听力文本

The Hindus do not bury those who die; they burn their bodies on bonfires. Those who die in Benares are burned on the steps that lead down to the river, and so many are burned there that men make a regular business ofselling wood for these funeral fires. The richer a man is, the bigger fire he can have when he dies; but often a man is so poor he has not left even enough money to pay for the few sticks of wood necessary to burn his body.
There are so many people in India that often there is not enough food to go around, and though the poor people live on little but a few handfuls of rice a day, thousands upon thousands starve to death for lack of even this little food. The rajahs and well-to-do people look fat and well-fed, but the poor people are usually as thin as skeletons, and as they often wear hardly any clothes, you can see every bone in their lean bodies.
From rajahs with their millions’ worth of jewels to the poor wretch who dies without two sticks of wood to burn his body, that is the "opposite-feet" land.
South of India is an island called Ceylon, where men wear skirts and combs in their hair. Much of our tea comes from there. Near Ceylon are the greatest pearl fisheries—greater even than those of the Persian Gulf. Many of the rajahs’ famous pearls have been found there, and even I have a black pearl that came from there.It is supposed to bring good luck whether you wear it or whether you don’t. I don’t.
The Indians are famous magicians, and at Colombo in Ceylon I saw some of their tricks. An Indian placed his wife in a basket, covered it with a shawl, stabbed through it in every direction, and then uncovered her alive and smiling. I saw him put a seed in a flower-pot and while you watched it it grew to a plant. How do they do such things? You can only guess just as every one else does.

参考译文

印度教徒不埋葬死去的人，而是将尸体放在篝火上焚烧。在贝拿勒斯，死去的人会被放在通向恒河的石阶上焚烧。焚烧的尸体太多了，就有人做起了常规生意，专门出售火葬用的木柴。一个人越富有，他死后焚烧的火堆就越大。但是常有人穷得连火葬用的木头都买不起。
印度人口太多，常常没有足够的食物分配给每个人。尽管穷人一天只需要几把米就可以活下去，但是成千上万的人还是因为缺少一点点粮食就饿死了。邦主和富人都长得肥头大耳，营养充足；而穷人通常是骨瘦如柴。因为穷人经常不穿什么衣服，你能看见他们瘦削身体上的根根骨头。
从拥有价值百万珠宝的邦主，到穷得连火葬自己的两根木柴都没有的可怜人，这就是“对拓之地”。
印度之南有个叫锡兰的岛，岛上的男人穿裙子，头发上插着梳子。我们喝的茶很多产自那里，锡兰附近有世界上最大的珍珠渔业场——甚至比波斯湾的还要大。印度邦主的许多著名的珍珠都产自那里。就连我也有一颗黑珍珠是产自那里。据说珍珠会带来好运，无论你戴不戴它。我不戴珍珠。
印度人是著名的魔术师。在锡兰的科伦坡，我见过他们玩的一些戏法。一位印度人把他的妻子放在一个篮子里，盖上披肩，然后用剑从各个方向刺穿这个篮子，然后掀开披肩，他的妻子毫发无损，还向大家微笑呢。我还看到他放了一粒种子在花盆里，当你看着的时候，它已经长成一株植物了。他们是如何做到的呢？你只能像别人一样去猜测吧。