听力文本

The land at the top of the World is often called “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” because the sun shines at midnight. It might just as well be called “The Land of the 10-o’clock-at-night Sun,” for the sun shines at every hour of the night as well as every hour of the day. And it also might be called “The Land of the Midday Night,” for when the sun is going round out of sight below the edge of the World it is dark every hour of the day as well as of the night.

This “Land of the Midnight Sun” is the land of the Reindeer—Santa Claus Land. In this land of snow and ice very little grows except moss, and the Reindeer is the only animal that can live on moss. The people that live there are called Lapps. They look something like Eskimos, and both look like the Chinese, so we think they probably were Chinese long, long ago. The Lapps and the Reindeer live together in the same hut—the Reindeer is like a horse, a cow, a sheep, and a dog all in one. The Lapp harnesses the Reindeer to his sled, he gets milk from her, he kills her and eats the meat, and then he uses her skin to make himself and his family fur coats and tents.

But the people who live in the rest of Norway and Sweden are the same kind of people as you and I, only some of them are much smarter and better educated. I know a Swede who speaks twelve languages, I know of a Swede who invented a way of separating cream from milk without skimming it, and I know of two Swedish boys who invented a machine for making ice with heat.

Sweden and Norway used to be one country with one king, but now they are separate countries and each has a separate king and a separate capital.

In the geography your grandfather used, the capital of Norway was named Christiania, but the name was changed. You will find it on the map way down the throat of the whale. It is now called Oslo. The capital of Sweden begins with an “S,” as Sweden does. It is Stockholm.

参考译文

世界之巅常常被称作“午夜太阳之地”，因为午夜时分太阳依然在天空；也不妨叫做“夜晚10点太阳之地”，因为太阳在晚上的每个小时都在照着，如同白天；也不妨叫做“正午夜晚之地”，因为当太阳转到世界边缘之下看不见的时候，白天的每个小时都像夜晚一样黑暗。

“正午夜晚之地”是驯鹿之地—圣诞老人之地。在这冰雪覆盖的大地上，除了苔藓，其他植物无法生长，而驯鹿是唯一以苔藓为食的动物。生活在那儿的人被称作拉普人。他们看起来有点像爱斯基摩人，而这两种人看起来都像中国人。所以，我们认为，很久以前，他们的祖先很可能就是中国人。拉普人和驯鹿生活在同一屋檐下—拉普人生活中处处依靠驯鹿，驯鹿的作用像马、像母牛、像羊、又像狗。拉普人靠驯鹿拉雪橇，喝驯鹿的奶水，吃驯鹿的肉，并用驯鹿的皮为自己和家人做皮衣和帐篷。

但是，生活在挪威和瑞典其他地方的人和我们没有任何区别，只不过他们有一些人比我们更聪明，接受过更好的教育。我认识一个瑞典人，他会说12种语言；我听说有一个瑞典人发明了一种给牛奶脱脂的方法，这种方法免去了撇奶油的过程；我还听说有两个瑞典男孩发明了一种能通过加热做出冰块的机器。

瑞典和挪威曾经是一个国家，由一个国王统治，但现在，它们是两个独立的国家，各自有自己的国王和自己的首都。

在你祖父使用的地理书上，挪威的首都叫克里斯丁亚娜，但后来这个名字改了，你会在地图上“鲸”的喉咙深处找到它，现在叫奥斯陆。像瑞典（Sweden）这个单词一样，瑞典首都也是以“S”开头的，叫斯德哥尔摩（Stockholm）。