听力文本

Still farther north, a hop, skip, and a jump from the Colorado Canyon, in the corner of the State of Wyoming, is a place that looks on the map like a little State within the State. It is called Yellowstone Park. There are so many wonderful things in this part of the State—freaks, funny things, and lovely things—that the United States thought people would like to see them, so they made a Park of this corner of the State, with good roads and hotels, for people who wish to see the sights. No hunting is allowed, so wild animals and birds can live and raise families without fear of being killed. There are bears in Yellowstone Park, but as they are not allowed to be hunted or shot, they become very tame and people can even go close enough to photograph them.

The World in that part of the country has not yet cooled off altogether, and it is still very hot not far down under the ground. If a person asked me to have a glass of spring water, I should expect a nice cool drink; but if the spring were in Yellowstone Park the water would probably scald my throat, for there are hundreds of springs in Yellowstone Park heated so hot by underground fires that they boil up and over like a pot on the fire.

There is a big lake in Yellowstone Park called Yellowstone Lake. You can stand on its edge and catch a fish in the lake and, without taking the fish off the hook, drop it into one of the hot springs near shore and cook it. In other places the water is blown up by the steam underneath into fountains. These fountains are called “geysers,” and some are quite big and some are quite beautiful. One called “Old Faithful” spouts regularly about once every hour, throwing a beautiful stream of water straight up into the air like a gigantic fire-hose. It does this so faithfully that it seems almost as if a person turned the water on and off, but it has been spouting this way ever since it has been known—never missing an hour, night or day, never forgetting, never running down, more faithful than any human being would or could be.

参考译文

从科罗拉多大峡谷再往北不远处是怀俄明州，在怀俄明州的西北角有块地方，在地图上看起来就像是“州中之州”。这个地方叫黄石公园。这里有很多奇妙的东西——有的奇形怪状，有的滑稽可笑，有的美丽迷人——有这么好的地方所以美国政府认为人们都想来观赏一下，于是就在怀俄明州的西北角建了这个公园，这里公路宽敞，酒店舒适，非常便于前来旅游的人。这里禁止捕猎，因此野生动物和鸟类可以自由地繁衍生息，不用担惊受怕。黄石公园里有熊，但是没有人捕猎或射杀，它们就变得非常温顺，游客可以靠近它们拍照。

世界在美国的那块地方还没有完全冷却下来，在地下不深的地方仍然很热。如果有人请我喝一杯泉水，我期待喝上清凉可口的水；但是喝了黄石公园的泉水，很可能会烫伤我的喉咙，因为在黄石公园有许许多多的温泉被地下熔岩加热至沸腾溢出，就像是火上烧开的水壶一样。

黄石公园里有个大湖叫做黄石湖。你可以站在湖边钓一条鱼，然后不用把它从鱼钩上取下来就直接丢到湖岸附近的一个热泉里把它给煮熟了。在其他地方，由于地下蒸汽的压力泉水会喷出来形成喷泉。这种喷泉叫做“间歇泉”，有的间歇泉非常壮观，有的非常美丽。一个叫做“老实泉”的间歇泉很规律地大约每隔一小时就喷射一次，此刻一条美丽的水柱直入空中，就像从一个巨大的消防水带里喷射出来一样。它每次喷射都是这么尽职守信，就好像有个人看着时间开关水龙头一样，但它自从被人所知就一直这样喷射——日日夜夜从未漏过一个小时，从未忘记，从未停止，我们人类没有人愿意或能够做到像它那样忠实守信。