英國(guó)語(yǔ)文第三冊(cè)(雙語(yǔ)):雷利爵士的兩種植物

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LESSON 65 Raleigh's Two Plants

第六十五課 雷利爵士的兩種植物

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, two plants were brought to England, for the first time, by Sir Walter Raleigh, both of which are now very much used -- the tobacco-plant and the potato. Sir Walter had sailed across the seas to America, in search of new lands; and he brought back both these plants with him.

在伊麗莎白女王統(tǒng)治時(shí)期，有兩種植物第一次出現(xiàn)在了英國(guó)，這兩種植物是沃爾特·雷利爵士帶到英國(guó)的，現(xiàn)在都很常用--分別是煙草和馬鈴薯。當(dāng)時(shí)沃爾特爵士為了尋找新大陸而漂洋過(guò)海來(lái)到美洲，然后他就把這兩種植物帶了回去。

When he was in America, he had seen the Indians smoke, and before long he acquired the habit himself. He became extremely fond of smoking, and frequently indulged in the practice.

當(dāng)他在美洲的時(shí)候，他看到印第安人在抽煙，不久之后他自己也養(yǎng)成了這種習(xí)慣。他變得非常喜歡吸煙，而且經(jīng)常沉溺于此。

When he returned to England, he was sitting by the fire one day, and began to smoke. In the middle of his smoking, the door opened, and in came his man-servant. Now, this man had never in his life seen any one smoke, and did not know that there was such a plant as tobacco. So, when he saw the smoke coming from his master's mouth, he thought that he was on fire! He cried out in alarm, and ran to fetch a bucket of water to put the fire out; and Sir Walter was deluged before he had time to explain what he was really doing.

回到英國(guó)之后，有一天他坐在火旁開始抽煙。他正抽著煙，這時(shí)門開了，他的仆人走了進(jìn)來(lái)。這個(gè)仆人這輩子從來(lái)沒(méi)有見過(guò)任何人抽煙，也不知道有煙草這種植物。所以，當(dāng)他看到濃煙從他的主人的嘴里冒出來(lái)時(shí)，他以為他的主人著火了！他驚恐地叫了起來(lái)，跑去拿一桶水來(lái)把火撲滅了；沃爾特爵士甚至還沒(méi)來(lái)得及解釋他到底在做什么，就被潑了一頭的水。

But very soon the old servant got used to seeing people with smoke coming out of their mouths; and all the young nobles of the court began to smoke because Sir Walter did so.

但很快，這位老仆人就習(xí)慣了看到嘴里的煙的人；宮廷里的所有年輕貴族都開始抽煙，因?yàn)槲譅柼鼐羰窟@樣做了。

At first, people did not like the potato at all: nobody would eat it. Yet Sir Walter told them how useful it would be. The potato, he said, could be made to grow in England. He told them that, when the corn-harvest failed -- which it often used to do -- people need not starve if they had plenty of potatoes.

起初，人們一點(diǎn)兒也不喜歡馬鈴薯：根本沒(méi)人會(huì)吃它。但是沃爾特爵士告訴他們，馬鈴薯的用處很大。他說(shuō)，馬鈴薯可以在英國(guó)種植。他告訴他們，過(guò)去常常發(fā)生玉米歉收的情況，如果人們有足夠的馬鈴薯，那就不會(huì)挨餓了。

Queen Elizabeth, who was a very clever woman, listened to what Sir Walter said, and had potatoes served up at her own table. There the grand people who dined with her majesty were obliged to eat them. But they spread a report that the potato was poisonous, because it belongs to the same order as the deadly nightshade and many other poisonous plants. So, in spite of all that the Queen could do, no one would eat potatoes, and they were left for the pigs.

伊麗莎白女王是一個(gè)非常聰明的女人，她聽了沃爾特爵士的話，讓人把馬鈴薯端到了自己的桌子上。這樣一來(lái)，那些與女王陛下共進(jìn)晚餐的顯赫人物，就不得不吃馬鈴薯了。但是他們散布了一份報(bào)告，說(shuō)馬鈴薯是有毒的，因?yàn)樗椭旅那褜僦参锖驮S多其他有毒植物屬于同一目的。所以，不管女王做什么，還是沒(méi)有人吃馬鈴薯，這些馬鈴薯只能喂給了豬。

The people did not find out their mistake till many years afterwards. The poor potato was despised and forgotten till the reign of the French king Louis XVI., when there lived a Frenchman who had made a study of growing plants for food. He felt sure that he could make the potato a great blessing to the country; and he began at once to try.

人們直到許多年后才發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己的錯(cuò)誤。可憐的馬鈴薯一直被輕視和遺忘，一直到法國(guó)國(guó)王路易十六統(tǒng)治的時(shí)期。那時(shí)有一個(gè)對(duì)種植糧食作物進(jìn)行了研究的法國(guó)人。他確信自己能使馬鈴薯成為這個(gè)國(guó)家的一大恩賜；于是他立刻開始了嘗試。

After a great deal of trouble he succeeded. People laughed at him at first, and would not take any notice of what he said. But he went on growing the potato till he brought it to perfection. Even then no one would have eaten it, if its part had not been taken by the king. He had large pieces of ground planted with potatoes, and went about with the flower of the potato in his button-hole.

經(jīng)過(guò)一番折騰，他成功了。起初，人們都嘲笑他，根本不理會(huì)他說(shuō)的話。但他繼續(xù)埋頭種馬鈴薯，直到讓馬鈴薯做得完美無(wú)缺。即使在那個(gè)時(shí)候，如果不是國(guó)王要了一部分，也依然沒(méi)有人會(huì)吃馬鈴薯。隨后國(guó)王讓人在大片土地上種上馬鈴薯，并在走路時(shí)把馬鈴薯花插在鈕扣孔里。

No one dared to laugh at the king; and when he said that potatoes were to be eaten, people began to find out how good and wholesome they were. By degrees the potato was more and more liked; and now there is hardly any vegetable that is more highly esteemed.

沒(méi)有人敢嘲笑國(guó)王；當(dāng)國(guó)王宣布馬鈴薯可以吃的時(shí)候，人們才開始發(fā)現(xiàn)馬鈴薯是多么有益健康。漸漸地，人們?cè)絹?lái)越喜歡馬鈴薯了；現(xiàn)在幾乎沒(méi)有什么蔬菜比它更受大家喜愛了。