听力文本

The Iron Curtain Countries

THERE are thousands of cities and towns in the World that neither you nor I have ever heard of, yet millions of people call these cities and towns home. These same people probably have never heard of the town or city where you yourself live.

Between Russia and the rest of Europe are nine little countries, some of them not very important, but all of them most important to the people who live in them; and yet many people may live their whole lives and perhaps never hear of some of these places—unless they collect postage stamps. Six of these countries end in “ia” and two end in “land.”

The two countries next to Russia that aren’t run by Communists are Finland and Austria. Finland is the largest of these in-between countries. It lies between Russia and the Scandinavian Peninsula. Finland means Marsh Land, for it is a land of marshes and lakes. It is like Norway and Sweden in some ways—it has fiords and it makes paper and matches. It is a republic with a president.

The other “land” country is Po-land, which means Flat Land. It is almost as large as Finland. Poland has much farm land and there are iron and coal mines. Many famous musicians have been Poles.

Are you a good speller? How would you spell a cough or a sneeze? South of Poland is a long thin country with a name which sounds funny to us—something between a cough and a sneeze—Czechoslovakia. I have a set of china dishes that has stamped on the bottom MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, for there they used to make a great deal of china, and glassware too.

There used to be a country called Austria-Hungary. Now there are two countries—Austria and Hungary. Through Austria and Hungary runs a famous river—almost as famous as the Rhine. It is called the Danube; and, like the Rhine, the Danube has castles overlooking it, castles in which once lived robber barons.

参考译文

铁幕国家

世界上有成千上万座城镇你我都没有听说过，但有千百万的人称它们为“家乡”，同样，他们很可能也没有听说过你所居住的城市。

在苏联和欧洲其他部分之间有九个小国家，其中有些并不是非常重要的国家，但对于居住在这些国家的人来说，它们都是至关重要的。然而，许多人也许活了一辈子也没有听说过这些地方——除非是喜欢集邮的人。这些国家的英文国名有六个是以“ia”结尾的，两个以“land”结尾。

紧邻苏联的两个国家是芬兰和奥地利。芬兰是所有夹在中间的国家中面积最大的，位于苏联和斯堪的纳维亚半岛之间。“芬兰”意思是“沼泽地”，因为在这片土地上有很多沼泽和湖泊。在某些方面，芬兰与挪威和瑞典很像——有峡湾，生产纸和火柴。芬兰也是共和政体，有一位总统。

另一个国名以“land”结尾的国家是波兰，“波兰”意思是“平地”，国土面积几乎与芬兰一样大，有很多的农田，有铁矿和煤矿。很多著名的音乐家都是波兰人。

你善于拼写吗？你是如何拼写“cough”（咳嗽）和“sneeze”（打喷嚏）这两个单词的？在波兰的南边，有一个狭长的国家，它的名字听起来很有趣——介乎cough和sneeze之间—捷克斯洛伐克。我有一套瓷盘，底部印着“捷克斯洛伐克制造”，因为捷克斯洛伐克以前大量生产瓷器和玻璃器皿。

曾经有一个国家，叫做奥匈帝国。现在是两个国家——奥地利和匈牙利。有一条著名的河—几乎与莱茵河齐名—流经奥地利和匈牙利，叫多瑙河；而且，像莱茵河一样，多瑙河两岸也有高耸的城堡，这些城堡曾经住着强盗贵族。