you see, they trusted their own sense of touch very much. The first happened to put his hand on the elephant's side. "Well," he said, "now I know all about this beast. He is like a wall." The second felt about the elephant's tusk. "My brother," he said, "you are quite mistaken. He is not at all like a wall. He is round and smooth and sharp. He is more like a spear than anything else." The third happened to take hold of the elephant's trunk, "both of you are entirely wrong," he said. "Anybody who knows anything can see that this elephant is like a snake." The fourth reached out his arms, and grasped one of the elephant's legs. "Oh, how blind you are!" he said. "It is very plain to me that he is round and tall like a tree." The fifth, being a very tall man, happened to take hold of the elephant's ear. "The blindest man ought to know that this elephant is not like any of the things you name," he said. "He is exactly like a huge fan." The sixth was very blind indeed, and it was some time before he could find the elephant at all. At last he got hold of the elephant's tail. "Oh, silly fellows!" he said. "You surely have lost your senses. The elephant is not like a wall, or a spear, or a snake, or a tree; neither is he like a fan. But any man with a little sense can see that he is exactly like a rope." Then the driver and the elephant moved on, and the six men sat by the roadside all day quarrelling about the elephant. Each believed that he knew just what the beast looked like; and they called each other names because they could not agree. It is not just blind men who make such silly mistakes. People who have eyes sometimes act just as foolishly when they take a one-sided view of things.
瞎子和大象 从前，印度有六个盲人，每天都站在路边向过往行人乞讨。他们常听人说起大象，但从未见过；因为是盲人，怎么看得见呢？ 一天上午，碰巧有人赶着一头大象经过他们行乞的那条路。当他们得知大象已走到身前时，就请赶象人把大象停下来，好让他们看看。 当然，他们无法亲眼看见大象，但是可以用手触摸，从而了解大象到底是什么样的动物。你知道，他们十分相信自己的触觉。 第一个盲人碰巧摸到了大象的身上，便说道：“噢，我现在完全了解大象了，大象很像一堵高墙。” 第二个盲人摸了摸象牙，说道：“老兄，你大错特错了，大象又圆，又光，又尖，根本不像高墙，把它比作长矛，再合适不过了。” 第三个盲人碰巧抓住了大象的鼻子，说道：“你们两位都不对，稍有常识的人都会知道这头大象像条蛇。” 第四个盲人伸出双臂，抱住了一条象腿，说道：“唉，你们真是有眼无珠，我现在才清楚，大象又圆又高，像棵树。” 第五个盲人身材高大，一下子就抓到了大象耳朵。说道：“再瞎的人也不会不知道，这头大象一点也不像你们说的。它实在就像一把巨大的扇子。” 第六个盲人实在太瞎了，过了好半天才摸到象。最后他抓住了大象的尾巴，说道：“嘿，蠢货，你们真糊涂。大象既不像高墙、长矛、蛇、大树，也不像扇子，稍有理性的人就会知道，它很像条绳子。” 随后，赶象的人和大象继续往前走去，这六个盲人一整天都坐在路边为大象的事争吵不休，每人都认为只有自己了解大象。由于不能统一看法，他们就相互谩骂起来。 犯这种愚蠢错误的，不仅仅是盲人。即使有视力的正常人有时也片面地看问题，他们一点也不比这几个盲人聪明。
AFRICA——LAND AND CIVILIZATION Africa is a very large continent — larger than China, Europe and the United States put together. It sits on the equator, stretching both north and south about 35 degrees. For this reason it is the most tropical of continents. 40 percent of Africa is desert country. Parts of the desert are so dry that there is no vegetation. Where a little rain falls, grass and desert shrubs appear. Typical desert animals are the gazelle, the fox, and the hare. They can survive in this region of little water, little shade, and high day-time temperature. Central Africa, the most tropical portion of this tropical continent, is a land of heavy rainfall and high plateaus. It is also a land of vast tropical rain forests. In these forests there are so many trees, and they grow so close together, that it is hard to move around. The tops of trees form a kind of roof, under which there is little light, as the sun cannot get in, and it is very quiet because the trees keep out the wind. South of the equatorial region is the tree-dotted grassland called the savanna. The savanna is the home of great herds of animals — antelopes of many varieties, zebras, giraffes, elephants, and rhinoceroses. All of them live on grass and leaves of trees. The savanna is also the home of meat-eaters — the lion, leopard, and hyena — who feed on the grass-eaters. One cannot think of Africa without thinking of Egypt, the cradle of an ancient civilization, nor of Egypt without the Nile. The great characteristic of the Nile is the regularity of its floods. The annual flooding is caused by the melting snows on the high Ethiopian plateau, from where the Nile originates. The flood, laden with rich earth, reaches the lower valley about 15 June — at a time when the whole land has been burnt black by the sun. It brings "the water of life". From June to September the Nile rises and submerges the whole valley; then in the beginning of October it begins to fall, leaving the land saturated with water and covered with a layer of rich, black soil. On it farmers grow maize, rice, millet, beans and dates. Here too cotton is grown, for which Egypt is rightly famous. The story of a great river is very often the story of a great civilization. For centuries the ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile. They bathed in the river, drank its water, told legends about it and built tombs and temples on its shores. Fighting the annual floods men got themselves organized, and society came into being. Measuring the irrigated land men invented surveying and became interested in geometry. Predicting the coming of floods men made a calendar, and better calendars were made by observing the sun and the moon and the planets, and this led to the growth of astronomy.
非洲——土地与文明 非洲大陆幅员辽阔，比中国、欧洲和美国的总和还大。它位于赤道，并向南北各延伸大约三十五度，因此是最热的大陆。 非洲百分之四十的地区位于沙漠地带，有的沙漠地区干旱无雨，所以没有植被。稍有降雨的地方，就有青草和灌木生长。常见的沙漠动物有瞪羚、狐狸和野兔。它们可以在这个缺水、少荫和白昼高温的地区生存。 中部非洲是这块热带大陆上最热的地区，雨量充沛，地势很高，还有大片热带雨林。森林里树木繁茂，不易走动。树冠形成一种顶篷，阳光几乎无法透入，所以林中光线很暗。又因为树木挡住了风，所以林中也很寂静。 赤道地区以南是一片树木稀少的草原，称为热带草原。热带草原是一大群动物——各种羚羊、斑马、长颈鹿、大象和犀牛的栖息地，这些动物都以青草和树叶为生。热带草原也是食肉动物——狮子、豹子和鬣狗的家园，食草动物就是它们的美餐。 想到非洲，人们不能不想到作为古代文明发祥地之一的埃及。同样，想到埃及，不能不想到尼罗河，尼罗河的最大特征就是河水定期泛滥。尼罗河发源于埃塞俄比亚高原，那里融化的冰雪致使河水年年泛滥。大约每年六月十五日，尼罗河水挟带着肥沃的泥土流到了下游，给已被太阳烤得焦黑的土地带来了“生命之水”。从六月到九月，河水暴涨，淹没了整个流域；到十月初，河水开始减退，剩下饱含大量水分的土地，还覆盖着一层肥沃的黑土。在这片沃土上，农民种植玉米、水稻、小米、豆米和枣子。这里也种植棉花，埃及正是以盛产棉花而闻名遐迩。 一条大河的历史往往就是一种伟大文明的发展史。千百年里，古埃及人对尼罗河顶礼膜拜。他们在河里沐浴，饮用河水，讲述有关它的传说，并在两岸建造了坟墓和庙宇。在一年一度与洪水的搏斗中，人们组织起来，于是产生了社会。在丈量灌溉土地的过程中，人们发明了测量学，并开始对几何学产生兴趣。在预测洪水的过程中，人们编制了历法。通过对太阳、月亮和行星的观察，历法越编越好，天文学便应运而生。
THE STUDY OF ENGLISH It is over a year now since I began studying English. I am glad to say that I am getting on well with it. First of all, I know clearly what I study English for. A year ago, although I was interested in the language, I wasn't clear about its usefulness. I think I have a better idea of that now. To know what is going on outside our country, to tell our friends abroad what is going on in China, to carry out international trade — to do all this, a good command of foreign languages is necessary. So the problem now is not why I should study English, but how to get the best results in the shortest possible time. I find English very interesting but quite difficult. How hard I have been trying to get every sound right, to spell every word correctly and to speak the little English I know! We all know the importance of laying a solid foundation in everything we do, and in language study perhaps more than in anything else, a good beginning is half the battle. A year's study has taught me that we cannot learn English well without watching out for idiomatic ways of saying things. When I began learning English, I thought all I had to do was to memorize individual words. English words, it seemed to me, had exact equivalents in Chinese, and so, to express one's ideas in English, it was just a matter of putting the words together according to the rules of grammar. When I was taught to say "I see a book on the desk" and "I'm going to see a friend", I thought I had learned everything about the word see. I did not realize that we do not see but read a book or a newspaper until one day my teacher caught me out. My interest was aroused and since then I have always been on my guard against such blunders. I have learned to say to ring a bell, but to beat a gong; to attend a meeting but to join in a conversation; to take a walk but to make a trip or to go on a journey. I have learned the difference between after and since, between find and look for, between wear and put on. I have also learned to absorb whole sentences without trying to translate them word for word into Chinese. All this makes me see that besides a good training in pronunciation, spelling, handwriting and basic grammar, one has to pay close attention to English idioms in order to learn the language faster and use it better. However, this is just a beginning, and there is still a long, long way to go. I am fully prepared for more hard work. I must speak and write English more, both in and out of class. I must listen and read more. Some day I am going to read Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw and Dickens and Mark Twain — all in the original! And I shall read English books in science, history, geography, and in everything that will help me to know a lot more about man's past and present.
