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The land around the Amazon River is called “Selvas”—which means “woods.” It is not only woods but jungles and swamps, and it is very wild, hot, damp, and unhealthful. It is so hot and damp that everything grows big and thick and fast—so big that water lilies grow leaves as big as the top of a dining-room table; so thick that man can hardly make his way through; and as fast as Jack the Giant Killer’s beanstalk.

There are many animals but few men in the Selvas, and the men are mostly Indians. There are many monkeys, the kind organ-grinders use. There are parrots, which sailors catch and teach to speak and bring back home. There are butterflies and moths of great size and beautiful colors that a boy would love to have for his collection. There are huge snakes called boa-constrictors, that look like heavy vines hanging from branches to fool other animals which they catch, coil around, and hug to death, then swallow whole and go to sleep for a week or month while the meal is being digested. There are animals that hang from trees by their toes like a boy on a trapeze, and even sleep upside down; lazy, sleepy animals that never seem to be awake, and move, when they do move, so slothfully they are called “sloths.” There are animals like dragons, called “iguanas.” There are huge bullfrogs whose croaking sounds like the roar of lions. And there are mosquitos, the country mosquitos that give you malaria. You may wonder why any one goes to the Selvas at all. They go a-hunting for animals for museums and zoos, but the chief thing they go hunting for is the juice or sap of a tree that grows wild in the Selvas.

White people found the Amazon Indians playing with balls that bounced and bounded. They had seen nothing of the sort before. These balls, they found out, were made of the sap of a tree. That gave the white man the idea that this sap might be used to make balls for white children and white men to play with—babies’ balls, tennis-balls, golf-balls. Then they found that lumps of it would rub out—so they called it rubber—and that they could make rubber erasers, automobile tires, rubber bands, and rubber boots of it. Soft rubber and hard rubber and pully rubber and springy rubber are all made from the sap of the rubber-tree by treating it in different ways as a cook makes taffy and gum-drops and caramels by cooking sugar in different ways.

参考译文

亚马逊河附近的地区叫做“热带雨林”—就是“森林”的意思。不仅仅是森林，还包括丛林和沼泽，那里荒无人烟，气候炎热潮湿，有害于人的健康。植物在这样的环境里都长得又大又密又快—大，比如睡莲的叶子长得像餐厅里的桌子面那么大；密，森林茂密得让人几乎难以穿过；快，植物生长极迅速，就像童话故事《巨人杀手杰克》里的仙豆茎长得那样快。

热带雨林里有很多动物，却没有什么人，当地居民大多数是印第安人。那里有很多猴子，是街头手摇风琴师卖艺时唤的那种猴子。那里有鹦鹉，航海的水手捉住它们，教它们说话，然后带回家。那里有体形巨大、色彩斑斓的蝴蝶和飞蛾，孩子见了它们的标本都喜欢收藏。那里还有一种大蟒，叫做王蛇，看起来就像是从树枝上垂下来的粗壮的藤子，可以欺骗其他动物上当，王蛇缠住靠近的动物，然后收缩身体将其挤压死，王蛇把整个动物吞下，在食物被消化的这段时间里，它就睡上一个星期或一个月。那里还有一种动物，它们用脚趾头勾在树上倒悬着，就像小男孩在玩高空秋千一样，它们甚至倒悬着睡觉；它们一副懒散、疲倦的样子，看起来好像永远都没睡醒，即使动一下，也是极缓慢，于是人们把它们叫做“树懒”。那里还有一种像龙的动物，叫做“鬣蜥”。那里还有巨大的牛蛙，呱呱的叫声响如狮吼。那里还有蚊子，能传播疟疾的乡村蚊子。你也许想知道究竟为什么还有人去热带雨林。他们去是为了捕猎野生动物供博物馆和动物园使用，但他们去寻找的最主要的东西是一种树的汁或液，这种树是在热带雨林自然生长的。

白人发现亚马逊的印第安人玩一种蹦蹦跳跳有弹性的球。他们以前从来没有见过这种东西。他们查明这种球是用一种树的汁液做成的。这让白人想到也许这种汁液能用来制作供白人大人、小孩玩的各种球—婴儿球、网球和高尔夫球。后来他们发现这种汁液团还能够擦掉字迹—于是他们把这种树液叫做橡胶—他们还发现能用它制造橡皮擦、汽车轮胎、橡皮筋和橡胶靴。通过不同的处理方法可以将橡胶树汁液制成不同种类的橡胶，如软橡胶、硬橡胶、拉力橡胶和弹性橡胶，就像厨师用不同的烹饪方法可以把食糖做成太妃糖、橡皮软糖和卡拉梅尔糖一样。