There are two kinds of coal.

煤有两种。

One is called hard and the other is called soft.

一种叫硬煤，一种叫软煤。

Soft coal doesn't mean soft like a cushion; it means it crumbles easily.

软煤并不是说它像垫子一样柔软；而是说它容易破碎。

Hard coal is the best; soft coal is dirtier and smokier, but is a great deal cheaper.

硬煤是最好的，而软煤更污染环境，冒出的烟也更多，但比硬煤要便宜很多。

Why is it that the best things almost always cost the most?

为什么最好的东西总是价格最高呢？

In the eastern part of Pennsylvania the coal thatncomes out of the ground is hard；in the western part it is soft.

宾夕法尼亚东部产出的煤是硬煤，西部产出的是软煤。

Hundreds of thousands of men, called miners, work underneath the ground, where it is like night all day-long,

成千上万叫做矿工的人，在地底下挖煤，那里从早到晚好像都是黑夜，

digging out the coal to run steam-engines and to heat our houses.

他们挖出煤用以运转蒸汽机，给我们的房子供热。

They have been digging away for years and years, so that there are huge hollow places underneath parts of Pennsylvania.

这些矿工们年复一年地挖掘煤矿使得现在宾夕法尼亚地下有些地方成了一个个大洞。

Coal is in layers underneath the ground and between layers of rock like the chocolate in a chocolate layer-cake.

煤炭在地下是一层层分布在岩石之间，就像巧克力夹心蛋糕中的巧克力一样。

But there are also iron mines in Pennsylvania, and iron is not in layers;

但是在宾夕法尼亚还有铁矿藏，铁不是分层的，

it is all mixed through the rock under the ground and is called ore.

而是和地下的岩石混为一体，叫做矿石。

To get the iron out of the ore, men build huge fires under the ore and the iron melts and runs out,like water, into troughs which they make in the ground to catch it.

为了把铁从矿石中提炼出来，人们生起大火，把矿石放在上面烧，铁熔化成铁水从矿石里流出来，流入地上的槽中，那是人们为接住铁水事先在地上挖好的。

When the iron cools, the blocks of iron are called pigs—perhaps because they are about the size of pigs—or perhaps because a pig goes into a trough.

铁水冷却后形成的铁块叫生铁一也许是因为它们和猪的大小差不多，或者因为猪也到槽里吃食。

To get iron out of iron ore you must have heat, and to have heat you must have something to make heat with, like coal.

要把铁从矿石中提炼出来就得有热量，要有热量就得有像煤那样的东西来产生热量。

Some places have iron ore but no coal, and some places have coal but no iron.

有的地方有铁矿却没有煤炭，而有的地方有煤炭却没有铁矿。

It is as if some boys who wanted to play baseball had a ball but no bat, and some other boys had a bat but no ball.

就好像有的男孩想打棒球却只有球没有球棒，而其他的孩子却只有球棒没有球。

But Pittsburgh, in the western part of Pennsylvania, had both iron and coal near-by.

宾夕法尼亚西部的匹 兹堡附近既有铁矿又有煤炭，

That is like boys who have both a bat and a ball.

就像有些男孩既有球棒又有球一样。

From the ore they make iron, and from the iron they make steel,

人们从矿石中提炼出了铁，将铁制成了钢，

and from the steel they make rails for railroad tracks and beams for tall buildings and bridges to cross rivers.

用钢造出铁路的铁轨、高楼的横梁和跨河的桥梁。