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Parlez-vous Fran愀椀猀?

I KNOW a boy who has never been to school and who has never had a French lesson in his life, but who can speak Frenchfluently. He’s no brighter than you are, either. How do you explain that? It’s because he was born in France. He is a French boy. But there was a time when every one who was anybody, no matter in what country he was born,could speak French. The English kings and nobles and educated people all spoke French; they spoke English only to their servants, who were not supposed to know anything better.

France is only two dozen miles from England—twenty-four miles—but there is water between the two countries andno bridge. The water between England and France is called the English Channel. It might just as well have been called the French Channel, for it doesn’t belong to either England or France. The finest swimmers in the World,both men and women, have come from all over the World just to try to swim across the English Channel. But only a very few have been able to do it. A boat takes only about an hour to cross and an airplane takes even less time.

When you cross over to France you usually leave a place on the English side called Dover and land at a place on theFrench side called Calais, because this is the shortest distance. It’s short, but often so very rough that every one is seasick—then it seems very long. Some day perhaps a tunnel will be made underneath the English Channel.People usually speak of this as the Calais-Dover route, and there is an old catch question, “What is the shortest route from England to France?” One usually answers “Calais- Dover,” but that is wrong, for the shortestway to France is “Dover-Calais.” Some people cross a longer way, landing at other places on the French side. Havre is one of these places. Havre is at the mouth of a river spelled “Seine,” but called “Sane.”

参考译文

你讲法语吗?

我认识一个小男孩，他从没有上过学，也从没有上过一堂法语课，却可以说一口流利的法语。他也并不比你聪明。你说是怎么回事呢？那是因为他出生在法国，是个法国男孩。但曾经有一段时期，凡是有身份的人，不管他出生在哪个国家，都会说法语。英国的国王、贵族和受过教育的人全都说法语；他们只有跟仆人说话时才说英语，因为仆人只配说英语。

法国距离英国只有24英里，但是中间隔着大海，海上没有桥。英国和法国之间的这片海域叫做英吉利海峡，其实叫做法兰西海峡也无妨，因为这个海峡既不属于英国，也不属于法国。世界上体格最强的游泳好手，男女都有，从世界各地来到这里，都试图游过英吉利海峡。但是成功者寥寥可数。坐船大约一个小时就可以渡过海峡，坐飞机时间就更短了。

从英国去法国，通常是从英国一个叫做多佛尔的地方出发，然后在法国一个叫做加来的地方上岸，因为这条路线最短。行程虽短，却经常波涛汹涌，一路颠簸，人人都晕船——于是行程也就显得漫长了。也许将来有一天英吉利海峡下面会挖通海底隧道。人们通常把这条路线叫做加来—多佛线，这里有一个古老的引人上当的问题：“从英国到法国最短的路线是什么？”人们通常会回答说“加来—多佛线”，但那就错了，因为“去”法国最短的路线应是“多佛—加来”。有人选择长一点的路线，在法国的其他地方上岸。阿弗尔就是其中之一。阿弗尔位于一条河的河口，它叫塞纳河，英语拼写为“Seine”。