听力文本

Pirate Seas

I was once on a train leaving Baltimore when a man asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to Baltimore. He looked at me as if I must have made a mistake and exclaimed, “You are on the wrong train; this train is leaving Baltimore.”

“I know that,” I replied, “but I’m going to Baltimore the long way round, round the World to Baltimore. I’m going west to get east.”

On the other side of the World from us are some islands called “The Indies.” People had always gone to the Indies, far, far away, by traveling toward the east. Columbus thought he could go in just the opposite direction—toward the west—and reach the Indies that way. People said it was foolish to go west to get east, but Columbus believed the World was round, and if it were round he knew he could get to these islands by going west just as well as by going east. So he sailed, and he sailed, and he sailed, always toward the setting sun, and at last he did come to some islands. He thought these islands were the Indies, so he named them the “West Indies.” As a matter of fact, we know, but he didn’t know, that he hadn’t gone half far enough to reach the Indies. He didn’t know that even if he had gone on farther, Central America would have been in the way, anyway.

Living on these islands were men with red skins, painted faces, and feathers in their hair, and Columbus called them Indians. Other people called these Indians “Caribs,” which means “brave,” because they were brave, and the blue sea which surrounded these islands they called the Caribbean Sea—the sea of the Caribs.

Columbus was looking for a new way and he found it, but after Columbus other men came along looking for gold and silver and they found that. Some they found in Mexico and some they found in South America, and some they took away from the Indians who had already found it. They robbed them, that’s all. This gold and silver—treasure—found and stolen, they loaded on ships and started back to Spain.

参考译文

海盗的海洋

我有一次坐火车正要离开巴尔的摩，这时一个男子问我到哪去。我告诉他我要去巴尔的摩。他看着我，现出的神情就好像我弄错了，他大声说：“你坐错车了；这辆火车是从巴尔的摩开出的。”

“我知道，”我回答说，“但是我要绕个大圈子到巴尔的摩，绕过整个世界到巴尔的摩去。我要向西走，到东方去。”

在与我们相对的世界的另一面，和我们相对的地方，有一些岛屿叫做“印度群岛”。人们到遥远的印度群岛去总是向东走。哥伦布认为他可以往正相反的方向走—向西走—到达印度群岛。人们说到东方去却向西走是很愚蠢的，但哥伦布认为世界是圆的，而世界如果是圆的，他知道他可以向西走，到这些岛屿去，正如可以向东走去一样。于是他扬帆起航，日日夜夜不停地在海上航行，一直朝着落日的方向，最后他真的到达了一些岛屿。他以为这些岛屿就是印度群岛，于是他把它们叫做“西印度群岛”。事实上，我们知道到印度群岛的路程他还没走到一半，但他自己却不知道。他不知道即使他再走下去，至少中美洲还会挡住他的路。

住在这些岛上的人有着红色的皮肤，脸上涂着油彩，头发上插着羽毛，哥伦布把他们叫做“印第安人”。其他人把这些印第安人叫做“加勒比人”，意思是“勇敢的人”，因为他们很勇敢，而环绕着这些岛屿的蓝色海洋，他们称之为“加勒比海”—加勒比人的海洋。

哥伦布在找一条新的路线，他确实找到了，但是在哥伦布之后其他人跟着来，是寻找金子和银子的，他们也找到了。有些是在墨西哥找到的，有些是在南美洲找到的，还有些是他们从先找到金银的印第安人手里夺来的。他们抢劫了印第安人，就是这么一回事。这些金子和银子—财宝—找到的和窃取的，他们都装在船上，运回西班牙。