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Most countries have an army and a navy as we have police and a watch-dog to keep out burglars. But Switzerland is one of the few countries in the World that has no seashore.So she can’t have a navy, and she doesn’t have to have much of an army either, because the mountains are like great walls to keep out the enemy. Switzerland kept out of both World Wars, although every country around her was fighting.

Switzerland is completely surrounded by other countries. On one side is France, on the other Germany, and on another Italy. So the Swiss have no language of their own. On the side nearest Italy they speak Italian, on the side nearest Germany they speak German and on the side nearest France they speak French. In fact, many Swiss people speak all three languages.

To get into Switzerland or out of Switzerland, or from one part of Switzerland to another, you don’t have to climb the mountains. You can go over the low places between the high mountains, but many of these low places are a mile or more high, so they are not so very low at that. These low places are called passes. One of these passes is named the Simplon; and Napoleon, the French general I told you about, once crossed the Simplon Pass with his army into Italy. But you can now go under and through the mountains, for in many places long tunnels have been built.

One of the longest tunnels is St. Gothard. The men who built it started to dig from both sides of the mountain, and the two holes they dug exactly met in the middle. Some people said it was wonderful that two tunnels, each miles long, dug from opposite sides of a mountain, should meet. The men replied, “Not at all. It would have been wonderful if the tunnels hadn’t met. We are not moles digging blindly. We had figured it out beforehand and we knew where we were digging.”

But the longest tunnel in the World is under the Simplon Pass. At one end of this tunnel is Switzerland and at the other end is Italy. It is over twelve miles long. I have been under the pass riding in a train through this tunnel and I have been over the top of the pass carried by my own two legs. It takes sixteen minutes to go through the tunnel.

参考译文

大多数国家都有陆军或海军，就像我们会有警察和监察人员一样，防止窃贼闯入。但瑞士是世界上少数几个没有海岸线的国家之一，所以没有海军，其实也不需要有多少陆军，因为那里的高山就像巨大的城墙一样把敌人挡在外面。两次世界大战瑞士都没有卷入，尽管周围每个国家都在打仗。

瑞士被其他国家整个环绕起来。一边是法国，另一边是德国，还有一边是意大利。因此瑞士人没有自己的语言，和意大利交界的地方说意大利语，和德国交界的地方说德语，和法国交界的地方就说法语。甚至，很多瑞士人三种语言都会说。

进入瑞士或者从瑞士出来，或者从瑞士的一个地区到另一个地区去，并不用翻山越岭。你可以从高山之间低凹的地方越过，但是很多这些低凹的地方起码也不低于1英里，因此地势并不是很低。这些低凹的地方叫做山口。其中有一个山口叫做辛普朗山口；拿破仑，我介绍过的那个法国将军，曾经率领他的军队穿过辛普朗山口进入意大利。但现在你可以从高山下面或者中间穿过去，因为很多地方都建了长长的隧道。

最长的隧道中有一个圣哥大隧道。当时建隧道的工人分别从山的两旁同时挖掘，他们凿的两个隧道口正好在中间相会。有些人说两边的隧道都有数英里长，从山的相对的两旁分开挖，最后竟能会合在一起真是太神奇了。建隧道的工人说：“一点也不神奇。如果两边隧道没有会合那才神奇呢！我们又不是鼹鼠，盲目挖地道。我们预先已经计算好一切，我们知道往哪挖。”

但是世界上最长的隧道是在辛普朗山口下面。隧道的一头是瑞士，另一头是意大利，全长超过12英里。我曾经坐着火车在山口下的隧道里穿过，也曾徒步从山口上走过去。坐火车过隧道只需要16分钟。