听力文本

There are millions of birds called “auks” which fly so low and so thick over the land that the Eskimos catch them with a net as you would catch butterflies. They can catch enough to last them for many months, and as all out-of-doors is a refrigerator the birds that are caught can be kept on ice without having the ice man call every day. Eskimos use the auk’s soft feathers to line their clothes to keep themselves warm and comfortable, for the thermometer sometimes goes to seventy de-grees below zero. Another bird, the eider-duck, has still softer feathers. They are called “down.” Eider-down is one of the softest and lightest things imaginable and makes the best filling for bed quilts, as it is both light and warm. Eskimos eat the eider-duck's eggs, too, and they gather thousands of them at a time.

Instead of beef, the Eskimo eats the flesh of an animal called the musk-ox. The musk-ox has hooklike horns and a shaggy long-haired coat to keep himself warm in the terrible cold. His coat makes him look big, but when he is killed and the coat removed, there is only a poor little lean animal left inside.

There is another animal which the Eskimo hunts. It lives both in the water and on the land and has tusks like an elephant. It is called a walrus. It is also caught for meat, but chiefly for its ivory tusks, which are two big teeth that hang far down out of its mouth.

What the Eskimo likes best to eat, however, is not lean meat but fat. A big, greasy strip of fat to him is as delicious as a banana to us. Fat food keeps people warm, and nature in its wonderful way makes fat taste good to the Eskimo because it makes him warm. People in warm countries don’t like fat food because it would make them warm when they want to be cool.

One of the most valuable furs that ladies wear is made from the coat of the seal, another animal that lives both in the water and on the ice. The Eskimo uses the sealskin to make his tents in which he lives in the summertime.

参考译文

那里有一种叫“海雀”的海鸟，非常多，成百上千万，它们成群成群地飞得很低。爱斯基摩人就用网捕捉它们，就像你用网捕捉蝴蝶一样。他们可以抓到足够多的鸟来维持好几个月的生活，而且户外就是冰箱，捕捉到的鸟可以放在冰上贮存，而不用让卖冰的人每天都来。爱斯基摩人用海雀柔软的羽毛做衣服的衬里来保暖，穿起来也很舒适，因为气温有时候会达到零下70多度。另外一种鸟，绒鸭，有更柔软的、叫做“绒”的羽毛，鸭绒是你可以想象的最软和最轻的东西之一，是棉被的最佳填充物，因为它既轻又保暖。爱斯基摩人也吃绒鸭的蛋，他们一次可以搜集到上千只蛋。

爱斯基摩人吃的是一种叫麝牛的肉，而不是我们吃的那种牛肉。麝牛长着钩子状的角，长长的粗浓蓬松的体毛可以在极度寒冷的时候为它们抵御寒冷。它的皮毛让它看起来体格很庞大，但是，当它被杀死，剥了皮之后，看起来却是一只又瘦又小、非常可怜的动物。

爱斯基摩人还猎食另外一种动物，这种动物既生活在水里也生活在陆地上，还像大象一样长有一对长牙。人们称之为“海象”。爱斯基摩人捕捉海象不仅是为了它的肉，更是为了它白色的牙——两只露在嘴外面的长长的大獠牙。

爱斯基摩人最爱吃的不是瘦肉而是肥肉。对他们来说，一长条油腻的肥肉，就像香蕉对于我们来说一样，是绝对的美味。富含脂肪的食物可以帮助人们保持温暖。大自然以她神奇的方式让肥肉变为爱斯基摩人的美食，因为肥肉可以使他们感到温暖。生活在气候温暖的国家的人则不喜欢肥肉，因为肥肉使他们在需要凉爽的时候感到浑身发热。

女士们穿的最有价值的皮毛之一是海豹的皮毛。海豹是另一种既生活在水里也生活在冰上的动物。爱斯基摩人用海豹皮来制作他们夏季居住用的帐篷。