雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界地理10 五個大水坑

DID you ever wonder what an ant must think of us giants who tread on his ant-hills, or what he must think of a puddle of water?
我們經(jīng)常踩到螞蟻窩，你是否好奇小螞蟻會怎么看我們這些巨人呢？或者在螞蟻眼中一個水坑是怎樣的呢？
There are five big puddles of water along the northern edge of the United States—at least they look like puddles on the map—as if a gigantic giant had left his wet umbrella standing and the water had trickled out over the land. We call these puddles “The Great Lakes,” for they are the biggest lakes on this side of the World, though a giant with legs a mile long would think them only puddles to wade across. Two of the lakes—the smallest two—I have already told you about. They are Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Two of the others also have Indian names, Lake Michigan, which means “Great Lake,” and Lake Huron. The Greatest Lake of all the Great Lakes is called Superior, which means simply Greater Lake, as we say a boy who is a better football player or who makes better marks is “superior” to some other boy. Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that belongs entirely to the United States, as it is entirely inside of the United States. Half of the other four lakes belong to the country north of the United States—the country called Canada—because these other lakes are along the border between the two countries. The United States owns its side of each of these lakes and out to the middle; Canada owns its side and out to the middle.
沿著美國的北部邊界有五個大水坑——至少它們在地圖上看起來像水坑——就像是一個龐大的巨人拿一把濕漉漉的雨傘立在那兒，水順著雨傘滴到了地面上形成這些水坑。我們把這些水坑叫做“大湖”，因為它們是西半球最大的湖了，不過在腿長1英里的巨人眼里，這些湖就像很容易就蹚過去的小水坑。我已經(jīng)介紹過其中兩個湖的故事了，最小的兩個——伊利湖和安大略湖。另外還有兩個用印第安名字的湖——一個是密歇根湖，意思是“大湖”，另一個是休倫湖。五大湖中最大的是蘇必利爾湖，意思就是更大的湖，就像我們會說一個孩子球踢得更好，得分更高，也會用同樣的一個詞：優(yōu)秀的（superior）[1]。五大湖中只有密歇根湖整個都在美國境內(nèi)，因此是完全屬于美國的。其他四個大湖每個都有一半屬于美國北邊的鄰國——加拿大，因為這四個湖正好在兩國的交界處。這些湖以湖中心線為界，分屬加、美兩國。
Lake Superior is not only bigger, it is higher than the other lakes. It empties its water into Lake Huron through a little river called St. Mary’s, and in this river are falls. These falls in the St. Mary’s River are called St. Mary’s Jump, because the water jumps, jumps down. These falls are not nearly as high as Niagara Falls, but they are too high for boats to go over the jump, so men had to build canals with locks around the falls to lower boats down and raise them up from one lake to the other. As there are so many boats that want to go down and up, one canal was not enough to take care of all the boats that wanted to go round the falls, so men have built five canals round St. Mary’s Jump. St. Mary’s Jump in French is Sault Ste. Marie, and as this is so difficult to say, people simply call the falls Soo, the river Soo, and the canals Soo too.
蘇必利爾湖不僅面積最大，地勢也最高。它的湖水經(jīng)由一條叫做圣瑪麗的小河流入休倫湖，圣瑪麗河上有很多瀑布。這些瀑布叫做圣瑪麗急流瀑布，因為水急速下瀉，就像是在不斷蹦跳。這些瀑布遠沒有尼亞加拉瀑布那么高，但是船只卻無法直接從上面開下去，于是人們只好在瀑布附近開鑿運河，河里有船閘，這樣船只就可以在大湖之間上下來往了。那里有很多的船只要往返穿梭，一條運河遠遠不夠，人們在圣瑪麗急流瀑布附近一共修建了五條運河。圣瑪麗急流瀑布在法語中叫做“蘇圣瑪里”，很不好念，人們干脆就叫這些瀑布“蘇”，叫這條河“蘇”，也叫運河“蘇”。
Some of the boats on the Great Lakes are as big and fine as those on the ocean; and they have to be, for the Great Lakes are like small oceans. When you are out, far out, you cannot see land, and at times there are high waves and storms, just as at sea. The chief difference is that the water in the lakes is fresh, not salt.
五大湖上的有些船像海洋上的船那樣巨大壯觀；這也是航行的需要，因為五大湖就像是小型的海洋。當(dāng)你離岸遠去，就看不見陸地了，湖上時有暴風(fēng)雨，波濤洶涌，就像在海上一樣。主要的區(qū)別就是湖水是淡水，海水則是咸水。
“Business before pleasure.”
“事業(yè)在先，享樂在后。”
A great many people take trips on these big lake boats just as they do on the ocean—for pleasure; but the chief reason for the great number of ships that go from one end of the lakes to the other is not pleasure but business. The business is carrying things, which we call freight. It is much cheaper to send things by ship than by train, for one big ship can carry much more than many trains, and ships do not have to have land and tracks to run on, as trains do. When we send freight by train we also call that “shipping,” which seems strange. Every one would ship by ship instead of by train if he could, because it is so much cheaper, but of course you have to be near the water to ship by ship.