英语学习 我学英语已经一年有余了。高兴的是，我学得很顺利。 首先，我很清楚自己为何要学英语。一年前，我对英语产生了兴趣，但并不明白它的价值。现在，我觉得清楚多了。无论了解国际动态，向国外的朋友通报国内新闻，还是要进行国际贸易，都需要熟练地掌握外语。 现在的问题不是我为何要学英语，而是怎么能在尽可能短的时间内学得最好。 我发现英语十分有趣，但很难学。为了发好每个音，拼对每个单词，说出我知道的那点英语，我付出的努力太大了！我们都知道，无论做什么事，重要的是要打下坚实的基础。语言学习尤其如此。俗说话：好的开端是成功的一半。 通过一年的学习，我认识到，要想学好英语就得注意习惯表达法。当初学英语时，我以为汉语中对每个英语单词都有准确的对应词，要用英语表达思想，只需根据语法规则把英语单词组合起来，因此记住单词就大功告成了。当我学会说“我看到桌上有本书”和“我要去看位朋友”时，我以为自己完全掌握了“see”这个词。直到有一天老师指出了我的错误，我才认识到“看书”、“看报”需用“read”，而不用“see”。于是我的兴趣提高了。从此以后，我经常留心，不犯以上这类错误。我学会了用英语说“打铃”和“打锣”，“参加会议”和“参加谈话”，“散步”和“旅行”时要用不同的动词。我学会了英语“在……之后”和“自……以来”，“发现”和“寻找”，“穿着”和“穿上”之间的区别。我还学会了领悟整个句子，而不去逐词译成汉语。所有这些使我认识到，要想更快地学会英语，更好地使用英语，除在语音、拼写、书写和基本语法方面进行良好的训练外，还要密切注意英语习惯用法。 然而，这仅仅是开始，前面的路还很长。我已做好一切准备，去迎接更多、更艰苦的学习。课上课下，我得多说多写，还得多听多读。总有一天，我会去读莎士比亚、肖伯纳、狄更斯和马克·吐温的原著！我还要读有关科技、历史、地理和其它方面的英文书籍，使自己更多地了解人类的过去和现在。
COLOSSAL CITIES OF THE FUTURE By the end of the next century, a single city may have more than 100 million inhabitants. Eventually, there may be cities with more than a billion residents. The monster cities of the future horrify planners struggling to cope with today's metropolises. But large cities could offer more benefits than problems. Under favourable conditions, a city with a billion inhabitants could be a very attractive and exciting place to inhabit. Still, one must sympathize with planners' anxieties. The world's largest city now — Mexico City — currently has 18 million people and a huge array of problems. Smog blankets the city. Traffic noise turns citizens deaf. The subway is so jammed that police erect barricades so that women can ride in cars separate from men. Millions of Mexico City's people live in small shanties without running water or electricity. Even so, Mexico City continues to look good to the rural people who pour into the city. The city will have more than 26 million residents by the year 2000, according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Pessimists believe further population growth will eventually cause a virtual collapse of public services in many cities. Potholes, unrepaired bridges, and other problems will make streets impassable to motor vehicles, so bicycles and animal-drawn vehicles will prevail. As the sewer system collapses, people will dump sewage on the streets where rain will eventually wash it away. Piles of garbage and raw sewage would create epidemics, perhaps even recurrences of plague. As conditions deteriorate, city populations would eventually collapse due to malnutrition, disease, and perhaps violence. But optimists see the current problems of expanding cities as merely part of an evolutionary process. London and New York had similar problems but were able eventually to establish an orderly and safe environment for their citizens. Today, many wealthy people who could live anywhere in the world cannot tear themselves away from those cities, even though they continue to have many problems. But can the colossal cities of the future really function without overloading all their services to the point of collapse and destroying the environment through pollution of air and water? The answer, I believe, is yes. A city of one billion could provide very desirable place for people to live and not even seem crowded. Here is how Billion City might work: It would be completely three dimensional, with many levels of activity. Today's cities operate largely on a single plane — the ground. The result is mammoth traffic jams, frequent accidents, and often unpleasant crowding for pedestrians. Billion city would have many levels, so that various transportation systems could work without interfering with each other. One level might be for pedestrians, another for electric automobiles, a third for bicycles, a fourth for high-speed automobiles, a fifth for buses, and a sixth for trains (subways). High speed elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks would convey people swiftly between one level and another. By building the city both deep into the ground and high above it, there would be room for far more people and everything else than there is in today's two dimensional city. Yet residents would not feel crowded, because they would not be jostled or inconvenienced by others as much as they are today. Air and water would be constantly recycled. All air in Billion City would be passed through a cleaning system to remove dust particles, pollen, noxious gases and other pollutants. As a result, air would be cleaner than in today's cities. Water from kitchens and bathrooms would be carefully cleaned and recycled to the city. The end result would be purer water than cities have today. Electricity for the city would come from many sources, including the burning of trash from the city's refuse collections. Powerfrugal systems would keep electricity usage low so that the demand on outside sources is low. Soundproof walls would prevent people from disturbing each other by having loud parties or playing musical instruments. Electronic monitors would watch over the public areas so that there would be little crime. Paintings and video scenes of oceans and forests would compensate for the lack of windows. There would be windows, of course, but they might be fairly expensive; besides, most people wouldn't feel the need for them provided there were suitable interior decorations. All kinds of new technologies are becoming available to help with city problems. What seems to be lacking are the human leadership and management systems to do the job. If we get those, something like Billion City may someday be built, and it will be a great place to inhabit.
未来的特大城市 到下个世纪末，一个城市的居民就可能超过一亿。最终也许会出现人口在十亿以上的城市。 未来的巨城使得正在努力应付目前大城市困难的设计人员感到恐惧。但是，大城市带来的好处可能多于所引起的问题。在顺利的情况下，一个拥有十亿人口的城市会成为令人非常愉快和向往的居住地。 但是，人们应理解设计人员的忧虑。现在世界上最大的城市是墨西哥城，目前人口已有1800万。问题成堆。烟雾笼罩着这个城市。车辆的轰鸣声震耳欲聋。地铁非常拥挤，以致于警察不得不设置路障以便妇女能乘上与男人分开的车厢。几百万墨西哥城的居民住在没有自来水和电的简陋的棚屋里。 虽然如此，对拥入该城的乡村农民来说，墨西哥城仍是个好地方。据联合国人口活动基金会的估计，到2000年墨西哥城的人口将超过2600万。 悲观主义者认为，人口的进一步增长最终将使许多城市的公共设施崩溃，坑凹不平的路面、失修的桥梁以及其他问题将使机动车无法在街道上行驶，因此将盛行自行车和畜力车。由于下水道坍毁，人们将污水倒在街上，最后被雨水冲走。一堆堆垃圾和未经处理的污物可能引起流行病，甚至会再发生瘟疫。由于条件的恶化，城市人口最终会因营养不良、疾病蔓延，也许还因暴力行为而锐减。 但是乐观主义者认为，现在城市膨胀造成的问题只不过是发展过程中的自然现象。伦敦和纽约曾有过类似的问题，但终于能够为它的市民建立了一个整洁、安全的环境。今天，虽然那里依然存在许多问题，但很多可以住在世界上任何其他地方的有钱的人们仍选择这两个城市居住。 但未来的巨城真的能够正常活动，而不会使城市的一切公共设施因超负荷而崩溃、不会由于空气和水的污染而使环境受到破坏吗？ 我认为答案是肯定的。一个具有十亿人口的城市能够成为人们非常称心的居住的地方，甚至于不会拥挤。 我们来看看未来的十亿人口城市可能是什么样子： 它将是完全立体化的，人们可以在许多层平面上从事活动。现在的城市主要在一个平面上活动——即地面。结果产生严重的交通堵塞，经常发生交通事故，步行者则不愉快地挤来挤去。十亿人口城市有许多层平面，因此各种运输工具行驶时不会彼此干扰。这些层面中，一层供行人行走，一层行驶电动汽车，一层走自行车，一层供高速汽车使用，一层行驶公共汽车，一层是地下铁道。高速电梯、自动楼梯和滚动的人行道可将人们迅速地从一个层面输送到另一个层面。 由于这种城市既建在地下深处，又造在地上高空中，所以能容纳的人和其他各种东西会比今天的平面城市多得多。居民不会感到拥挤，因为他们相互推挤和彼此妨碍的程度没有现在这样严重。 空气和水不断地再循环。十亿人口城市中所有的空气都通过净化系统来消除灰尘、花粉、有害气体及其他污染物。因此，空气会变得比现今城市里的空气还洁净。厨房和浴室排出的水将被仔细地进行净化，重新供给城市使用，因此会比今天城市的用水还干净。 十亿人口城市的用电将取自多种来源，包括燃烧城市中收集的垃圾。节能系统能使用电量降低，因此对外来电力的需求比较少。 隔音墙可使人们在喧闹地聚会或演奏乐器时避免相互干扰。 电子监视器将对公共场所进行监视，因此犯罪活动可能很少。 有关海洋和森林的绘画和影象布置可以弥补缺少窗子的缺点。当然窗子还是有的，但可能相当贵。何况，假如有合适的内部装饰，大部分人就会觉得不需要窗子。 所有各种新技术都可用来帮助解决城市问题。看来所缺少的是做这项工作的领导班子和管理机构。如果有了这个条件，诸如十亿人口之类的城市总有一天会建成的，并且是非常适于居住的地方。
HEART TRANSPLANTS On 3 December 1967 Dr. Christiaan Barnard transplanted the heart of a 24-year-old girl into the chest of a 50-year-old man. The operation caught the imagination of the world, and there was a story that a television company offered a million dollars for one single photograph of Washkansky's old heart. But the optimism was short-lived. Eighteen days after the world's first heart-transplant operation, Washkansky died of pneumonia at his hospital in Cape Town. The main problem facing Christiaan Barnard was how to prevent the body's rejection of the new heart. Anti-rejection drugs, it turned out, also weakened the body's resistance to any disease-carrying germs which came its way. It was a side effect, but it killed the patient. Within a few days of Washkansky's transplant, another operation was performed in the United States, by Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz. The recipient, a two-and-a-half-week-old baby boy, died six hours later. A month afterwards, at the Stanford University Medical Center in California, Dr. Norman Shumway carried out a third. But his patient lived only slightly longer. By now optimism had given way to doubt. There were those who believed that the heart was the home of the soul and the thought of a heart being transplanted from one body to another caused them a great deal of pain. Another question asked was, was it all worth the trouble and money that went into it if at the end of the day the patient died? But these early misgivings were not shared by everyone, and, in May 1968, one of Britain's most eminent cardiac surgeons, Donald Ross, decided to perform the operation on 45-year-old Frederick West. For the patient, it was a last chance. He had already suffered several heart attacks, and there was little hope of his living much longer in his condition. As Mr. Ross said at the time: "If the patient has no other future short of this transplant, we think we are morally justified, in the present state of our knowledge, in doing it." For the following five weeks, Mr. West said he felt like a new man. But 46 days after his operation, Britain's first heart transplant patient died. It was a great ordeal for Mrs. West, but an even greater ordeal had been publicity. Hundreds of reporters from the newspapers, radio and television besieged the narrow road outside the Wests' home, all wanted a glimpse of the family whose breadwinner had made British medical history. "I used to be afraid to go outside the front door," Mrs. West recalled. "People would jump on you, and others would drive by in the car and point at the house. It was frightening. All I wanted to do was hide." The poor record of survival, plus public reaction against the media's use of heart transplants for publicity (and perhaps also entertainment), gave rise to wave of anti-transplant feelings both in and outside the medical profession. After that heart transplants as good as ceased. One man in America carried on the research. It was Norman Shumway, who taught Christiaan Barnard his transplant techniques, after spending 20 years experimenting on animals. Today the American is one of the few foremost heart-transplant surgeons in the world, having overcome many of the earlier problems, like rejection. His rate of success speaks for itself. Out of 143 operations in the past decade, 59 patients are still alive. One man continues to lead an active life after eight years with someone else's heart beating inside him. Eight patients have survived for over five years, and 70 per cent of all Shumway's transplant cases live for over a year. Meanwhile, we have the testimony of Mrs. Josephine West, to whom the 46 extra days she had with her husband were priceless. "They were good times," she told a friend. "And Fred had no regrets. He said, if he died tomorrow, he'd really enjoyed himself. It was like seeing him as he used to look before his heart trouble. It was all worth it, and I'd do the same again."
