雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界地理32 西班牙城堡(續(xù))

     WHEN-I-WAS-A-BOY I once climbed over a fence into a field, and before I knew it a bull was dashing toward me. I barely had time to scramble back over the fence again-a narrow escape; I didn't see any fun in it at all. But in Spain on Sundays and holidays great crowds of people go to an outdoor theater called the bull-ring to see men fight bulls.
     The people sit on seats outside a fence that shuts in a sandy field, and from that safe place they watch the bull-fights. A gate is opened into the field and a big, wild bull rushes in. A man called a bull-fighter goes to meet him with a red cloak in his hand and waves it in the face of the bull. This makes the bull mad, so with lowered horns he charges the red cloak. The bull-fighter jumps to one side just as the bull reaches him, and the angry bull, unable to turn quickly, passes him by. The bull-fighter teases the bull in this way again and again. After worrying him in various ways, as a cat plays with a mouse, the bull-fighter kills the bull with a thrust of a long sword. It seems to us very cruel, but in Spain they say we kill bulls for meat and do not give any one the fun of seeing them killed.


     A bull-fighter has to be very brave and very skilful, and his foot must not slip on the sandy ground, or he cannot dodge the bull and he will be killed. Almost every city and town in Spain has a bull-ring, as almost every city in the United States has a baseball field or a stadium, for bull-fighting is a national sport, as baseball or football is our national sport. Even boys play bull-fighting, one making believe he is the bull and the other the bull-fighter.
     Every country seems to have certain games they like to play best. In Spain the girls do not jump rope, but they dance instead, and keep time by clicking little clappers on their fingers, often singing as they do so. The clappers look like big chestnuts and so are called castanets, which means chestnuts. They dance in twos and fours on the sidewalk, in the parks and squares, wherever our children would jump rope or play hop-scotch. Even in the great Cathedral of Seville the choir boys dance with castanets in front of the altar at certain church festivals. It is the only place in the World where any one dances in church.
     Spanish houses have no front yard nor back yard nor side yard, but an inside yard with the rooms all around it. This inside yard is called a patio and it is often a living-room and dining-room for all who live in the house.
     As you ride through Spain on a train you can see from the car window a very peculiar looking tree-different from any tree that grows in our country. This is the cork-tree. The little and big corks we use for bottle stoppers don't grow on trees as cherries or peaches do. They are made from the bark of a kind of oak. The bark is cut off from the tree in large pieces and cut up into big and little corks. The tree then grows another coat of bark, but it takes nine years to grow a thick enough bark to be cut again. So every cork you use is nearly as old as you are, or older.


     Cork-trees live to a great age, much longer than people do. But another tree you see in Spain grows to be still older. It is the olive-tree, which bears a fruit that looks something like green cherries. It is said that olive-trees have been known to live and bear fruit for a thousand years! Olives have been used as food since Bible times and long before that, and yet many people have to learn to like them. Olives are also pressed to make olive oil, which we use in salad dressing, for no other kind of oil is quite as good for food. In Spain they often use it instead of butter, and it is also made into a very pure soap called Castile soap, which you may have used.
     Winners of games long ago used to be crowned with a wreath made of olive leaves, and in time of war, messengers bringing peace used to carry an olive branch. In certain parts of Spain you can ride all day long on a train and see olive-trees, olive-trees, olive-trees, from morning to night, till you wonder what the people can do with so many. They use a great many olives themselves, for olives are often bread and butter, meat and vegetables to Spaniards, but they send millions of bottles of olives and olive oil all over the World to other countries that have none.
     One of those cities that says it is like Paris is the capital of Spain. It is near the center of the country. It is called Madrid. Old Madrid had narrow streets and small houses. New Madrid has broad boulevards and big buildings, and if you did not hear the people speaking Spanish you might think you were in Paris or even in New York. In old Spain men used to say all the time "Manyana," which means "to-morrow," for they put off everything they could until to-morrow. New Spain says "Do it now." When you are in Madrid and say you live in America, they think you mean South America, and that of course you speak Spanish, for to a Spaniard "America" means South America. A Spaniard who has made his fortune in South America comes "home to Madrid" to live on what he has made, for a house in Madrid is his "Castle in Spain."
     Sometimes two brothers have families and live in the same house, but usually they get along better if they live in separate houses. Portugal and Spain are like two brothers. They speak a language that is alike and the people are alike in other ways, but they have never been able to get along together, though they tried it once for a little while. In both countries they like dancing and music. In both countries they raise cork and olives. In both countries they like bull-fights-though in Portugal they do not kill the bull, and they wrap the points of his horns so that he can't kill.