很多人乘著大湖上的船只游玩，就像出海度假一樣。但大量船只穿梭往來主要是為了做生意，而不是游玩。所謂生意就是運輸東西，也就是我們所說的貨運。用船運東西要比火車便宜多了，因為一艘大船裝的東西比很多列火車裝的都多，而且船不需要像火車那樣在陸地和軌道上行駛。當(dāng)我們用火車運貨的時候，也使用“shipping”[2]這個詞，這似乎很奇怪。只要能用船人們就會選擇船運，而不是火車，因為比火車便宜多了，當(dāng)然是你附近必須有可以船運的水域才行。
Fortunately, eight out of our forty-eight States are on the Great Lakes, although some of the States have only a small “frontage” on a lake. Michigan has the most frontage, by far. It fronts on four of the Great Lakes, all except Lake Ontario.
幸運的是，美國的48州中有8個州在五大湖邊，盡管其中幾個州的臨湖地面積很小。密歇根州有著最長的湖岸線，除了安大略湖，它濱臨其他四大湖。
You remember that the Potomac Indians were great traders, paddling their canoes up and down the river, and swapping things they had for things they wanted. The Indians of the Great Lakes used to do the same thing. Nowadays the white man’s huge ships—thousands of times bigger than the Indians’ canoes made out of a single log—do the trading. They carry huge loads of freight from one end of the Great Lakes to the other, unloading at different places along the way the things that people want, and loading up with other freight to go back.
還記得波托馬克河的印第安人吧？他們很會做生意，劃著獨木舟在河上往返上下，用自己已有的東西去換自己想要的東西。五大湖區(qū)的印第安人以前也這么做?，F(xiàn)在白人巨大的輪船——比印第安人用一根木頭做成的獨木舟要大幾千倍——在做買賣。它們裝載著大量的貨物從湖區(qū)的一端運到另一端，沿途在不同的地方卸下人們需要的貨物，然后裝上其他貨物返回。
Most of the ships start at the far end of Lake Superior at a place called Duluth. Trains loaded with wheat come to Duluth from the wheat-lands west of that city, and other trains loaded with iron ore from mines near-by. Then huge machines on the shores of the lakes, with giant hands of iron, lift whole cars of wheat and ore and dump them into the ships waiting to be filled, as you would lift a toy car of your toy train and empty its load with two fingers. Other ships collect copper ore and also iron from that part of Michigan which is on Lake Superior. They then carry their loads through the Soo Canal and unload at a place called Detroit, between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, or carry their iron ore to Cleveland and Buffalo on Lake Erie. Most of the ships do not go past Niagara Falls. They load up again with things that have been made in New England, or in the east of the United States, or with coal from Pennsylvania, and go back to Duluth.
大多數(shù)的船只都從蘇必利爾湖遠端一個叫做德盧斯的地方起航。火車從德盧斯以西的小麥產(chǎn)地運來小麥，從附近的礦區(qū)運來鐵礦。湖岸邊巨大的機器用它大大的鐵手托起整車廂的小麥和礦石然后倒入等待裝載的輪船里，就像你會用兩根指頭舉起你的玩具火車的車廂把里面的貨物倒掉一樣。其他的輪船在密歇根州的蘇必利爾湖區(qū)裝上銅礦和鋼鐵。然后這些輪船載著貨物經(jīng)過蘇運河，在一個位于休倫湖和伊利湖之間叫做底特律的地方卸下貨物，或者把鐵礦運到克利夫蘭和伊利湖邊的布法羅。大部分船并不經(jīng)過尼亞加拉瀑布。這些船卸完貨再裝上在新英格蘭或者美國東部生產(chǎn)的東西、或者是賓夕法尼亞產(chǎn)的煤礦，返回德盧斯。
But when winter comes, all this trading up and down the lakes has to stop, for this part of the country is very cold and ice forms and stops the ships.
但是到了冬天，湖上所有的船運貿(mào)易都不得不停下來，因為這個地區(qū)冬天非常寒冷，湖水結(jié)冰，輪船無法航行。
A baby is born every second, but in Detroit an automobile is born every minute. Most of the automobiles in the World are made in Detroit. Into one end of a Detroit factory go iron and wood, leather, etc., and out at the other end comes an automobile. Every hour of the day hundreds of automobiles are finished and run out of the factories, to be shipped over the whole World.
