听力文本

The oldest fruit in the World is the apple. It is the fruit that grew in the Garden of Eden, but people believe the apple that Eve gave Adam was a very poor one compared to the apples that grow in the State of Washington. People in Washington, D.C.—all the way across the country—buy apples that have been shipped from Washington State—3,000 miles away—for they are so much better than ordinary apples. They are “skookum.” That’s what the Indians of the Northwest call something very nice—whether it is a girl or an apple.

There are great forests in Washington and Oregon. The forest trees are cut down to make lumber for building houses; and the paper I am writing on was made from trees that grew in Oregon. How do I know that? When I hold the paper up to the light, there is printed in white—we call it a watermark—the word “Oregon.”

At the northwest corner of America is a large country that belongs to the United States and yet it is not a State. It is called a Territory. It is Alaska. The highest mountain in North America is there. It is called Mount McKinley. Alaska is so cold, so far off, and so hard to get to, and yet the United States bought it and paid millions of dollars for it, not because it had the highest mountain, but chiefly because of the fish in its waters and the fur on its animals, and then one day gold was discovered there.

Gold is a magic word. Again, as in the days of the Forty-niners, thousands of people, when they heard of the gold, left everything and, with nothing but shovels to dig the gold and sieves to strain it out of the water, started off to that far-away place, hoping to make their fortunes before the new year. Many foolishly went off with nothing to live on after they reached Alaska. They didn’t seem to know that where the gold was to be found there was no food, nothing to eat, and no stores where one could buy food. Others, more wise, carried cans of food with them, and when the foolish gold-diggers had found gold, the wise ones sold them food for their gold. For a can of beans they often asked hundreds of times what it had cost, and the foolish gold-diggers had to pay it or starve, for they couldn’t eat gold and they had to eat or die. So the wise ones came back with the gold which the foolish ones had dug, and the foolish ones were lucky to get back at all.

参考译文

世界上最古老的水果是苹果。它是长在伊甸园里的水果，但是人们认为和华盛顿州的苹果相比，夏娃在伊甸园送给亚当的苹果一定很不好吃。住在华盛顿特区的人—从华盛顿州到华盛顿特区要横穿整个美国—买从华盛顿州运送来的苹果—运程达3000英里—就因为它们比普通的苹果可口多了。它们是“呱呱叫的”。西北部的印第安人形容什么好东西都说“呱呱叫”—不管是女孩子还是苹果。

华盛顿州和俄勒冈州有着大片的森林。森林里的树木被砍倒，做成建房用的木材；我正在写字用的纸也是用生长在俄勒冈的树造的。我是怎么知道的呢？我把纸举起来对着亮光时，能看到上面印着白色的——我们把那叫做水印——“俄勒冈”的字样。

在美洲的西北角有一片很大的区域，它属于美国，却不是一个州。那叫做领土，那是阿拉斯加。北美洲最高的山峰就在那里，叫做麦金利山。阿拉斯加非常寒冷，远离本土，去一趟很困难，然而美国还是花了数百万美元买下了这块地方，不是因为那里有最高的山峰，而主要是因为那片海域盛产鱼类和动物皮毛，后来有一天人们还发现了金子。

金子是一个有魔力的词。又一次，像“49淘金人”那时一样，一听说有金子，成千上万的人就丢下所有的东西，出发到那遥远的地方，只带着挖金子用的铲子和从水里滤出金子的筛子，指望在新年之前发大财。很多人愚蠢之极，什么都没带就出发了，到达阿拉斯加以后没有任何可以赖以生存的东西。他们好像不知道能找到金子的地方没有食物，没有任何吃的东西，没有能买到食物的商店。另一些人要比他们精明，随身带着罐头食品，当那些愚蠢的淘金者挖到金子时，那些精明的人就把食物卖给他们，换来金子。一罐豆子往往被卖到原价几百倍的价钱，那些愚蠢的淘金者不得不付钱，否则就要挨饿，因为他们不能吃金子，他们要吃食物，不然就要死掉。于是那些聪明的人带着那些愚蠢的人挖出来的金子回家了，而那些愚蠢的人只要能回来就已经是很幸运了。