雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界地理03 世界的內(nèi)部

WHEN I was a very little boy I was very inquisitive. At least, that’s what my nurse called me.
我小時候就是個非常好奇的孩子，至少我的保姆是這樣說的。
One day when I was walking with her along the city pavements, I asked:
一天她帶我一起走在城市的人行道上，我問她：
“Jane, what’s under the pavement?”
“簡，人行道下面是什么？”
“Oh, just dirt,” she replied.
“哦，就是泥土。”她回答說。
“And what is under the dirt?”
“那泥土下面呢？”
“Oh, more dirt,” she replied.
“哦，更多的泥土。”她回答說。
“Well, what’s under that?” I asked. I wasn’t satisfied.
“嗯，那再下面是什么呢？”我不滿意這個回答，又問她。
“Oh, nothing—I don’t know—why are you always so inquisitive?” she asked.
“哦，什么都沒有——我不知道——你為什么總是這么好奇呢？”她問我。
I knew there must be something underneath that, and I just wanted to know what it was—I was just inquisitive.
我想那下面一定有東西，我就是想知道那到底是什么東西——我很好奇。
I had heard that the place bad boys went when they died was down under the ground somewhere—a big cave, perhaps—and I wanted to know if that were so.
我曾聽說壞孩子死了之后會到地下的一個什么地方——也許是個大洞——我想知道是不是那樣。
And then I had heard that all the way through on the other side of the World Chinamen lived, head down, and walked upside down like flies on the ceiling. I wanted to find out if that were so too.
我還聽說繞著地球直到走到另一面是中國人住的地方，人們都是頭朝下，倒過來走路的，就像蒼蠅趴在天花板上一樣。我想看看到底是不是那樣。
So I made up my mind I’d dig down through the World; down, down, down, till I came through on the other side, and then I’d know. I was a very little boy, you see. With a tin shovel I started a hole in the back yard behind the grapevines, where no one would know what I was doing. I wanted to keep it a secret until I had dug all the way through. Day after day I worked, digging up first soft ground—that was easy—then I got down to solid ground; that was hard. I had a hole which I could stand in up to my waist.
于是我下定決心要自己挖通世界；向下一直挖，一直挖，一直挖到世界的另一面，那時我就知道了。要知道我當(dāng)時很小，我開始用一把鐵鍬在后院葡萄藤后面挖了個洞，沒人知道我在那兒干什么。我想在我徹底挖通之前保守秘密。我一天又一天地干著，先挖到軟軟的土層——那很容易，然后我挖到了堅硬的土層，很難挖。我挖出了一個齊腰深的坑。
Then one evening my father asked, “What’s that hole in the back yard?”
后來有天晚上，爸爸問我：“后院里那個坑是怎么回事？”
My secret was out. He didn’t laugh when I told him—at least, out loud—but he asked me if I knew how far I’d have to dig.
我的秘密被發(fā)現(xiàn)了。當(dāng)我告訴他的時候他并沒有笑我——至少沒有大聲笑出來——但他問我知不知道我得挖多深才能挖得通。
“Could you dig down as deep as the Washington Monument goes up?” he asked.
“你能在地下挖出華盛頓紀(jì)念碑那么高的深度嗎？”他問我。
I thought perhaps I could, but I was a little doubtful, for the Washington Monument seemed terribly high.
我想也許我能，但是我有點不確定，因為華盛頓紀(jì)念碑看起來真是高得怕人。
“Men have dug wells many times as deep as the Washington Monument,” my father told me, “but never all the way nor nearly all the way through the World. You would have to dig many thousands of times deeper than the Washington Monument to get down even to the center of the World. It’s eight thousand miles straight through the earth and most all the way is rock—just rock, and more rock, that’s all.”
“人們挖過比華盛頓紀(jì)念碑還要高很多倍的深井，”爸爸告訴我，“但是從來沒有人挖通，或者接近挖通過世界。要挖到世界的中心，你就得挖上比華盛頓紀(jì)念碑還要深幾千倍的深度才行。從世界的一面直穿到另一面有八千英里，而這中間幾乎全是巖石，巖石，還是巖石，就是這樣。”
Then I gave it up.
于是我放棄了。
“How do you know it’s eight thousand miles if no one has ever been through the World?” asked the inquisitive child. I don’t know what my father answered. I was too young to understand. I wonder if you are too young, if I tell you how we know it’s eight thousand miles; for without ever having been through the World, we do know how far it is.