心脏移植 1967年12月3日，克里斯蒂安·巴纳德医生把一位二十四岁姑娘的心脏移植到了一位五十岁男人的胸内。这一手术轰动了整个世界，据说一家电视公司曾出一百万美元的高价来购买沃什坎斯基原来心脏的一张照片。 然而，人们不久就不再感到乐观了，因为在这次世界首例心脏移植手术后的第十八天，沃什坎斯基在开普顿的一家医院里因肺炎而死去。现在，克里斯蒂安·巴纳德所面临的主要问题是，如何防止人体对新心脏的排斥。服用抗排斥异体药物会削弱人体对入侵病菌的抵抗力。这种副作用能将病人致死。 沃什坎斯基心脏移植手术后没几天，美国的亚德里恩·坎特罗威茨医生完成了另一例手术。这个出生仅两周半的男婴在接受手术六小时后便停止了呼吸。一个月后，在加利福尼亚州斯坦福大学医学中心，诺曼·萨姆威医生做了另一例心脏移植手术，但是，病人活的时间只比那个男婴稍长一点。 至此，人们不再乐观，反而疑虑重重。有些人认为，心脏是人的灵魂归宿，一想到一个人的心脏移植到他人身上，就令人痛若不堪。 另一点疑问是，假如病人手术当天就命归黄泉，那么是否还值得花费人力财力进行这种手术呢？ 但是，并不是所有人都怀有这种疑问。1968年5月，作为英国最著名的心脏外科医生之一的唐纳德·罗斯决定给四十五岁的弗雷德里克·韦斯特进行心脏移植手术。对病人来讲，这是最后一线希望，因为他的心脏病已发作好几次，以他的病情，他的生命已没有几天了。正如罗斯先生当时所说：“如果除了做移植手术之外，病人别无出路，那么我们认为，在现有的医学条件下，施行这种手术在道义上是无可非议的。” 韦斯特先生说，在手术后的五周里，他觉得自己像是另外一个人。可是，在手术后的第四十六天，这位首例接受心脏移植手术的英国人离开了人世。 这对韦斯特太太打击不小，但是宣传报道对她的打击更为沉重。数百名报纸、电台和电视台的记者围在韦斯特家外面的狭窄街道上，想亲眼目睹这位创造英国医学史奇迹的当家人的家。韦斯特太太回忆说：“我当时很害怕出前门，人们会拥到你跟前，有人驾车路过，也会用手指一指这座房子。这太可怕了。我当时只想躲起来。” 由于手术后病人存活时间短，加之公共舆论反对新闻界利用心脏移植来进行宣传（甚至娱乐），所以，医学界内外掀起了一股反对心脏移植的浪潮。随后心脏移植手术几乎停止了。 然而，一个美国人却在继续进行这一研究。他就是在动物身上做了二十年的试验，后来向克里斯蒂安·巴纳德传授心脏移植技术的诺曼·萨姆威。现在，他攻克了许多像异体排斥这类的早期的难题，是世界上少数几个做心脏移植手术的先驱者之一。他的手术成功率就很具说服力。在过去十年里接受手术治疗的143位患者中，有59位仍然健在。有一位病人在靠别人心脏维持了八年生命之后仍然健壮地生活着。8位病人手术后活了五年多。百分之七十的接受萨姆威治疗的病人存活时间超过一年。 同时，我们有约瑟芬·韦斯特太太作证。对她来说，和丈夫多呆的那四十六天是无比宝贵的。她对一位朋友说：“那是一段美好的时光。弗雷德毫不后悔。他说他即使第二天就离开人世，他也已经真正尝到了生活的乐趣。他看上去和患病前没有两样。这样做完全值得，再做一次我也愿意。”
JOHN HUNTER John Hunter was the world's first modern surgeon. About 250 years ago, there was born a boy called John — the tenth child of a poor family in Scotland. This boy came to be called the founder of modern scientific surgery. John Hunter as a boy was much more fond of playing in the country and finding out about wild animals than doing his lessons. He started training as a cabinet-maker because he was good with his hands; but when he was 20 he went up to London to work under his brother, William, a skilled medical teacher. He helped with cutting up and studying dead animals, and soon found that this was what he liked doing and was good at. If you had to have an operation in the 18th century your chance of surviving was very poor. Many operations which today are quite straightforward and from which patients recover quickly, such as removing an appendix, would never have been attempted at all, and the victim would probably have died without anyone really knowing why. One of the reasons for this was that doctors knew very little about anatomy — the way the body is built up, and even less about physiology — the way the different parts of the body work. They had learned little since the time of Galen in the 2nd century A. D. Cutting up dead animals to find out how they are made was thought a disgusting thing to do, and to cut up a dead human body was thought wicked. This meant that if the news spread that a surgeon was dissecting bodies, it would stir up trouble. In spite of this some brave scientists did dissect bodies. A surgeon in Brussels called Andreas Vesalius and a French surgeon called Ambroise Pare both studied anatomy in the 16th century; but in order to get bodies to dissect they had to steal them by night from gallows or graves. To be a surgeon was looked on as so inferior that many operations were carried out by barbers, with hardly any training at all. It was respectable to be a doctor, but not a surgeon who split people's blood. John Hunter, however, was sure that this was what he wanted to do. Hunter became a pupil to a good surgeon and learned so quickly that he was offered a job as a lecturer. But John hated lecturing; he found practical work exciting. So he became a house surgeon at St. George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner, where he worked so hard that in 1759 he was ill. When he was better, he joined the army for a time as a surgeon and went on an expedition to Portugal. He learned a great deal from his experience of dealing with the soldiers' wounds. In particular, he studied how to prevent a wounded man from bleeding too much, and also he studied the nerve system in the bodies of animals and humans. In 1763 he came home and set up as a surgeon, and 5 years later he became chief surgeon at St. George's Hospital and surgeon to the king, George Ⅲ. All the time Hunter went on with his research work both on animals and humans. He bought a house in a small village near London. There he kept many animals to help in his own search. He treated them well and was clever at handling them — even big wild animals such as leopards. One day two of his leopards escaped from their cage, but Hunter fearlessly went up to them and led them safely back again. Another time a bull broke free, and this time Hunter had to wrestle with it before he could get it tied up again. As he experimented he got to know more about how the human body works, and he found ways of operating on people so as to save their limbs and even their lives. A man, for example, was brought to him with a bad tumour on his leg. Most surgeons would have cut his leg off, but Hunter saw how he could remove the tumour and treat the leg so that within 6 weeks the man was quite well again. But Hunter worked so hard that he overstrained his heart. Even then he would not stop until at last, in 1793, when he was 65 years old, he died of a heart attack. By this time people realized how important is the work of surgeons, and great honour was paid to him. There were two main reasons which prevented John Hunter from being able to do many operations which he could otherwise have done. One of these was pain: operations had to be done without anaesthetics. The other was infection; however well the operation was done, the patient often died afterward from infection in the open wound. When, about 50 years after Hunter's death, chloroform was first used in Britain, and, only a few years later, infection was prevented by antiseptics, surgeons could do many more operations.
