听力文本

The Bridge Across the Ocean

WHEN you go to Europe you have to take two things with you besides your ticket and your luggage. I wonder if you can guess what they are. You have to take plenty of money, but not of your country, as it wouldn’t be any good, but of the kind used in the country to which you are going; and the second thing you have to have is a passport. A passport is a little book with only one picture in it—your own—and very few pages. The reading is not a story—it gives you permission to land in the country to which you are going. It is like a ticket of admission: Admit only the person whose picture is in the book. They won’t let you go aboard the ship or airplane unless you have a passport, and they won’t let you get off the ship unless you have a passport.

It is about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from New York, the largest city in the New World, to London, the largest city in the Old World.

Columbus took over a month to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to America.

We can cross in less than a week by ship?

We can cross in less than a day by airplane!

But there is something that crosses the ocean faster than that and does it every day and is always on time. You would never guess what it is. It’s the sun. The sun crosses from London to New York in five hours and does it every day.

The people in London, when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky over their heads, set their clocks at 12 o’clock—midday. Five hours later the sun has reached New York and the people there set their watches at 12 o’clock too, because that’s what 12 o’clock means: “when the sun is highest in the sky.” While the sun has been crossing the ocean all the watches and clocks in London have been ticking along, so it is 5 o’clock in London when it is 12 o’clock here in New York. That is, London clocks are five hours ahead of our clocks.

参考译文

越洋之旅

要去欧洲的话，除了车票和行李之外，你还得带两样东西。我不知道你能不能猜出来是什么。你得带足够钱，但不是你自己国家的钱，因为那将一点儿用都没有，而要带目的地国家使用的钱；你要带的第二样东西是护照。护照是一个小本子，里面只有一张照片—你自己的照片—和很少几页纸。里面的内容不是讲故事—而是准许你去你要去的国家。护照就像一张入场券：只允许本子里照片中的那个人进入。没有护照，他们不会让你上船或登机，没有护照他们也不会让你下船进入另一个国家。

从“新大陆”最大的城市纽约出发，到“旧大陆”最大的城市伦敦，要在大西洋上航行约3000英里。

哥伦布航行了一个多月才从欧洲越过大西洋抵达美洲。

我们现在乘船一周之内就能到。

坐飞机的话，还用不了一天呢！

但是有一样东西越过大西洋比飞机还要快，而且天天越过大西洋，始终准时到达。你绝对猜不出那是什么。是太阳。太阳从伦敦越过大洋到达纽约只需要五个小时，而且每天都是这样。

住在伦敦的人，当太阳到达他们头顶上空最高点时，把时钟设为12点—也就是正午。五个小时后，太阳到达纽约，那里的人也把手表设为12点，因为12点就意味着“当太阳在天空中最高点的时候”。当太阳跨越大洋的时候，伦敦所有的钟表都在滴答滴答走个不停，所以当纽约这里12点的时候，伦敦已是下午5点了。也就是说，伦敦的时钟比我们的快五个小时。