“如果沒有人穿過世界，你怎么知道是八千英里呢？”我這個好奇的孩子又問道。我不記得當(dāng)時爸爸是怎么回答我的了，我太小了根本聽不懂。我在想如果我告訴你我們是怎么知道那是八千英里的，你是不是太小了而聽不懂。因為沒有人穿過世界，而我們確實知道那有多遠(yuǎn)。
This is how we know. It’s a funny thing, but every ball, whether it is a little ball or a medium-sized ball or a great big ball, is always just a little more than three times as big round as it is through. I have often wondered why this was so—why a ball shouldn’t be exactly three times or four times or five times as big round as through, but it isn’t. You can try it yourself if you don’t believe it. Take an apple or an orange and measure it around and then cut it and measure it through.
我們是這樣知道的。很有意思的是，每個球，不管是小球還是中等大的球，還是很大的球，它一周的長度總是垂直深度的三倍多點。我常想為什么是這樣——為什么它一周的長度不正好是垂直深度的三倍、四倍或五倍呢？但確實不是。你如果不相信的話可以自己試一試。拿一個蘋果或橙子，量一量它的一圈的長度，再把它切開，量一量它垂直的深度。
Now we know the World is a ball, a huge ball, and yet as it is a ball it must, like all other balls, be a little more than three times as big around as it is through. It is twenty-five thousand miles round the World, because men have actually measured that. So we know that the distance through must be about eight thousand miles, as twenty-five is a little more than three times eight. That is not geography; it’s arithmetic. If you want to use big words for “around” and “through,” as they do in geographies, you must say “circumference” for “around” and “diameter” for “through”—which mean the same thing: the circumference of the World is twenty-five thousand and the diameter is eight thousand.
現(xiàn)在我們知道世界是一個球，一個巨大的球，既然它是一個球，那就和其他所有的球一樣，它一周的長度肯定是垂直深度的三倍多點。世界一周的長度是兩萬五千英里，因為人們確實量過這個長度。那么我們就知道從世界一面到另一面的距離肯定是大約8000英里，因為25是8的三倍多一點。這不是地理，是算術(shù)。如果你想用大詞來表達(dá)“一圈”和“深度”，就像人們通常在地理上用的那些詞一樣，那么你必須用“周長”來表達(dá)“一圈”，用“直徑”來表達(dá)“深度”——它們的意思實際上是一樣的：世界的周長是二萬五千英里，直徑是八千英里。
The outside of the World is a crust of rock like the skin of a baked potato over the hot inside. Some of the crust that you go through first is in layers, like layers in a jelly-cake, one layer after another, only these rock layers look as if they were made of sand and shells, or coal or little stones, and that’s what they are made of. If you could cut the World in half as if it were an apple, it might look something like the picture on the next page. We call it a “Cross Section.”
世界的外層是個巖石的外殼，就像烤土豆的外皮，包裹著滾燙的芯。你最先穿過的外殼部分是分層的，像果凍蛋糕里的分層一樣，一層又一層，只是這些巖石層看起來像是沙子和貝殼，或是煤炭或小石塊做成的，事實也確實如此。如果可以把世界像切蘋果那樣切成兩半，它也許看起來就會像下一頁圖片上顯示的那樣。我們把它叫做“剖面圖”。
Between some of the layers of rock there is coal like jelly in a jelly-cake and in other places there are gold and silver and diamonds and rubies, and in some of the rock there are pools of oil. That’s why men dig wells down through these layers of rock to get oil, and that’s why men dig mines to get coal and gold.
在有些巖石層中間有煤炭，像是果凍蛋糕中的果凍一樣；其他地方有金、銀、鉆石和紅寶石，有的巖石中還有石油層。這就是人們?yōu)榱双@取石油向地下挖井，穿透這些巖石層的原因，也就是人們?yōu)榱说玫矫汉徒鸩砰_礦的原因。
And still farther down the rock is not in layers—it is just solid rock; and still farther down it gets hotter and hotter where the world has not cooled off even yet, until the rock is no longer solid, but melted.
巖石下更深處就不是分層的了——全是堅硬的巖石；再向下更深處越來越熱，那是世界甚至到現(xiàn)在還沒完全冷卻的地方，直到巖石不是堅硬的，而是熔化了的。
Whenever you see a chimney you know there is a furnace beneath it, and when smoke and fire come out of its top you know there is a fire in the furnace. Well, there are many places on the World where fire and smoke come out of the ground as if’ through a chimney from a fiery furnace. These places are called volcanoes.
每次看到煙囪，你就知道下面肯定有個火爐；當(dāng)煙囪頂部冒出煙和火的時候，你知道火爐里有火在燒。嗯，世界上有很多地方冒出火和煙，就像燃燒的火爐里的火和煙從煙囪冒出來一樣，這些地方叫做火山。
Why was the World made of rock instead of brass or glass or china? Why is the World shaped like a ball and not like a box, a roller, or an old shoe?
為什么世界是巖石做的，而不是黃銅、玻璃或者陶器的呢？為什么世界是球形的，而不像一個盒子、像一個滾筒或者像一只舊鞋子呢？