约翰·亨特 约翰·亨特是世界上第一位现代外科医生。 大约在250年前，苏格兰一个贫苦家庭的第十个孩子——约翰出生了。这个男孩后来被称为现代外科医学的奠基者。亨特还是孩童时就特别喜欢去野地游玩，喜欢野生动物，而不喜欢做功课。由于手巧，他开始学做桌椅。但20岁那年，他到伦敦，在富有经验的医学教师——哥哥威廉的手下做事。亨特帮助哥哥解剖、研究死了的动物。不久他发现这一行当正是自己喜欢做又擅长做的。 在18世纪，如果你非动手术不可，那么你活下来的希望是很渺茫的。有许多今天很好做而且手术后病人可以很快康复的像切除阑尾一类的手术在当时根本不会有人去尝试。病人可能死了，而没有人知道病因何在，原因之一是当时的医生对解剖学——人体的组织结构知之甚少，而对解释人体不同部位功能的生理学知之更少。从公元2世纪加伦那个时代以来，他们在这方面的的学问长进不大。当时，解剖死动物了解体内结构被看作令人厌恶之事，而解剖死人的尸体则被认为是邪恶。这就意味着如果哪个外科医生解剖人体的消息传开那就会招惹麻烦。尽管如此，一些勇敢的科学家仍坚持解剖人体。布鲁塞尔的一位叫韦萨里斯的外科医生和法国的一位外科医生帕雷都于16世纪研究了解剖学；但为了得到解剖用的尸体，他们不得不深更半夜到绞架台或墓地偷尸。当时外科医生的社会地位十分低下，因而很多手术都是那些几乎没有经过任何训练的剃头匠做的。作一个医生是受人敬重的，但作一个使人流血的外科医生却是另一回事。然而约翰·亨特却认定这一行正是他要干的。 亨特成了一位医术高明的外科医生的学生，而且学得很快，得到了一份讲课的工作，但约翰讨厌讲课，他喜欢做一些实际的工作，因而他到海德公园角附近圣·乔治医院当了一名住院外科医生。他工作十分勤恳以致在1759年病倒，以后刚好一些，他就参军成为一名外科军医，随军远征葡萄牙。他从医治伤员的实践中获得了丰富的经验。特别是，他研究了怎样防止伤员流血过多。同时还研究了动物和人体的神经系统。1763年回国，建立了外科诊室。5年之后，他成为圣·乔治医院的主治外科医生，并兼任国王乔治三世的私人外科医生。 亨特始终坚持研究人体和动物。他在伦敦附近一个村子里买下了一幢房子。在那里他饲养了许多动物，供研究之用。这些动物他饲养得当，并巧妙地使唤甚至像豹子这样的大野兽。一天，两只豹子从笼子里逃了出来，亨特毫不畏惧地走近它们，并平安无事地把它们领回。又一次，一头公牛跑了出来。这次，亨特跟牛搏斗了一番才又将牛捆住。 在实验中他获得了更多有关人体运转的知识，并找到了为保住四肢甚至保住生命而对人体进行手术的方法。例如有一次，一位腿上长了难治的肿瘤的病人被送到他面前。大多数外科医生一定会截肢。但亨特明白他怎样将肿瘤切除并医治这条腿，结果，6周之内这位病人恢复得相当不错。但是，亨特工作十分刻苦以致心脏过于劳累。尽管那样，他仍坚持工作，直到1793年他65岁时因心脏病发作而去世。到了这时人们才认识到外科医生的工作是多么的重要，并给亨特以崇高的荣誉。 有两个主要原因使得约翰·亨特不能做许多本来完全可以做的手术。一个原因是疼痛：做手术没有麻醉剂。另一个原因是感染：不论手术多么成功，病人常常在手术后死于刀口的感染。亨特去世后约50年，氯仿麻醉剂首次在英国使用，仅仅几年之后，感染问题由于使用消毒剂而得以解决，外科医生们便可以做更多的手术了。
OUR EARTH Our earth is a huge round ball, spinning in space. It spins like a top with a stick poked through from top to bottom. The spots where the stick would come out we call the poles — the north and south poles. The earth is tilted a little. It is always tilted the same amount and in the same direction. Night and Day Our earth gets its warmth and light from the sun. The sun is a huge blazing ball, a million times larger than the earth. And it is millions of miles away. The earth spins round once every twenty-four hours. It turns to face the sun and spins away again every twenty-four hours. When our part of the earth faces the sun, we see sunlight and have day. When our part turns away from the light, we have night. When our part begins to turn towards the sun and we see the first sunlight, we call it morning. When we are facing the sun most directly, it is noon. Then the sun is closest to being straight above us. When we begin to turn away from the sun, we have afternoon and evening and night. This happens to most parts of the earth every twenty-four hours. Summer and Winter It takes our earth 365 1/4 days to travel round the sun. This makes one year. As the earth travels round, first one pole and then the other is tilted towards the sun. When the north pole is towards the sun, the sun's rays shine down quite straight on the northern part of the earth, while they slant down towards the southern part. Now the slanting rays cover a much larger surface of the earth than the same number of rays coming straight down. The more the rays are spread out, the less heat they give to the part of the earth they touch. So when the north pole tips towards the sun, the northern half of the world (or the Northern Hemisphere) is warmer and has its summer (June, July and August). It also has longer days, because it faces the sun more of the time. When the south pole is towards the sun, the southern half of the world (or the Southern Hemisphere) is warmer, and it has its summer (December, January and February). At the same time the northern half is getting less direct sunshine, because it tips away from the sun. It has shorter days. It has winter. What is the Earth Made of Probably at one time the earth was blazing hot, like the stars we see in the sky at night. Probably then it gave off light and heat and sparkled from far off, like a star. That was billions of years ago. Through the ages the earth has cooled. But there is still fiery hot rock deep inside. Towards the outside, the rock is cool and hard. There are different kinds of rock. Some are harder and heavier than others. And they are of many different colours. On the very outside of the earth is a bumpy crust of rock and soil. We look at those bumps — the mountains and valleys around us. We think of the deep lakes and oceans. And we think that the earth's crust is very uneven indeed. Actually, even with its highest mountains and deepest oceans, the earth is as smooth for its size as a rubber ball. Covering much of the earth's surface is a blanket of water. And all around the earth is a blanket of air, many miles thick. This air we call the atmosphere. We breathe it, and it gives us our weather. The air is always moving. The movements of air make winds. Tiny drops of water in the air form clouds. And as the clouds move about they bring us rain and snow and storms. We know that the air holds some of the warmth coming from the sun. Without the air to stop some of the sun's heat, every part of the earth would be burning hot when the sun's rays strike it. Without the air to hold some of the sun's heat, the earth would be freezing cold at night, too cold for us to live. The Stars and the Moon The stars we see at night are really huge suns like our sun, but they are farther away in space. Some of them have planets like our earth travelling round them. The stars are so fiery hot that they give off great light and heat — more than the hottest, brightest fire you can imagine. Now light travels at 186,000 miles per second. But the stars are so far away that their light still takes years to reach us. The light we see coming from some far-off stars started on its journey more than a hundred years ago. The moon is a ball of cold rock. It is much smaller than the earth. It circles round the earth as the earth circles round the sun. Since the moon is cold, it does not shine with light of its own. We can see it only when the sun is shining on it, or when sunlight is reflected on to it from the earth. When that side of the moon on which the sun is shining is facing us, we see a round shining circle — a full moon. Sometimes the sunny side of the moon is only partly facing us. Then we see just half of the circle shining. The other half is dark. When the moon is like this, we call it a quarter moon. Sometimes the sunny side of the moon is away from us. We may see only a sliver of light along one edge. We call this a new moon. The whole journey of the moon round the earth takes twenty-eight days. We see the change from new moon to quarter to full and back to new moon every twenty-eight days. Our word month comes from the word moon.
