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Our country roads usually have fences alongside, but in England the country roads usually have hedges. Sometimes the hedges are like those that grew up round Sleeping Beauty’s castle, so thick and so high that you cannot see through them or over them, and the houses behind them are hidden, all except perhaps the roof. Sometimes the roofs are quite different from ours—made of piles of straw, which are called “thatch.” You would hardly think thatch roofs would keep the rain out, but they do; and you would think they would burn up easily, but they don’t. The houses themselves are seldom built of wood, because there is very little wood in England to build them of. Almost all of them are built of stone which comes out of the ground, or brick made out of the ground. In America there is a great deal of wood, but in England there is little wood, for there are very few forests, hardly any big ones, and they are usually kept like a park. The country is so old the trees have nearly all been cut down. The trees that are left are so valuable that people do not often cut them down to use them for building houses. In America a wood house is cheaper than a stone or brick house. In England a stone or brick house is cheaper than one made of wood.

Among the sights which people go to see in England are the churches and cathedrals. Few churches in America are a hundred years old. There are few churches in England that are not a hundred years old, and many of the cathedrals are more nearly a thousand years old. Most of the people in England are Episcopa-lians, so most of the churches in England are Episcopal. In fact, the Episcopal Church is called the Church of England.

Two of the greatest universities in the world are in England. They play each other football, but not baseball. Instead of baseball they play a game called cricket, and they have rowing matches. One of these universities is on River Thames where oxen used to wade across or “ford” the river, and so is called Ox-ford; the other university is by the River Cam where a bridge crosses, so this is called Cam-bridge.

Many of the World’s greatest writers whose stories you read and whose poetry you have learned lived in England, and the greatest English writer , William Shakspere, lived there at a place called Stratford-on- Avon.

参考译文

我们的乡村公路两旁通常设有栅栏，但在英国，乡村公路两旁通常是树篱。有些树篱就像《睡美人》里城堡外的树篱，长得又密又高，无法透过树篱看到后面的东西，也无法从上面望过去，后面的房子整个都被遮掩了，也许最多只能看到屋顶。有时屋顶也和我们的大不相同——是用禾秆摞起来的，叫做“茅草屋顶”。你很难想象茅草屋顶能防雨，但确实可以；你可能以为茅草屋顶很容易烧起来，但是并不会。这些房子本身很少是用木头造的，因为英国木材稀少，不够用来建房子。几乎所有的房屋都是用地下的石头建的，或者是用土做成的砖头建成的。美国有大量的木材，但英国的木材很少，因为英国只有很少的森林，几乎没有大森林，那些小森林通常像公园一样被保留下来。这个国家历史悠久，树木几乎都被砍掉了。剩下的树木于是变得非常宝贵，人们一般不舍得把树木砍倒用于盖房子。在美国，木头房子比石头或者砖头房子便宜。在英国，石头或者砖头房子比木头房子更便宜。

英国有很多值得一看的名胜风景，包括很多教堂和大教堂。美国很少有一百年历史的教堂。但英国几乎没有教堂是不超过一百年的，许多大教堂有一千多年的历史。大部分英国人都是圣公会教徒，所以英国大部分教堂都是圣公会教堂。实际上，英国圣公会被称作英国国教会。

世界上最著名的大学中有两所在英国。这两所大学之间常举行足球赛、板球赛和划船比赛，但没有棒球赛。其中一所大学位于泰晤士河河畔，那里过去是牛群涉水过河的地方，因此就叫“牛津大学”；另一所大学位于剑河河畔，剑河上有一座桥，因此就叫“剑桥大学”。

世界上许多最伟大的作家都生活在英国，你读过他们写的故事，学过他们写的诗歌。世界上最伟大的英国作家威廉·莎士比亚就曾住在英国埃文河畔的斯特拉特福小镇上。