听力文本

The War-God's Country

TOMMY TINKER was eating a slice of bread and butter. He was biting it very carefully round the edges and between bites he looked at it thoughtfully.

“What in the world are you doing!” asked his father.

“I’m biting a map of North America,” replied Tommy. He placed it carefully on the tablecloth. “There’s Alaska on this corner, Labrador on this corner, Florida on this corner, and Yucatan opposite it.” Then he rolled out a little tail of bread and placed it on the other corner. “And there’s Lower California.”

“I ought to send you from the table for playing with your food,” said his father; “but I won’t if you can tell me where the Gulf of California is.”

“It’s not in California,” said Tommy. “You didn’t catch me that time. It’s in Mexico and so is Lower California too—both are in Mexico.”

“Right,” said his father. “When I was a boy my teacher asked me where the Gulf of California and Lower California were and, though I hadn’t studied my lesson, I answered ‘California,’ for I felt sure that must be right.”

“Did your teacher ever show you this one?” asked Tommy. He curved the finger and thumb of his left hand to form the letter “G.” “ G is for Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “My finger is Florida, my thumb is Yucatan and here is Mexico. Do you see it?”

“They didn’t teach me geography that way when I went to school,” said his father.

“They don’t now,” said Tommy. “I made that up myself.”

Perhaps you have heard people speak of some place as “God’s Country.” Well, the country just south of the United States is named “God’s Country,” but it is the War God’s Country. It is called Mexico after the Indians’ God of War, Mexitli.

When you cross the line from the United States to Canada you hardly know you are in another country—the people are the same, they talk the same language. But when you cross the line from the United States to Mexico you do know you are in another country—the people are different and they talk a different language. Mexico used to belong to Spain across the Atlantic; it now belongs to itself.

参考译文

战神的国家

汤米·廷克正在吃一片涂了黄油的面包。他很小心地沿着面包边缘咬着，还不时停下来看着面包，若有所思。

“你究竟在干什么！”爸爸问他。

“我在咬一块北美洲的地图，”汤米回答说。他把面包小心地放在桌布上。“阿拉斯加在这个角，拉布拉多在这个角，佛罗里达在这个角，尤卡坦在佛罗里达对面。”然后他把一点面包末梢展开放在另一个角，“这里是下加利福尼亚。”

“你玩弄食物，我该把你从桌边赶走，”爸爸说；“但是如果你能告诉我加利福尼亚湾在哪我就不赶你走。”

“它并不在加利福尼亚，”汤米说，“那次你就没有难住我。它在墨西哥，下加利福尼亚也在墨西哥——两个都在墨西哥。”

“对的，”爸爸说。“我小的时候，老师问我加利福尼亚湾和下加利福尼亚在哪里，虽然我还没预习课文，我就回答说‘加利福尼亚’，因为我想当然地认为那一定是对的。”

“你的老师给你看过这个吗？”汤米问。他把他左手的食指和大拇指弯曲起来形成字母“G”的形状。“G代表墨西哥湾，”他说。“我的食指是佛罗里达，我的大拇指是尤卡坦，这里是墨西哥。你懂了吗？”

“我上学的时候老师没有这样教我地理，”爸爸说。

“他们现在也不这样教，”汤米说，“是我自己创造的。”

也许你曾听人把某个地方称为“神的国家”。是啊，美国南面那个国家就是叫做“神的国家”，但它是“战神的国家”。它叫墨西哥，是以印第安人的战神“墨西特利”命名的。

当你跨过边界线从美国进入加拿大时，你几乎不知道自己到了另一个国家——加拿大人和美国人长得一样，都说同样的语言。但是当你跨过边界线从美国进入墨西哥时，你很清楚自己到了另一个国家——墨西哥人和美国人长得不一样，他们说不同的语言。墨西哥曾经属于大西洋对岸的西班牙；现在它是一个独立的国家。