我们的地球 我们的地球是一个巨大的圆球，在宇宙中转动。它转动起来好似从上到下插过一根棍子的陀螺。棍子穿出的两个点我们称之为极点——南极与北极。 地球略微倾斜，倾斜的角度和方向总是不变的。 黑夜和白昼 我们的地球从太阳那里获得温暖和阳光。太阳距我们有几百万英里，是个比地球大百万倍的巨大火球。 地球每二十四小时自转一周。它每二十四小时交替着面对太阳或背对太阳各一次。 我们这半球面对太阳时，我们能看到阳光，这时是白昼。我们这半球背对太阳时，就是黑夜。 当我们这半球开始转向太阳时，我们看到朝阳，这就是早晨。 我们正对着太阳时，就是中午。这时的太阳几乎直射着我们头顶。我们开始转离它时，就是下午。随后是黄昏和夜晚。地球上的大部分地区的二十四小时都是如此。 夏季和冬季 我们的地球需要三百六十五又四分之一天绕太阳公转一周，这就是一年。 地球公转时，两极交替着斜向太阳。北极斜向太阳时，阳光直射在北半球，斜射在南半球。 此时，斜射的光线要比同样数量的直射的阳光在地表的照射面积大。但光线越扩散，它给予照射地区的热量就越少。 所以，当北极斜向太阳时，地球的北半部（北半球）就比较温暖，是夏季（六、七、八月）。这时由于大部分时间面向太阳，所以白昼较长。 当南极斜向太阳时，地球的南半部（南半球）就比较温暖，处于夏季（十二、一、二月）。与此同时，北半球由于偏离太阳，太阳照射的光线较少，白昼比较短，是冬季。 地球的构成 大概曾经有过一个时期，那时地球和我们看到的夜空里的群星一样的炽热。当时地球很可能既发光、又放热，从远处望去就像一颗耀眼的星星，但那几乎是十亿年以前的事了。 随着时间的推移，地球冷却下来了。但是地球内部仍有滚烫的岩浆。 靠近地表是冷却硬化的岩石。岩石类型繁多，有些比较硬，比较重。岩石的颜色五彩缤纷。 地球的最外层是由岩石和土壤构成的凹凸不平的硬壳，我们看着那些高低不平的起伏——我们周围的山峦和峡谷，想到深深的湖泊和海洋，我们于是认识到地表确实是起伏不平的。实际上，地球上尽管有高耸入云的群山和深不可测的海洋，但是由于本身太大了，所以相比之下，地球仍可以说光滑得像个橡皮球。 地球表面主要被水覆盖着。地球四周是一层许多英里厚的空气，我们称之为大气层。我们呼吸空气，空气造成各种气候。 空气无时不在流动。空气流动便形成了风。空气里的小水珠形成了云。云的飘动给我们带来了雨、雪和风暴。 我们知道，空气能储存太阳射来的部分热量。假如没有空气吸收太阳的一些热量，地球在阳光照射下就会灼热不堪。 如果没有空气储存大部分太阳热量，地球在夜晚就会冻得冰冷，人们便无法生存。 星星和月亮 我们晚上看到的星星，其实都是和太阳一样巨大的恒星，只不过是在更远的宇宙空间罢了。有些恒星带有行星。这些行星像地球一样绕着恒星旋转。 星星像火一样的灼热，释放大量的光和热——比我们所能想象的最热、最亮的火所发出的能量还要大。光速是每秒钟十八万六千英里。但是由于星星离我们太远，以至于它们的光到达我们这里需要好些年时间。我们看到的一些远处星星的光就是在一百多年前发出的。 月亮是一个冷的岩石球，比地球要小得多。它像地球绕太阳那样绕地球旋转。 月亮是冷的，它本身不发光。只有在阳光照射到月亮上或阳光从地球折射到月亮上时，我们才能看到月亮。 当月亮接受阳光照射的一面面向我们时，我们看到的是个发亮的圆盘——满月。 有时，月亮接受阳光照射的一面只是部分地面对着我们。那么，我们只看到圆月一半发亮，另一半是黑的，这时的月亮我们称之为半月。 还有的时候，月亮接受阳光照射的一面背对着我们，我们只能看到一个边缘的月牙形光条，我们称之新月。 月亮绕地球旋转一周需要二十八天。我们每二十八天就能看到从新月到半月、到满月再回到新月的变化过程。我们所谓的年月的“月”就来自“月亮”一词。
THE GREAT HALL OF THE PEOPLE--- A FOREIGN VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS OF BEIJING China's Great Hall of the People, built in 1958, was a remarkable example of her speed of construction. James Cameron of the London News Chronicle, who was in China in 1954, reported even then the pace of building was unbelievable; how four new hospitals, six factories, and eleven full-scale blocks, had been laid out, started and completed in a matter of weeks. The hotel I stayed in in Nanjing in 1957 — a four-hundred-room hotel with tiled bathroom to every room — was completed in seventeen weeks, as I was assured by a British resident who had watched it. James Cameron saw the Chinese genius for rapid construction in 1954; I saw it first in 1957; and I saw it again in 1960. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic (1959), the government determined in 1958 that Beijing should undertake ten major building projects and complete them in ten months. Two of these projects were the construction of the Museum of Chinese History and the Great Hall of the People. These vast buildings stand on each side of Tian An Men Square. The square itself is five hundred yards wide, five times the size of St. Peter's in Rome, and it is now the largest, and I think perhaps one of the most pleasing squares in the world. On the east of the square is the new Museum of Chinese History. Here you can trace the history of China from its earliest beginnings to the modern era. Here, too, are China's finest art treasures. It is air-conditioned and beautifully lighted, and its displays are presented with taste. It is surely one of the great museums of the world. Facing it across the square stands another new building, the one that takes pride of place in the hearts of all Beijing — the Great Hall of the People. This building is eleven hundred feet long, fronted by ten columns. It contains not only the famous five-thousand-seat banqueting hall, and twenty odd reception rooms each as big as normal ballroom, but the Great Hall itself. With two sweeping balconies, this auditorium holds ten thousand people, and it is here that the National People's Congress meets, and all the other great political meetings are held. There are several novel features about this hall. Its design breaks every known rule of acoustics, but you can, in spite of its size, hear distinctly in every part of it. All seats on the ground floor are equipped with earphones through which you can hear a simultaneous translation of a speech in any one of twelve different languages. Another interesting fact about this hall is that while fourteen thousand workers were employed in its construction, citizens of Beijing could give whatever volunteer help they wanted to, and many thousands did so at week-ends, in the evenings, or during their holidays. One of my interpreters, a girl, once pointed to the building as we passed it in a car and said, "I helped to build that hall!" If this hall (even with the help of volunteers) had been built in ten years, it would still have been an architectural triumph. Designed, built, and fully completed in ten months, it was a miracle.
人民大会堂——一位外宾对北京的观感 中国的人民大会堂建于一九五八年，它是中国高速建设的典型例子。一九五四年访问中国的伦敦《新闻纪事报》记者詹姆斯·卡麦隆报导说，当时建设速度之快是难以令人置信的：四家医院，六座工厂和十一个完整的街区仅在数周之内就设计、建造并完工了。一九五七年我在南京住过的一家宾馆——四百间客房，每间都配有用瓷砖砌成的盥洗室——是在十七周内建成的。这是一位目睹此事的英国侨民告诉我的。一九五四年詹姆斯·卡麦隆看到了中国高速度建设的才干。一九五七年我首次见到这种奇迹；一九六零年又见到了一次。 为了庆祝中华人民共和国建国十周年（一九五九年），一九五八年，中国政府决定十个月内在北京完成十项主要建筑工程。中国历史博物馆和人民大会堂就是其中的两项。这两大建筑分别矗立在天安门广场的两侧。天安门广场宽五百码，是罗马圣彼得广场的五倍。它是现今世界上最大的广场。我认为它也许是世界上最迷人的广场之一。 广场东侧是新建成的中国历史博物馆。在这里你可以追寻到中国人从远古到现代的全部历史。馆里还陈列着中国最好的艺术珍品。该博物馆配有空调设备，灯光设计非常美观，展品也饶有情趣。它确实是世界上最伟大的博物馆之一。 广场西侧与历史博物馆相对，耸立着另一座新建筑物，这就是在北京所有居民的心目中占有最重要位置的人民大会堂。大会堂长一千一百英尺，正面是十根圆形柱子。它不仅具有一个五千座位的著名的宴会厅，二十多个像普通舞厅大小的会客厅，而且还有一个大会堂。大会堂连同它的两个巨大的楼厅，总共可容纳一万人。全国人民代表大会以及其他大型的政治会议就是在这里举行的。 大会堂具有几个独特之处。在设计上，它打破了音响学所有的陈规。尽管大会堂规模宏大，但是你在会堂里的每个地方都可以听得清清楚楚。池座的所有座位都装有耳机。通过耳机你可以听到讲话的同声传译。有十二种语言可供选择。关天大会堂，还有一件事值得提起。当一万四千名工人施工时，北京市民自愿提供各种帮助，几万名市民利用周末、晚上或节假日参加义务劳动。有一次，当我们驱车驶过大会堂时，我的一个翻译，一位姑娘指着大会堂说：“建造大会堂，我也出了一份力。” 即使大会堂（尽管有义务建设者参加）在十年内建成，在建筑史上也同样是辉煌的一页。从设计、建造到全部竣工，大会堂仅用了十个月，这真是一项奇迹。
THE COP AND THE ANTHEM Winter was coming, and Soapy, one of the many thousands of New York pickpockets, felt uneasy. He knew that the time had come for him to look for shelter. Soapy's desires were not great. Three months in prison was what he wanted. There he was sure of a little food and a bed, safe from the winter wind and the cold. For years prison had been his shelter during the winter. Now the time had come again. Having decided to go to prison, Soapy at once set about fulfilling his desire. There were many ways of doing this. The pleasantest was to get a good meal at some expensive restaurant, and then, after saying that he could not pay, be quietly arrested by a policeman and sent to prison by the judge. Soapy walked along Broadway looking at the expensive goods in the fashionable shops. He stopped at the window of a brightly-lit café. Soapy was freshly shaven, and his coat and tie were decent. But his boots and trousers were shabby. "If I can reach a table in the restaurant unsuspected," he thought, "everything will be all right. The upper part of me that will show above the table will cause no suspicion in the waiter's mind. A roast duck, a bottle of wine, a cup of coffee and a cigar will make me happy on the journey to my winter quarters." But just as Soapy entered the restaurant, the head waiter's eye fell on his shabby trousers and boots. Strong hands turned him round and pushed him on to the sidewalk. Soapy turned off Broadway. He had to think of another way of getting into prison. At a corner of Sixth Avenue he saw a brightly-lit shop window. Soapy picked up a cobble-stone and dashed it through the glass. People came running round the corner, a policeman at their head. Soapy stood still with his hands in his pockets, and smiled at the sight of brass buttons. "Where is the man who did that?" shouted the policeman. "Don't you think I did it?" said Soapy in a friendly way. The policeman did not understand Soapy's hint. Men who break windows do not usually remain to speak to a policeman. They run away. Just then the policeman saw a man hurrying to catch a bus. Club in hand, he rushed after that man. Soapy had failed again. On the opposite side of the street was a small cheap restaurant. Soapy entered it, sat down at a table and ate a beefsteak and an enormous apple-pie. "Now call a cop, I cannot pay. I have no money," said Soapy. "And don't keep a gentleman waiting." "No cop for you," said the waiter, and seizing Soapy by the collar he threw him out of the restaurant. Soapy picked himself up and beat the dust from his clothes. Arrest seemed but a rosy dream. Prison seemed very far away. A policeman who stood before a drugstore two doors away laughed and walked down the street. He was just passing a cigar store, when he saw a well-dressed man go in, leaving his silk umbrella at the entrance. Soapy stepped in, took the umbrella, and slowly continued his way. The man saw him. He turned and followed hastily. "My umbrella!" he said sternly. "Oh, is it?" said Soapy. "Well, why don't you call a policeman? I took it. Your umbrella! Why don't you call a cop? There is one standing at the corner." The owner of the umbrella slowed his steps. Soapy did the same. The policeman looked at the two curiously. "Of course," said the umbrella-man ― "that is ― well, you know how these mistakes occur ― I ― if it's your umbrella I hope you'll excuse me ― I picked it up this morning in a restaurant — If you recognize it as yours, why ― I hope you'll ―" The man retreated. Soapy walked on, muttering insults against policemen who would not arrest him. At last he reached a street where there was little traffic and few pedestrians. At a quiet corner he suddenly stopped. There was an old church in front of him. Through the windows a soft light shone, and the sweet music of the Sabbath anthem made him approach the iron fence. The moon was above, cold and beautiful, and the music reminded Soapy of those days when his life contained such things as mothers and roses and clean thoughts and collars. Soapy listened to the music, looked at the moon and murmured to himself: "There is time yet. I will reform. I will become an honest man. I will get out of the mire. I will ―" Soapy felt a hand laid on his arm. He looked quickly round into the broad face of a policeman. "What are you doing here?" asked the policeman. "Nothing," said Soapy. "Then come along," said the policeman. "Thinking of robbing the church, eh?" "Three months' imprisonment," said the judge in the police court the next morning.
