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In Sunday school I used to hear of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and other places in the Bible, but I hadno idea then that there were any such places with people living in them to-day. But there are. We call the land where these places are Bible Land, because so much is told about them in the Bible. Bible Land is at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern part of Bible Land is called Syria, the southern part is called the Holy Land, or Palestine.

There are a great many cities in Syria and Palestine that were alive when Christ was born and are still living, and there are a great many places that are now dead—nothing left of them but ruins. But there is a city mentioned in the Bible that was a thousand years old when Christ was born and yetis still very much alive. It is the oldest city. Its name is Damascus.

The main street in Damascus was called “Straight,” because it was not quite as crooked as its other streets. On both sides of Straight Street are shops, for Damascus was once the greatest shopping city in the East; the shops are called bazaars. Some of the bazaars are not big enough to hold a piano. One department store in New York would hold all the bazaars in Damascus many times over. In these bazaars the people of Damascus used to sell only things they made themselves. They sold gold and silver jewelry, rugs, shawls, swords, and silks, and they made everything by hand, for there was no machinery. Now there is machinery to make all these things, but it is not in Damascus. Many of these things are now made by machinery in England and sent to Damascus to be sold.

参考译文

我小时候在主日学校常听到“伯利恒”、“耶路撒冷”以及其他一些在《圣经》里出现的地名。但那时我并不知道世界上真有这些地方，而且今天还有人居住在那里，但是，确实如此。我们现在把这些地方称为“《圣经》之地”，是因为在《圣经》里有很多关于这些地方的故事。“《圣经》之地”位于地中海东侧，其北部叫做叙利亚，南部叫做“圣地”或巴勒斯坦。

在叙利亚和巴勒斯坦有许多城市，在基督诞生之时充满了活力，现在这些城市仍充满活力；也有许多地方，现在死气沉沉了——只剩下一片废墟。但是，有一座在《圣经》里提到的城市，到基督诞生时，它已经有一千年的历史了，然而，现在仍然生机勃勃，它是世界上最古老的城市，名字叫大马士革。

大马士革的主要街道被称作“直街”，因为它不像其他街道那样弯曲。直街两侧的商店铺面鳞次栉比，因为大马士革曾经是东方最大的购物城市，这些商店叫做“街市”，有些街市很小，连一架钢琴都放不进去。纽约市的一家百货商店是大马士革所有街市的好几倍大。在这些街市里，大马士革人只卖他们自己做的东西。他们卖金银首饰、小地毯、披巾、刀剑，还有丝绸衣服，每件东西都是手工制作，因为那个时候还没有机器。现在机器可以生产出所有这些东西，但不是在大马士革生产的。现在这些东西中的许多都是在英国用机器生产的，然后再运到大马士革出售。