听力文本

Silver Land and Sliver Land

WE give babies names when they are born, but sometimes when the babies grow up the names do not fit them. “Charles” means “strong” and “Ruth” means “beautiful,” but when Charles grows up he may not be strong, and Ruth may not be beautiful. You never can tell. When white people came to South America to the land south of Brazil they saw Indians there wearing silver bracelets and silver necklaces, and they supposed there must be a great deal of silver in the land, so they named the country “Silver Land,” which in their language is “Argentina.” But Argentina turned out to have very little silver, yet we still call it Silver Land just the same.

Although Argentina has little silver, the people there have a great deal of money; in fact, they have more money than any other country in South America. They do not get the money out of the ground, but they make it by selling wheat and meat, so it would have been a more fitting name if they had called Argentina “Wheat Land” or “Meat Land” instead of “Silver Land,” but not nearly so pretty. In Argentina there are enormous farms where they grow wheat and corn, and enormous fields called pampas where they raise cattle and sheep. The men that look after these cattle and sheep we should call “cowboys,” but there they are called “gauchos.” Gauchos wear ponchos. A poncho is a kind of square blanket with a hole in the center through which the gaucho sticks his head. He uses it as a coat by day and as a blanket by night. A gaucho always carries a big knife, which he uses as a sword, as a hatchet, or as a table knife.

Corn feeds the cattle. Cattle makes meat and meat makes money. From the skin of the cattle leather is made, and from the wool of sheep cloth is made, and from both money is made.

参考译文

白银之国和棉条之国

孩子出生了，就要取个名字，但有些孩子长大后，名字和人并不相称。“查尔斯”含有“强壮的”意思，“鲁丝”含有“美丽的”意思，但是查尔斯长大后，也许并不强壮，鲁丝也许并不美丽。这种事，谁也拿不准。白人来到南美洲，到了巴西南面一个国家，当时他们看见那里的印第安人都戴着银手镯和银项链，就以为这个国家肯定有很多的银子，于是把这个国家叫做“白银之国”，按他们的语言（西班牙语）就是“阿根廷”。但后来发现阿根廷没有什么银子，然而“白银之国”这个名字仍然沿用至今。

尽管阿根廷没有什么银子，那里的人却很有钱；他们甚至比南美洲其他任何一个国家的人都更有钱。他们不是靠银赚钱，而是靠卖小麦和肉类赚钱的，因此如果人们把阿根廷叫做“小麦之国”或者“肉类之国”而不是“白银之国”可能更合适，只是远没有那么好听了。阿根廷有许多广阔的大农场种植小麦和玉米，还有叫做南美大草原的辽阔田野，人们在那里放牧牛羊。我们把照看这些牛羊的人叫做“牛仔”，但是他们却叫“加乌乔牧人”。加乌乔牧人穿着南美披风。南美披风是一种方形的毛毯，中间开有领口，加乌乔牧人穿时从头部套入。他们白天把它当外套穿，晚上就当毯子盖。加乌乔牧人总是带着一把大刀，这把刀既用作剑，又用作短柄小斧，还能作餐刀使用。

阿根廷人用玉米养牛，牛养大后，牛肉可以卖钱。牛皮制成皮革，羊毛可以织布，都可以卖钱。