警察与赞美诗 冬天就要到了，苏比感到很不安。他是纽约街头成千上万扒手中的一个。他心里明白，寻找栖身之处的时候到了。苏比并没有什么奢望。在监狱里呆上三个月即是他所希求。因为在狱中他肯定会有一口饭吃，有一张床睡。而且还可以免风寒之苦。 数年来，监狱一直是他过冬的住所。眼下又到了这个季节。 下了决心要进监狱，苏比就立即着手实现这一愿望。进监狱的办法是多种多样的。而最令人愉快的方法莫过于在一家昂贵的餐馆里美餐一顿，然后因付不出钱让警察抓起来。以后，法官自会把他送进监狱。 苏比顺着百老汇大街走着。他边走边瞧着高级商店里价格惊人的物品。在一家灯火辉煌的咖啡馆前，他停下脚步。苏比刚刮过胡子，他的外衣和领带还挺像样。可是靴子和裤子却破旧不堪。“只要我能不受怀疑地走到餐桌边，”他思忖着，“那一切就好办了。露出桌面的是我的上半身，这不会引起待者怀疑的。一只烤鸭，一瓶葡萄酒，一杯咖啡，再加上一支雪茄。这顿饭会打发我高高兴兴地踏上冬季寓所的旅程的。”然而苏比刚踏进餐馆大门，领班待者的目光就落在了他的破裤子烂鞋上。一双有力的手把他身子转过来，一把推到了人行道上。 苏比拐出了百老汇大街。他得想别的办法进监狱了。在第六大街的拐角处，他看到了个灯火通明的橱窗。苏比捡起一块鹅卵石向橱窗扔去，玻璃被砸碎了。人们从拐角处跑过来，领头的是位警察。苏比双手插在兜里，站在那儿，一动也没动，望着警察上衣上的铜钮扣发笑。 “肇事的人在哪儿？”警察大声喊叫着。 “你不认为这是我干的吗？”苏比友好地说。 警察没有领会苏比的暗示。砸橱窗的人一般是不会留下来和警察打交道的。他们总是逃之夭夭。这时，警察看见有个人跑着赶公共汽车，就提着警棍，追了过去。苏比又失败了。 这条街的对面有一家卖廉价饭菜的小饭馆。苏比进去坐在餐桌旁，吃了一份牛排，一大份苹果馅饼。 “叫警察去吧，我付不起钱。一个子儿都没有。”苏比说。“动作快点儿，别让爷们儿等着。” “用不着叫警察，”待者边说边抓住了苏比的领子，把他搡出了饭馆。苏比从地上爬起来，拍了拍身上的土。被捕仿佛是个美丽的梦幻；监狱宛如海市蜃楼。隔着两个门是家药铺，门前就站着个警察，可他只是笑了笑就沿着街走开了。 他路过一家雪茄烟店时，看见一位穿着体面的男人走了进去，将一把绸伞放在门口。苏比跨进店门，拿起雨伞，然后慢吞吞地往外走。那个男人看见了他，急忙转身追了出来。 “我的伞！”他厉声说道。 “哦，是吗？”苏比说，“好吧，那你为什么不叫警察？我拿了伞，你的伞。为什么不叫巡警？拐角那儿就站着一位。” 伞主人放慢了脚步。苏比也放慢脚步。那位警察好奇地打量着他们。 “当然，”伞主人说道，“是这么回事，你知道有时候会发生这种误会……我……这要是你的伞，希望你能原谅我……今天早上我在一家餐馆里捡到的……要是你认出来这把伞是你的……呃……我希望你……” 那人溜走了，苏比还继续往前走，一边走一边低声咒骂就是不逮捕他的那几个警察。 最后他来到了一条大街上，这里车少人稀。在一个僻静的角落，他猛然停了脚步。一座古老的教堂座落在面前。柔和的灯光透过窗子射了出来。礼拜日赞美诗的美妙的音乐吸引住了他，把他带到了铁栏杆前。 皓月当空，月光清冷而美丽。音乐使苏比想起了昔日的时光；那时他拥有母爱，享受着幸福，怀着纯洁的思想，还穿着衣领干净的衬衫。苏比聆听着音乐，望着明月，自言自语地说：“还来得及，我一定要重新做人。我一定要做一个诚实的人。我一定要跳出火坑。我一定要……” 苏比觉得有一只手抓住了他的胳膊。他猛地转过脸去，看到了警察的一张胖脸。 “你在这儿干什么？”警察问道。 “什么也不干，”苏比回答。 “跟我走一趟，”警察说道。“想抢劫教堂，嗯？” “判处三个月监禁。”第二天早上，治安法庭上的法官宣判道。
THE FINANCIERS (A Chapter from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists) Robert Tressell (Abridged) That night as William Easton walked home through the rain he felt very depressed. It had been a very bad summer for most people and he had not fared better than the rest. A few weeks with one firm, a few days with another, then out of a job, then on again for a month perhaps, and so on. As a single man he had never troubled much if he happened to be out of work; but now that he was married it was different: the fear of being "out" haunted him all the time. He had started for Rushton & Co. the previous Monday after having been idle for three weeks, and as the house where he was working had to be done through he had congratulated himself on having secured a job that would last till Christmas. But he would have to be careful not to offend Crass, the foreman, who could give him the sack at any time. His home was a small house, one of a long row of similar ones. As he entered, his wife met him in the passage and asked him not to make a noise as the child had just gone to sleep. They both went softly into the kitchen, where the baby was sleeping in a wicker cradle. "I couldn't think what to give you to eat tonight," said Ruth as she poured out the tea. "I had no money left and there was nothing in the house except bread and butter. So I cut some bread and toasted it on the fire. I hope you'll like it -- it was the best I could do." "That's all right; it smells very nice anyway, and I am very hungry." They remained at the table in silence for some time, and then Easton asked: "How much rent do we owe now?" "Four weeks, and I promised the collector the last time he called that we'd pay two weeks next Monday. He was quite nasty about it." "I suppose you'll have to pay it, that's all," said Easton. "How much money will you have tomorrow?" asked Ruth. He began to reckon up his time: he started on Monday and today was Friday; five days, from seven to five, less half an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner, eight and a half hours a day -- forty-two hours and a half in all. At sevenpence an hour that came to one pound four and ninepence halfpenny. "If we pay the two weeks' rent that'll leave us twelve shillings to live on." "But we won't be able to keep all that," said Ruth, "because there're other things to pay." "What other things?" "We owe the baker eight shillings for the bread he let us have while you were not working, and there's another twelve shillings we owe for groceries. We'll have to pay them something on account. Then we want some more coal -- there's only about a shovelful left, and ..." "Wait a minute," said Easton. "The best way is to write out a list of everything we owe; then we shall know exactly where we are. You get me a piece of paper and tell me what to write. Then we'll see what it all comes to." While they were talking the baby was sleeping restlessly, uttering little cries from time to time. The mother went to kneel at the side of the cradle, gently rocking it with one hand and patting the child with the other. "Except the furniture people, the biggest thing we owe is the rent," she said as Easton cleared a space on the table and was ready to begin. "It seems to me," said he, "that you don't manage things as well as you might. When you go shopping on Saturday, you just take the money in your hand without knowing exactly what you're going to do with it and when you come back it's all gone and there's next to nothing to show for it." His wife made no reply, her head bending down over the child. "Now, let's see," her husband went on. "First of all, there's the rent. How much did you say we owe?" "Four weeks. That's the three weeks you were out and this week." "Four sixes is twenty-four; that's one pound four," said Easton as he wrote down. "Next?" "Grocer, twelve shillings." Easton looked up in astonishment. "Twelve shillings. Why, didn't you tell me only the other day that you'd paid up all we owed for groceries?" "Don't you remember we owed thirty-five shillings last spring? Well, I've been paying that bit by bit all the summer. I paid the last of it the week you finished your last job. Then you were out three weeks, and, as we had nothing in hand I had to get what we wanted without paying for it." "Well," he said. "What else?" "We owe the baker eight shillings. We did owe nearly a pound, but I've been paying it off a little at a time." This was added to the list. "Then there's the milkman. I've not paid him for four weeks. He hasn't sent a bill yet, but you can work it out: we have two pennyworth every day." "That's four and eight," said Easton, writing it down. "Anything else?" "We owe the butcher two and sevenpence." "Why, we haven't had any meat for a long time," said Easton. "When was it?" "Three weeks ago. Don't you remember? A small leg of mutton." "Oh, yes," and he added the item. "Then there's the instalments for the furniture and oilcloth -- twelve shillings. A letter came from them today. And there's something else."
