听力文本

There was once an Indian prince named Gautama. Gautama was rich and had everything in the World he wanted, so he grew up gay and light-hearted. He had never seen any poor people, nor known any misery in his life, so he thought every one in the World was just as well off and just as happy as he. Then one day when he was grown up he went on a trip and, to his amazement, saw for the first time in his life people who were sick, poor, and unhappy. The sights he saw filled him with such pity that he gave up all he had and spent the rest of his life helping the needy. As Gautama went about from place to place he preached that certain things were right and certain things wrong. People began to call him Buddha, which meant “the one who knows,” and to worship him, and thus started a religion called Buddhism. This was about five hundred years before Christ.
After Buddha died, Buddhists sent missionaries to other countries to teach the people Buddhism too, just as Christians now send missionaries to other lands to teach Christianity. After a long while most of the peoplein India got tired of Buddhism and took up other newer religions. Many became Mohammedans, but in the countries east of India they still held to Buddhism, although now this worship has become chiefly a worship of idols.
The two countries next door to India are Burma and Thailand. A Mohammedan church is called a mosque, a Buddhist church is called a pagoda.

参考译文

曾经有位叫乔答摩的印度王子。他很富有，世界上他想要的东西他都有，所以他是快快乐乐、无忧无虑地长大的。他从小到大从未见过穷人，也不知道什么是悲惨的生活，所以，他认为世界上人人都生活得很好，和他一样快乐。成年后，有一天他外出旅行，生平第一次看到了那些病人、穷人和不快乐的人，使他大为惊奇。眼前的一幅幅悲惨的情景，让他内心充满了怜悯。于是，他放弃了所有的财产，用以后的有生之年去帮助那些贫困的人。乔答摩四处布道，教诲人们，什么是对的，什么是错的。人们开始尊称他为“佛陀”，意思是“觉悟者”，并开始崇拜他。这样就产生了一种宗教，叫做“佛教”。这发生在耶稣诞生前500年左右。
乔答摩去世后，佛教徒派遣传教士到其他国家向人们传播佛教，就像现在的基督徒派遣传教士到其他国家去传播基督教一样。很长一段时间之后，大部分印度人厌倦了佛教，开始接受新的宗教。很多印度人成为伊斯兰教徒。但是，印度以东的一些国家仍坚持信仰佛教，不过只是崇拜佛像。
与印度相邻的两个国家分别是缅甸和泰国。伊斯兰教的教堂叫做清真寺，佛教的教堂叫做佛塔。