05The 13 Club
05十三俱乐部
A man may pay millions of dollars to have a hospital, a library, or a museum named after him, and another who has paid nothing, done nothing, deserved nothing, and asked nothing has two of the biggest things in the World—the two continents North and South America—named after him, and people will go on forever calling them America after him—an unimportant, almost unknown man named Amerigo.
一个人也许要花上几百万美元才能让一家医院、一个图书馆或者一个博物馆以他的名字命名，但是有个人却没花一分钱， 没做任何事，没有任何功劳，也没提出任何要求，却让世界上两个最大的东西—北美和南美两块大陆—以他的名字命名， 叫亚美利加，而且人们会永远这样叫下去，这个微不足道的人，名叫亚美利哥。

Do you know the song that begins, “My Country, ' Tis of Thee”? What do you mean by “My Country”? It is a part, the smaller part, of North America.Have you a buffalo nickel in your pocket—a 5-cent piece ? If not, perhaps you can borrow one just to look at.On the head side is the picture of an Indian with feathers in his hair.Why do you suppose our country has the picture of an Indian instead of a white man on the nickel? On the tail side is the picture of a buffalo, why do you suppose our country has a picture of a buffalo on the nickel instead of a horse or a cow?
你知道那首歌吗？开头唱道：“我的祖国，这属于你。”你知道“我的祖国”指的是什么吗？它是北美洲的一部分，较小的那一部分。 你口袋里有一枚水牛硬币吗？就是5分的硬币。没有的话你可以借一枚来看看。硬币的正面是一个头发上插着羽毛的印第安人的画像。你能猜出为什么我们国家硬币上的画像是印第安人，而 不是白人吗？硬币的反面是一个水牛的画像。你想想为什么不是一匹马或者一头奶牛呢？
Well, long before there were any white men here at all, or any horses or cows, there were a great many Indians and a great many buffaloes in this country.Now there are very few Indians and very few buffaloes in America, so these pictures on the nickel are to remind us that the Indian is the first American man and the buffalo is the first American animal.
原来，很久以前，这里根本没有白人、马或奶牛，而是有很多很多的印第安人和许多许多的水牛。现在在美国，印第安人和水牛己经非常少了，因此硬币上的这些图像是提醒我们印第安人 是最早的美国人，水牛是最早的美国动物。
If you will look at the printing on the nickel you will see it says “United States of America." That' s the full name of our country, but it is too long for us to say United States of America every time, so we usually say just United States or just America or use just the initials U.S.A.
如果看一下硬币上的字，你会发现上面写着：美利坚合众国。这是美国的全称，但是每次都说美利坚合众国就太长了，所 以我们通常就说美国，或简称为U.S.A.。
Have you ever seen a picture of a tall man with a suit of clothes that looked as if it had been made out of a flag, with red and white striped breeches, a long- tailed coat, and a tall hat with stars on it? There never was such a man really, but he is supposed to be the picture of the United States.
你有没有看过这样一个人的图片？他个子高高的，穿着一套好像是用美国国旗做的衣服，红白条纹的马裤，长长的燕尾服， 戴着一顶满是星星的高帽子。实际上从来没有这样一个人，但是 他被认为是美国的化身。