理财家 (摘自《穿破裤子的慈善家》) ——罗伯特·特雷塞尔 (缩写) 那天晚上，威廉·伊斯顿冒着雨走回家，心情很沮丧。对大多数人来说，这是个很糟糕的夏天，他也不比其他人幸运。在这家公司干几个星期，在另一家干上几天，然后没有活干，接着也许又能找到工作干上个把月，一个夏天就这样，一会儿有活干，一会儿没活干。 他过单身生活时，即使偶尔失了业，他也未太烦恼过。可是，既然结了婚，情况就不同了，失业的恐惧时刻都在困扰着他。 闲了三个星期后，从这个星期一起，他开始为拉什顿公司干活。他暗自庆幸自己找到的工作能干到圣诞节，因为他正在整理的那座房子需要彻底装修。但是他得小心，别冒犯了工头克拉斯，因为克拉斯随时都能解雇他。 他住在一所小房子里，是一长排样式相同的房子中的一所。他进门时，妻子在过道里迎着他。因为孩子刚睡下，她叫他别发出声响来。他们俩轻轻地进了厨房，孩子正在屋里一个柳条编的摇篮里睡觉。 “我真不知道今晚让你吃什么，”露丝边说边倒着茶，“家里没钱了。除了面包和黄油之外，家里什么也没有了。所以我就切了一些面包，在火上烤了烤。希望你喜欢吃，我实在没有别的办法了。” “还不错，起码闻起来不错，再说我也饿坏了。” 他们默默地在桌子边坐了一会儿，这时伊斯顿问道： “我们现在欠了多少房租？“ “四个星期的。收租的那个人上次来时，我答应过他下星期一交两个星期的钱。他可真凶。” “我想你怎么也得付钱，没有别的办法，”伊斯顿说道。 “你明天能领多少钱？”露丝问道。 他开始计算自己的工钱：他从星期一开始干活，今天是星期五，共五天，早七点到下午五点，除去不到半小时的早饭时间，一个小时的午饭时间，一天干八个半小时，一共是四十二个半小时。按每小时七便士算，一共是一镑四先令九个半便士。 “如果我们付两个星期的房租，那么我们只剩下十二先令过日子了。” “可是我们剩不下那么多，”露丝说，“因为还有其他的东西要付钱。” “其他什么东西？” “我们欠面包店老板八先令，这是你失业时我们吃他的面包欠的钱。还有食品杂货钱十二先令。我们得先还他们一点欠款。另外还得买些煤，只剩下一铲了，还有……” “等一下，”伊斯顿说，“最好把我们所欠的款项列出来，那样我们就会知道我们到底欠多少。你给我拿张纸来，你说我记，这样我们就会知道一共是多少了。” 他们说话时，孩子睡得很不踏实，还不时地哭几声。孩子的母亲走过去跪在摇篮旁，一只手轻轻地摇着，另一只手拍着孩子。 “除了买家具外，我们欠得最多的就是房租。”露丝说道。这时伊斯顿就在桌上腾出一块地方并准备开始写。 “我觉得，”他说。“你本来可以把家务管理得好些。星期六上街买东西时，你只是手里拿着钱，却不知道究竟怎么花手里的钱。而且回家时所有钱都花完了，却看不到你买回了些什么。” 他妻子低头看着孩子，没有作声。 “好了，我们算算吧，”她丈夫接着说。“首先是房租。刚才你说我们欠多少？” “四个星期的，就是你没有活干的那三个星期，再加上这个星期。” “四六二十四，一英镑四先令。”伊斯顿边说边记了下来。“还有呢？” “杂货店老板，十二先令。” 伊斯顿惊讶地抬起头。 “十二先令。可是，就在前几天，你不是告诉我你已经把我们欠下的买食品杂货的帐都还清吗？” “你不记得今年春天我们就欠了三十五先令吗？这帐，整个夏天我都在一点点地还。你干完上个活时，我刚好还清。这以后你三个星期没有活干，另外，因为我们手头一点钱都没有，我只好先赊帐了。” “好吧，”他说道。“还有什么？” “我们欠面包店八先令。我们确实欠过近一镑的钱，可我一直在一点一点地还。” 这一项也写进了欠单里。 “然后是欠奶工的钱。四个星期没有付给他工钱了。他还没有把帐单给我们，可是你也能算出来，因为我们每天喝二便士的奶。” “一共四先令八便士，”伊斯顿边说，边把数字记了下来。“还有什么？” “我们欠肉店老板二先令七便士。” “你说什么，我们好长时间没有吃肉了，”伊斯顿说道。“这是什么时候欠的？” “三个星期前的。你不记得了？一只小羊腿。” “噢，有这么回事。”于是，他把这笔钱加了进去。 “然后是家具和油布的分期付款，——十二先令。今天他们来了一封信。另外还有一些其他的东西。” （待续）
THE FINANCIERS (Continued) She took three letters from the pockets of her dress and handed them to Easton. Each demanded some payment that was overdue: twelve shillings for the furniture and oilcloth; one pound four and one penny for the General District and Special Rates; and one pound one and fivepence halfpenny for Poor Rate. Easton read the letters several times over and finally with an oath threw them on the table. "It's a great pity that we ever had the things at all," he said, peevishly. " It would have been much better to have gone without until we could pay cash for them: but you would have your way, of course. Now we'll have this bloody debt dragging on us for years, and before the damn stuff is paid for it'll be worn out." Ruth did not reply at once. For months she had been existing without sufficient food. When Easton was unemployed they had to stint themselves so as to avoid getting further into debt than was absolutely necessary. Often she pretended, as she gave him his meals, that she had had her meal while he was out. At last she spoke: "But you were just as much in favour of getting them as I was. You remember how the wind used to come up between the floorboards and if we hadn't got the oilcloth there would have been illness in the house." Easton looked alternatively at the list of debts and the three letters, and then he said, "I give you nearly every farthing I earn and I never interfere with anything, because I think it's your part to attend to the house, but it seems to me you don't manage things properly." This was too much for Ruth. She burst into tears, laying her head on the seat of the chair that was standing near the cradle. Easton started up in surprise. He knelt down by her, embracing her and apologizing. "I always do the best I can with the money," Ruth sobbed. "I never spend a farthing on myself, but you don't seem to understand how hard it is." "I'm sorry I spoke to you like that," said Easton. "I didn't mean what I said. It's all my fault. I know you try your best." "I knew we wouldn't have enough," said Ruth. "Now if you think I manage so badly, perhaps you can tell me which of those things we ought to leave out." "We'd be all right if it wasn't for the debts," said Easton, doggedly. "What shall we do about the rates?" asked Ruth. "I'm sure I don't know — there's nothing left to pawn except my black coat and vest." "It'll have to be paid somehow, or you'll be taken off to jail, as Mrs. Newman's husband was last winter." "Well, you'd better take the coat and vest and see what you can get on them tomorrow." So it was settled; and as the fire was nearly out and it was getting late, they prepared to retire for the night. "Well, I hope the clock won't stop in the night," Easton said as he undressed. "It would be a fine thing indeed not knowing what time it was in the morning." He woke several times during the night and struck a match to see if it was yet time to get up. At half past two the clock was still going and he again fell asleep. The next time he woke up the ticking had ceased. He wondered what time it was. It was still very dark, but that was nothing to go by, because it was always dark at six now. He was wide awake; he thought it must be nearly time to get up. It would never do to be late; he might get the sack. He got up and dressed himself. Ruth was asleep, so he crept downstairs. He drank a cup of tea, put on his boots, overcoat and hat and taking his basket went out of the house. Outside, the rain hadn't stopped and it was very cold and dark. Easton shivered as he walked. He remembered there was a clock over the front of a jeweller's shop a little way down the main road. When he got there he found the clock so high up that he could not see the figures on the face distinctly. He stood staring for a few minutes when suddenly the light of a bull's eye-lantern was flashed into his eyes. "You are about very early," said a voice, the owner of which Easton could not see. The light blinded him. "What time is it?" said Easton. "I've got to get to work at seven and our clock stopped during the night." "Where are you working?" "In Elmore Road. You know, near the old Toll Gate." "Well," said the constable, "It's very strange that you should be wandering about at this hour — and outside this shop. It's only about three-quarters of an hour's walk from here to Elmore Road. You say you've got to get there at seven but it's only a quarter to four now. Where do you live? What's your name?" Easton gave his name and address and began repeating the story about the clock. "What have you got in that basket?" "Only my breakfast," Easton said, opening the basket and displaying its contents. "I'm inclined to believe what you say," said the policeman, after a pause. "But to make quite sure I'll go home with you. It's on my beat, and I don't want to run you in if you're what you say you are, but I should advise you to buy a decent clock, or you'll be getting yourself into trouble." When they arrived at the house Easton opened the door, and after making some entries in his note-book the officer went away, much to the relief of Easton, who went upstairs, set the hands of the clock right and started it going. He then removed his overcoat and lay down on the bed in his clothes, covering himself with the quilt. After a while he fell asleep, and when he awoke the clock was still ticking. The time was exactly seven o'clock.
