听力文本

The Land of the Angles

ENGLAND is an island.

Angles once lived on the island—no, not Angels—but people called Angles.

So it was called Angle-land.

We now spell it Eng-land

But we call it “Ingland.”

There are, however, two other countries on the island—Wales and Scotland—as well as England; so we should call the whole island “Great Britain.” Next door to the island of Great Britain is another is-land. It is Ire-land.

A ship, when it reaches England, cannot land its passengers wherever it chooses. There are only certain places. The shore may be too shallow and the ship would run aground and turn over, or the shore may be too rocky or too high with cliffs. Most people who go to England usually land on the west side at a place called Liverpool—Liver pool: what a peculiar name!— or at Southampton, which we can tell from the name is on the south side of England; or at London, which is on the east side. If they land at London the ship must go up a river spelled Thames but called “Temz.” English people spell many things one way and pronounce them another. The Thames runs right through London, but big ships cannot go up any farther than London Bridge. Have you ever played the game “London Bridge is Falling Down”? Well, London Bridge has fallen down several times, but each time it has been built up again; and the London Bridge that is there now I don’t believe will ever fall.

London was a city when Christ was born, but it was then so small and so far off that Christ never heard of it. London is now the largest city

New York is tall, London is broad. New York buildings climb to the sky, fifty, seventy, a hundred stories high. London buildings seldom go higher than a few stories, but the city spreads out in every direction, mile after mile. People travel about London chiefly on buses, double-decker ones with seats on top as well as inside, but they also travel about London on trains that run under the ground.

London is the capital of England. The capit-o-1 of England—the building—is, of course, in London and it is on the banks of the Thames. It is called the Houses of Parliament, which means the Houses of Talk. It is the place where people not only talk but make the laws for England. A king rules over England, but the English people send men to Parliament to make their laws. As I had lived in sight of our Capitol in Washington for many years, I thought all capitols had to have domes, just as all cows had horns. It was therefore a shock for me to see that the English Capitol, the Houses of Parliament, had no dome—only square towers with a large clock in one of them, with a huge bell, called “Big Ben,” that strikes the hours.

参考译文

盎格鲁人的土地

英格兰是一个岛。

盎格鲁人曾经住在这个岛上——不，不是天使，而是叫做盎格鲁的人。

因此这个岛叫盎格鲁之地（Angle-land）。

我们现在把它拼写成England（“盎格兰”）。

但是我们叫它“英格兰”（Ingland）。

然而岛上除了英格兰之外还有另外两个国家—威尔士和苏格兰；所以我们应该把整个岛叫做“大不列颠”。大不列颠岛旁边还有一个岛。那是爱尔兰。

轮船到达英国后不能随意靠岸让乘客登陆。只有某些地方才可以。有的海岸边水域可能太浅，轮船会搁浅翻船，有的海岸边岩石太多，还有的海岸可能太高周围都是悬崖。大部分到英国的人通常在西边的一个地方上岸，这个地方叫做利物浦——肝脏池塘：多么奇特的名字！——或者在南安普顿上岸，从名字我们就能知道它在英国的南部；或者在伦敦上岸，伦敦位于英国的东部。如果他们在伦敦上岸，轮船就必须沿一条叫做泰晤士的河向上驶去，“泰晤士”的英语拼写是Thames。英国人有很多单词拼写是一套，发音又是另一套。泰晤士河正好流经伦敦，但大轮船最远只能开到伦敦桥。你有没有玩过“伦敦铁桥垮下来”的游戏？你知道吗？伦敦桥垮塌过好几次，但每次又重建起来；现在的伦敦桥，我想不会再垮塌了。

耶稣诞生的时候伦敦就已经是个城市了，但那时伦敦很小，又很遥远，因此耶稣从来就没有听说过这个地方。现在伦敦是世界上最大的城市。

纽约很高，伦敦很宽。纽约的楼房高耸入云，高达五十层、七十层，还有一百层的。伦敦的楼房大多数只有几层高，但是整个城市向各个方向不断扩展，扩展了1英里又1英里。到伦敦旅游的人主要乘坐公共汽车，公共汽车是那种车里和车顶都有座位的双层公共汽车，但他们也乘坐地铁在伦敦游玩。

伦敦是英国的首都。英国的国会大厦—这栋建筑—当然也在伦敦，位于泰晤士河岸，叫做“议会大厦”，意思就是“谈话大楼”。人们在那里不仅仅谈话，而且还制定英国的法律。英国由国王统治，但英国人派代表到议会去制定法律。由于我在华盛顿住了很多年，天天都能看到我们的国会大厦，我就以为所有的国会大厦都必须有圆屋顶，就像所有的牛都有角一样。因此当我看到英国的国会时真是大吃一惊，他们的议会大厦没有圆屋顶—只有一些方形的塔楼，其中一个塔楼上装着一个大时钟，里面还有一口巨大的钟叫做“大本钟”，它用于报时。