英國語文第六冊(雙語):溫帶地區(qū)(4)
Such are the plants which form the characteristic vegetable product of temperate regions. Wheat, which will not thrive in hot climates, flourishes all over the Temperate Zone, at various ranges of elevation. Maize spreads over an immense geographical area in North America, as well as in Southern Europe. Barley is cultivated in those parts of Europe and Asia where the soil and climate are not adapted for wheat; while oats and rye extend far into the bleak North, and disappear only when we reach those desolate Arctic regions where man cannot exist in his social capacity. By such striking adaptations of different varieties of grain to gradations of climate and varieties of soil, does Providence furnish the food indispensable for the sustenance of the human race.
這些是溫帶地區(qū)特有的蔬菜產(chǎn)品。小麥無法在炎熱的氣候條件下生長，但在溫帶不同海拔的地方卻長勢旺盛，尤其在北美及歐洲南部，小麥占據(jù)了大量的面積。大麥被種植在歐洲和亞洲某些土壤和氣候不適宜種植小麥的地區(qū)。而燕麥和黑麥則一路延伸到荒涼的北方，直至那片人類無法依靠自己的社會能力生存下去的北極地區(qū)才停止生長。所以，上帝把不同的谷物對不同的氣候和土壤的適應(yīng)能力進行差異化，以此為人類提供其賴以生存的不可缺少的食物。
Again: what are the trees that are most useful to man in a high state of civilization? Unquestionably those yielding the largest supply of common timber. Now the chief fancy wood trees—those which form part of man's luxuries—belong to the Tropics; but the pines and hard-wood trees—those which minister to man's necessities—belong distinctively to the Temperate Zone. The inhabitant of that zone must send to Honduras for mahogany, to Brazil for rosewood, to make his finer furniture; but the pine, the ash, the oak, the elm, the beech—the timber used in building his houses and workshops, the wood used in fashioning his tools and carts and carriages, and in making his most complicated machinery—these he finds abundantly in his own woods. They are reared in the same climate, they breathe the same air as himself.
那么，在高度文明的社會下，對人類最有用的樹木是哪些呢？毫無疑問，正是這些樹木為人類提供了最大的木材供給。當今最有價值的木材來自熱帶地區(qū)，在人類的奢侈品行列。松樹和硬木樹則來自溫帶地區(qū)，是人類的必需品。那里的居民們?yōu)榱酥谱骷揖?，他們不得不派人到洪都拉斯買紅木、到巴西去買紫檀木。但是那些用來建造房屋和車間的木材，比如松樹、白蠟樹、橡樹、榆樹、山毛櫸，以及那些用來制作工具、馬車和極其復(fù)雜的機器的木材，卻是在當?shù)仉S處可見的。它們身處同樣的氣候條件、呼吸著同樣的空氣。
What is true of the vegetable world above the soil, is true also of the mineral world beneath it. All the metals most useful to man, both for domestic and for industrial purposes—iron, tin, copper, lead—are found in abundance within the temperate regions. Coal, too, without which the ores could not be profitably smelted or supplied in sufficient quantities, and which is the main-spring of all manufacturing industry, is most plentiful in the Temperate Zone.
土壤上面的植物世界是真實的，下面的礦物世界也是真實的。所有那些對人類有用的金屬物質(zhì)，鐵、錫、銅、鉛，不管是家用還是工業(yè)用途，都大量存在于溫帶地區(qū)。煤也是如此，煤是所有制造業(yè)中的主要原料，沒有煤礦石就無法進行有效的熔煉或者無法供給足夠的數(shù)量，而溫帶地區(qū)的煤儲量也是最為豐富的。