理财家 (续) 她从口袋里掏出三封信递给了伊斯顿。三封信都是催债的，而且每项款都已经过了期。家具和油布十二先令；统税和特税一镑四先令一便士；济贫税一镑一先令五个半便士。伊斯顿把三封信反复地读了好几遍，最后大骂一声扔到了桌子上。 “不管怎么说当时都不该买这些倒霉的东西。”他怒气冲冲地说道。“要是当时委屈一下，等到有了现钱再买，我们的日子就好过多了。可是你非买不可。现在可好，我们背着这笔倒霉的债，而且不知道还得背多少年。等到债还完了，这些家具也就该烂了。” 露丝没有马上答话。几个月来，她就一直没有吃过一顿饱饭。伊斯顿失业时，为了不到万不得已时不赊帐，他们只得节衣缩食。她常常装出他不在家时已经吃过了饭，而把饭留给他吃。 最后她说道：“可是你当时和我一样同意买这些东西。你一定记得从地板缝里钻进来的风有多冷，要是没有买油布，咱俩早就病倒了。” 伊斯顿看了看债单，又看了看那三封信，然后说，“我差不多把挣来的每个子儿都交给你了，而且我也从来没有干涉过什么。因为我觉得持家是你的事儿。可是现在看来，你根本没有把家管好。” 这番话太过分了。露丝实在忍受不了了。她趴在摇篮旁边的一张椅子上，大哭起来。 伊斯顿大吃一惊。他在妻子身边跪下，抱住她，向她道歉。 “我一直都在尽量省钱，”露丝啜泣着。“也没在我自己身上花过一分钱。可是你好像不知道当家有多难。” “我真不该那么说你，”伊斯顿说。“我不是故意的。都怪我不好。我知道你尽力了。” “我早就知道咱们的钱不够花，”露丝说。“要是你以为我不会理家，也许你能告诉我，这些东西里，哪一件可以省下不买。” “要是没有这些债务，我们现在就不会这么糟，”伊斯顿固执地说。 “地方税怎么办？”露丝问道。 “我实在没有办法。除了我的黑外套和背心，也就没有什么好当的了。” “无论如何，这笔钱必须付。不然的话，你会进监狱的，就像纽曼太太的先生一样，他去年冬天就被关了进去。” “这样吧，最好你明天就把我的外套和背心拿到当铺去，看看能当多少钱。” 事情谈妥了，火也渐渐熄灭，而且夜已深，他们便准备就寝。 “好吧，但愿半夜里钟可别停了，”伊斯顿边脱衣服边说。“早晨醒来要是不知道几点钟了，那才妙呢。” 夜里他醒来好几次，每次都擦着火柴看看是否该起床了。两点半时钟还走着，他便又睡下了。再醒来时，嘀嗒声已停。他不知道几点钟了。天还很黑，但这也说明不了什么。因为现在这个季节，六点钟天还亮不了。他睡意全消。他觉得该起床了。迟到了可不行，他会被解雇的。 他从床上爬起来，穿上衣服。露丝还在睡，于是他就蹑手蹑脚地下了楼。喝了一杯茶，他穿上皮靴，披上外衣，戴上帽子，提着饭篮子走出了家门。 外面，雨仍下个不停。天又冷又黑。伊斯顿往前走着，冻得直打哆嗦。他记得离大街不远的一家珠宝店铺面上有一座钟。走到钟下时，他发现钟挂得太高了。他根本没有办法看清楚钟面上的数字。他站在那儿盯着钟看了一会儿。突然一道巡夜灯的灯光射进他的眼睛。 “你这么早就出来活动了，”一个声音传来，伊斯顿却看不清楚说话的人是谁。灯光刺得他睁不开眼睛。 “现在几点？”伊斯顿问。“我七点钟上班，可是家里的钟夜里停了。” “你在哪儿上班？” “爱尔莫路。你知道，就挨着那个旧关卡。” “嗯。”巡警说，“奇怪的是你竟在这个时间，而且在这珠宝店外转来转去。从这儿到爱尔莫路只需走三刻钟。你说你必须七点钟赶到那儿，可是现在才四点差一刻。你住在哪儿？叫什么名字？”伊斯顿说出了名字和住址。又讲了一遍有关钟的事。 “篮子里是什么？” “只有我的早餐。”伊斯顿边说边打开了篮盖儿，让巡警看了看里面的食物。 “你的话我真有点信。”巡警停了一会儿说。“不过为了证实一下你的话，我得到你家走一趟。这是我的巡区，如果你说的是实话，我就不抓你。可是我劝你买一座像样的钟，不然的话，你会惹麻烦的。” 他们到了伊斯顿家，伊斯顿打开了家门。巡警在记事本上记下了些什么后就走开了。伊斯顿松了口气。他走上楼去，把钟拨准，上足了弦儿。然后他脱了外衣，和衣躺下，盖上了被子。不一会儿，他就睡着了。醒来时表还在嘀嗒嘀嗒地走着。 这时正好七点整。
ROBINSON CRUSOE MAKES HIMSELF A BOAT I had been stranded on this little island for quite some time when one day I put myself upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself a boat. I had in mind a canoe, such as the natives of those regions make of the trunk of a great tree. This I not only thought possible but easy. I felt so pleased with the idea that I never once considered how I should get it off the land after it was completed. The eagerness of my fancy prevailed and to work I went. "Let's first make it and then I'll find some way or other to launch it into the water," I said to myself. I felled a cedar tree, and I doubt whether Solomon ever had such a tree for the building of the temple at Jerusalem. It was five feet ten inches in diameter near the stump, and four feet eleven inches in diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened a little, and then parted into branches. It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree. I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom. I was fourteen more getting the branches and the vast spreading head of it cut off. After this it took me a month to shape it to something like the bottom of a boat, so that it might swim upright. It took me another three months to clear the inside, so as to make an exact boat of it. This I did by mere mallet and chisel, and by hard labour, till I had a very handsome boat. It was big enough to carry six-and-twenty men, and therefore big enough to carry me and all my cargo. When I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than any canoe I ever saw that was made of one tree. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure, and there remained nothing but to get it into the water; and had I succeeded in getting it into the water, I feel certain that I should have begun the maddest voyage that was ever undertaken by man. However, all my devices to get it into the water failed, though they cost me infinite labour. The boat lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was uphill towards the creek. Well, to meet this difficulty, I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, so as to make it easier to launch the boat. This I began, and it cost me enormous pains; but who grudge pains that have their deliverance in view? But when this was worked through, I found it still impossible to stir the canoe. Then I resolved to cut a canal to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing that I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, I measured the distance of ground, and calculated how deep it was to be dug, how broad, and how the earth to be thrown out. I found that since there was no other person to work at it but myself, it would have to be ten to twelve years before I could go through with it; for the shore lay high, and at the upper end it must have been twenty feet deep. So at length, though with great reluctance, I gave up the attempt. This was a great lesson to me, and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. (Adapted from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)
鲁宾逊给自己造了一条船 我已经困在这座小岛上有相当一段时间了。一天，我琢磨着，是不是可以为自己造一条船。我心里所想的是一叶独木小舟，就像当地土著人用大树的树干做的那种小舟一样。我觉得这不仅可能而且还很容易。这个念头使我心花怒放，压根儿没去想一旦把船造好了，该怎样让它下水。 我越想越来劲，便干了起来。“我先把船造好，然后再想法子把它弄下水去。”我自言自语地说道。 我砍倒了一棵杉树，心想所罗门在耶路撒冷修建宫殿时恐怕也没有用过这么大的树。根部附近直径是五英尺十英寸。树干二十二英尺处，直径为四英尺十一英寸。然后渐渐地变细，分出了枝桠。我费了九牛二虎之力才砍倒这棵树。砍断它的根部用了二十天。把它的树枝和巨伞状的树冠砍下来用去十四天。此后又用了一个月的时间才把树干砍得有点像船底，使它能稳稳地浮在水上。我又用三个月的功夫把树挖空，使它更像一条真船。干这些活时，我只有槌子和凿子，劳动非常艰苦。最后，一艘漂亮的船造成了。这只船可容纳二十六个人，因此足可以装下我和所有的东西。 这项工程完成后，我对它特别满意。这只船确实是我见到过的最大的一只用一棵树做成的船。造这只船，我不知凿多少下，说筋疲力尽，那一点也不假，剩下的问题只是怎样把它弄下水去。假如我把它弄下了水，我敢肯定，我准会进行人类有史以来最荒唐的航行了。 然而，使它下水的所有计划都失败了。尽管为此我付出了巨大的努力。这条船离水边顶多有一百码。可是，我有一个不利因素是：从船到水边有个上倾的斜坡。好吧，为了克服这一困难，我决定把地面挖平。这样可以使小船下水时容易一些，于是我就着手这项工程，历尽了千辛万苦。然而，如果成功在望，谁还在乎什么辛苦呢？但是，完工后，我发现还是挪动不了木舟。 既然无法使小舟下水，于是我就决定挖一条渠道，把水引到船下。接着，我测量了一下距离，计算了一下该挖多深、多宽，以及怎样把土运走。我发现，只有我自己，没有其他人帮忙，这项工程需要十到十二年的时间才能完成。因为河岸很高，从顶部算差不多有二十英尺。因此，尽管很不情愿，最后我还是放弃了这个计划。 这事给了我很大教训。尽管为时太晚，我现在明白了：在开始做一件事之前，不先估计一下代价，不先正确地估计自己是否有做完这件事的力量，那真是太愚蠢了！
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