听力文本

A picture of two Japanese carrying a big bucket on a pole which rests on their shoulders
In the tub—I couldn’t see them but I knew—there are live fish. The Japanese eat little meat, because theyhave few animals such as cows, sheep, or pigs from which meat is made, and because good Buddhists do not believe in eating meat anyway. But fish they do not call meat, and they catch and eat more fish than any other people in the World, even more than the people in Norway. As Japan is all islands, no one lives far from thesea, and fresh fish may be had all the time. Peddlers carry them alive in tubs of water so that the fish will be absolutely fresh.
A picture of fields covered with water in which is growing rice
Rice is the chief and almost the only vegetable in Japan, and tea is the chief drink. Tea the Japanese drinkwithout either sugar or cream. There are tea-houses and tea-gardens where waitresses called Geisha girls serve tea to customers and then entertain them by dancing and playing on long-necked musical instruments something like a banjo.
Another letter was ornamented with high wooden gateways called Torii, which you see everywhere in Japan, standing sometimes alone, sometimes in line. Torii means a bird rest. They are sacred gateways under which one passes to a temple or shrine.
Still another letter was illustrated with pictures of large stone lanterns such as you often see around Japanese temples and in their gardens. These lanterns give very little light, but they are much more ornamental than our lanterns, and the Japanese think more of beauty than they do of use. They even have a festival of lanterns—the paper kind that we use at garden parties.

参考译文

两个日本人用一根杆子抬着一个大水桶
画中那只桶里——虽然我看不见，但是我知道——有活鱼。日本人很少吃肉，因为日本国内像牛、羊、猪这样可以食用的动物很少；再加上，虔诚的佛教徒无论如何都不赞成吃肉。但是，他们认为鱼不是肉，所以，他们捕捉的和吃掉的鱼，是全世界最多的，甚至比挪威人还要多。因为日本是岛国，每个人离海都很近，所以始终都可以吃到新鲜的鱼。鱼贩将活鱼放在装满水的桶里，所以鱼是极其新鲜的。
种着水稻的水田
水稻是日本主要的、也几乎是唯一的农作物。茶是主要的饮料。日本人喝茶不放糖，也不放牛奶。日本有很多茶馆或茶室，里面有叫“艺妓”的女服务员为顾客上茶，还跳舞、弹琴、弹奏乐器娱乐观众。她们弹的乐器有点像琴颈细长的班卓琴。
另一封信上的装饰画是一排高高的木牌坊，叫做“鸟居”。鸟居在日本随处可见，有时只有孤零零一个，有时则是一排。鸟居的意思就是“鸟休息的地方”。这些牌坊是通向寺庙和神殿的大门，所以是神圣的。
还有一封信上的插图画的是巨大的石灯笼，你常常在日本寺庙附近、或寺院内见到这种石灯笼。这些石灯笼发出的光很暗，但比我们的灯笼更具装饰性。日本人更看重石灯笼的美，而不是它们的用途。日本人甚至还有一个灯笼节——就是我们在游园会上使用的那种纸质灯笼。