每一秒鐘就有一個嬰兒降生，但是在底特律每一分鐘就有一輛汽車生產(chǎn)出來。世界上的大部分汽車都是在底特律生產(chǎn)的。在底特律的汽車廠一端進去的是鋼鐵、木材和皮革等材料，另一端出來的就是一輛輛汽車。每天每小時都有幾百輛汽車生產(chǎn)出來，開出工廠，準(zhǔn)備運往世界各地。
I am sitting in a chair that was made from a tree that grew in Michigan, a thousand miles away, before I was born. The upper part of Michigan used to be covered with forests of trees especially suited for making furniture—and more furniture was made there, especially at a place called Grand Rapids, than at any other place in the World. You probably have some Grand Rapids furniture in your own home. Look on the bottom and see if you can find a label “Made in Grand Rapids.” So much furniture was made there that men have cut down and used up most of the trees, and only stumps are left. But the people had learned how to make furniture, and so they kept on making furniture, though now much of the lumber has to be brought to Michigan from other parts of the country.
我正坐在一把椅子上，木材取自于一棵早在我出生以前就生長在一千英里以外的密歇根州的大樹。密歇根州的北部過去覆蓋著大片的森林，那里的樹木很適合做家具——那里生產(chǎn)的家具，尤其是一個叫做大瀑布市的地方，比世界上其他任何地方生產(chǎn)出來的家具都要多。你家里或許就有一些大瀑布市產(chǎn)的家具?？纯醇揖叩牡撞浚纯茨懿荒苷业揭粋€寫著“大瀑布市制造”的標(biāo)簽。那里生產(chǎn)了太多的家具，人們已經(jīng)砍下并用光了大部分的樹木，只剩下了樹樁在那兒。但是當(dāng)?shù)氐娜藗円呀?jīng)學(xué)會了怎么造家具，所以他們還在不停地生產(chǎn)家具，不過現(xiàn)在很多木材必須從別處運到密歇根州來。
Side by side, like two children trying to peek out of one small window, are two States looking out on Lake Michigan. They are Illinois and Indiana, written “Ill. and Ind.” for short. The second largest city in the country is in the State of Illinois on the lower end of Lake Michigan. It has an Indian name—Chicago. More trains of cars come into and go out of Chicago than any other city in the World. Most trains going across the United States stop there and start there—freight trains carrying things and passenger trains carrying people.
有兩個州互相緊挨著面向密歇根湖，就像兩個孩子擠在小窗戶探頭向外看一樣。那就是伊利諾伊州和印第安納州，英語簡寫為“Ill.”和“Ind.”。美國第二大城市就在伊利諾伊州，位于密歇根湖南部。它有一個印第安名字——芝加哥。芝加哥的鐵路是世界上最繁忙的。大多數(shù)跨越美國的火車都會在芝加哥停靠或從芝加哥出發(fā)——貨運列車載著貨物，客運列車載著乘客。
There are a great many kinds of animals in the World, and yet of all these animals there are only three kinds that people generally eat. These three are the cow, the sheep, the pig. It takes millions of these animals every year to feed all the people in the United States, and millions of these animals are raised in the States near-by and far from Chicago. These animals have to be fed, and the food that is best to make them fat is corn, so whole States grow corn, just to feed cows and sheep and pigs. The State of Iowa grows more corn than any other State, so it is called the Corn State. Some of the corn is shipped to Chicago, but most of it is shipped “on the hoof”—that is, it is fed to the animals and the animals are sent alive to Chicago to be killed. They are kept in big pens called stock-yards until they are killed. From Chicago they are sent in refrigerator cars or ships, everywhere, even to Europe. Chicago is the greatest butcher-shop in the World. The bacon I had for breakfast, the ham sandwich I had for luncheon, and the roast beef I had for dinner came from Chicago.
世界上有很多種動物，而在這所有的動物中人們通常只吃三種，那就是牛、羊、豬。全美國的人每年要吃掉好幾百萬頭這樣的動物，在離芝加哥較近或較遠的一些州人們飼養(yǎng)幾百萬頭牛、羊、豬。養(yǎng)這些牲畜就要喂飼料，最能讓它們長肥的飼料就是玉米了，因此全國都種植玉米，就是為了養(yǎng)牛、養(yǎng)羊和養(yǎng)豬。愛荷華州種植的玉米比其他任何州的都多，因此被稱為“玉米州”。有些玉米被運到芝加哥，但是大部分直接用來喂養(yǎng)牲畜，然后這些牲畜尚未屠宰就運到芝加哥。它們被關(guān)在我們稱為牲畜圍欄的地方，直到被屠宰。被屠宰的動物肉加工后被裝上冷藏車或者冷藏船，從芝加哥運到各地，甚至運到歐洲。芝加哥是世界上最大的肉店。我早餐吃的熏肉、午餐吃的火腿三明治和晚餐吃的烤牛肉都來自于芝加哥。

[1] “蘇必利爾”的英文是superior，本意為“優(yōu)秀、較大、較好的”——譯者注。
[2] shipping，意思是“運輸”，也可以表示“船舶”——譯者注。