听力文本

An elephant will wind his trunk around a log and load it on a train or ship, much as a machine called a derrick would do.
One of the things a rajah likes best to do is to hunt tigers. The tiger—a huge, orange-colored cat with black stripes—is a fearful creature. He lives in the jungles of India, and when he is hungry he raids villagesand kills domestic animals and people. A rajah going forth to a tiger hunt takes good care that he is in no danger. He and a party of friends, with hundreds of servants, go out into the jungle and climb to a safe place in a tree where a platform has been built. The servants then go through the jungle beating pans and drumsand anything that will make a noise, keeping up a terrific din to scare the tiger along toward the rajah andhis party of friends. When he comes within range they fire upon him from above. They then take his skin hometo cover the floors or walls of the rajah’s palace.
There are over a hundred different religions in India but, as I told you in the last chapter, most of the people are Hindus. A Hindu believes his spirit comes back into this World in the shape of an animal or of another person. That is one reason why useful or good animals are treated well. A Hindu thinks that if he is good he will, when he dies, suddenly, in a twinkling, be born again—rich or in the shape of a good animal; if he has been bad, he will, when he returns, be poor or in the shape of a bad animal. When I look into the kindly eyes of my dog who wags his tail, puts out his paw, and whines “m-m-m,” I can almost believe as the Hindu does that some human being, perhaps a rajah, is in his dog body.
On the west side of India is a big city called Bombay, but Bombay does not look much different from any other large city in Europe. The buildings look much like the buildings in London or New York.
But if you travel north from Bombay for about two days you will come to a town with two buildings like none other in the World. This town is called Agra. One building is a tomb, the other is a mosque. The tomb was built by a Mohammedan prince for one of his four wives who was his favorite. It is called the Taj Mahal, and some think it the most beautiful building in the World.

参考译文

大象会用它的鼻子缠绕着圆木，像转臂起重机一样，把圆木放到火车或者轮船上。
猎虎是印度邦主最喜欢做的事情之一。老虎——一种橘黄色的，长着黑色条纹的大型猫科动物——是非常可怕的动物。老虎生活在印度丛林中，饥饿时，会袭击村庄，咬死家畜甚至人。邦主前去猎虎时非常小心，要确保自己绝对安全。邦主和他的一帮朋友，带着几百个仆人，离开住处，进入丛林，爬到树上一个安全的地方，那里早已搭建好一个平台。接着仆人们深入丛林，敲盆击鼓以及敲打任何可以发出噪音的东西，持续发出可怕的嘈杂声，吓得老虎朝着国王和他的朋友方向跑去。当老虎进入射程，国王和他的朋友就从平台上向它射击，并把猎杀后的老虎带回去装饰宫殿的地板或者墙面。
在印度有一百多种以上不同的宗教，但是，在上一章我就介绍过，大部分印度人都信仰印度教。印度教徒相信人死后灵魂会回到这个世界，变成一种动物或者另一个人。这就是为什么有用的或有益的动物会受到善待。印度教徒认为，如果他是个好人，那么在他死后的一瞬间，就会投胎成为一个富人，或者成为了一只有益的动物；如果他是个坏人，转世时他就会变成穷人，或者成为有害的动物。当我的狗摇着尾巴，伸出爪子，呜呜呜地叫，我看着它友好的眼神时，我几乎就像印度教徒那样，相信某个人也许是个邦主就在这狗的身体里。
在印度西海岸有个大城市叫孟买，孟买看上去和欧洲任何一个大城市没有多大区别，城市建筑很像伦敦、纽约的建筑。
但是，如果你从孟买往北走两天，就会来到一个城镇，那儿有两栋建筑物，和世界上其他任何建筑物都不一样。这个小镇叫阿格拉。其中一座建筑物是一座陵墓，另一座是清真寺。陵墓是一位伊斯兰教王子给他四位妻子中最喜爱的一位建造的，叫泰姬陵，有些人认为这是世界上最美的建筑。