听力文本

Spanish houses have no front yard nor back yard nor side yard, but an inside yard with the rooms all around it. Thisinside yard is called a patio and it is often a living-room and dining-room for all who live in the house.

As you ride through Spain on a train you can see from the car window a very peculiar looking tree—different fromany tree that grows in our country. This is the cork-tree. The little and big corks we use for bottle stoppers don’t grow on trees as cherries or peaches do. They are made from the bark of a kind of oak. The bark is cutoff from the tree in large pieces and cut up into big and little corks. The tree then grows another coat of bark, but it takes nine years to grow a thick enough bark to be cut again. So every cork you use is nearly as oldas you are, or older.

Cork-trees live to a great age, much longer than people do. But another tree you see in Spain grows to be still older.It is the olive-tree, which bears a fruit that looks something like green cherries. It is said that olive-trees have been known to live and bear fruit for a thousand years! Olives have been used as food since Bible times andlong before that, and yet many people have to learn to like them. Olives are also pressed to make olive oil, which we use in salad dressing, for no other kind of oil is quite as good for food. In Spain they often use it insteadof butter, and it is also made into a very pure soap called Castile soap, which you may have used.

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西班牙的房屋没有前院、没有后院，也没有侧院，但有个四周都是房间的内院。这个内院叫做“天井”，通常作为住房的客厅和餐厅。

当你乘火车在西班牙旅行时，你可能会看到车窗外有一种样子很奇特的树——和美国的任何一种树都不一样。这种树叫做栓皮槠。我们用作瓶塞的大大小小的软木塞子并不是像樱桃或桃子那样长在树上的，而是用栓皮槠这种橡树的树皮做的。大块的树皮从树上割下来切成大大小小的软木塞。剥过皮的树然后会长出新一层树皮，但是新一层树皮要长9年，才能达到足够的厚度，被再次剥下来。所以你用的每一个软木塞的年龄和你差不多大，有的也许比你还大。

栓皮槠树龄很长，比人的寿命要长得多。但在西班牙你还能看到一种树,树龄更长。那就是橄榄树，它的果实看起来有点像绿色的樱桃。据说有人见过树龄达一千年的橄榄树，而且还能结果实！早在《圣经》时代以前橄榄就被用作食物了，但很多人必须经过一段时间才能习惯它的味道。橄榄还可以经过压榨做成橄榄油，就是我们在沙拉调料中用的橄榄油，因为那是最佳的食用油。西班牙人常用橄榄油不用黄油，橄榄油还能用来生产一种非常纯正的肥皂，叫做“卡斯蒂利亚肥皂”，你也许就用过。