听力文本

The city of San Francisco on the coast north of Los Angeles isnearly as large as Los Angeles. It might have been larger, but not so manyyears ago a terrible earthquake shook down the city. The quake only lasted afew minutes, but in that few minutes it rocked the city, cracked open theground, and knocked down buildings as if they were houses of children’s blocks,and hundreds and hundreds of people were killed. But the worst thing theearthquake did was to upset stoves and lamps that started one of the worstfires ever known—fires that burned up most of the city. Were the peoplediscouraged? Not at all. They collected their insurance money—and they builtthe city up again.

San Francisco has one of the finest harbors in the World. Its harboris a long bay—fifty miles long. Ships enter the harbor from the Pacific Oceanthrough an opening called the Golden Gate. The city is built on many hills sosteep that it is difficult for automobiles to climb them, but houses built onthem have lovely views of the ocean, the bay, or the Golden Gate. Across theGolden Gate is a huge suspension bridge much bigger than the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ships enter and leave San Francisco for all the countries on andacross the Pacific Ocean. Across the Pacific Ocean are China and Japan, and indays gone by so many Chinese came to the United States and landed in SanFrancisco that there is a part of the city called Chinatown, where there areChinese houses and shops and theaters. Many Japanese too came to the United Statesfrom Japan, and bought farms where they raised fruits and vegetables.

参考译文

洛杉矶北面的沿海城市圣弗朗西斯科市（旧金山）几乎和洛杉矶一样大。以前或许比洛杉矶还要大一点，但是在没有多少年以前，一场可怕的地震震倒了整个城市。地震只持续了几分钟，但就在那短短几分钟里城市摇晃，地面断裂，楼房倒塌，就好像是小孩搭的积木房子说倒就倒，许许多多的人失去了生命。但地震造成的最严重的灾难是打翻了火炉和油灯从而引发了至今为止最严重的火灾之一——大火烧掉了这个城市的大部分。人们因此而丧失希望了吗？丝毫没有。他们领取了保险赔偿金——重新建起了这个城市。

圣弗朗西斯科有着世界上最好的港口之一。它的港口是一个长长的海湾——长达50英里。从太平洋来的船只通过一个叫做“金门”的海峡进入港口。这个城市建造在很多陡峭的山上，因此汽车很难爬上去，但建在山坡上房子里能看到很美的风景：大海、海湾和金门。横跨金门海峡的金门大桥是一个比布鲁克林大桥更大的巨大吊桥。

在圣弗朗西斯科进进出出的船只来自于太平洋上和对岸的所有国家。太平洋对岸是中国和日本，在以往的岁月里有许许多多的中国人不断来到美国在圣弗朗西斯科上岸，所以这里有个叫做“唐人街”的地方，唐人街有中国风格的房屋、商店和剧院。许多日本人也远离故土来到美国，他们买下农场种植水果和蔬菜。