听力文本

An Englishman named Cecil Rhodes went out to South Africa for his health. He happened to be there when diamonds were discovered and fortunes were being made, and he found his health and found wealth too. A part of South Africa was named after him: Rhodesia. When Rhodes died he left a great deal of money, part of which was to be used to send some of the best young men chosen from our country and other countries to the great university of Oxford in England. These boys are called Rhodes Scholars.
Cecil Rhodes wanted to build a railroad from the top of Africa to the bottom of Africa, from Cairo in Egypt to Cape Town at the southern point. Most of the railroad has been built since he died. It is called the “Cape to Cairo” Railroad, but more is still to be built. Rhodes was one of the few Englishmen who didn’t ask to be sent home when he died. He chose a place in Africa on the top of a mountain to be buried. It was such a high point he called it “The World View.”
The capital of South Africa, Pretoria, is like an English city. The chief city is Cape Town, and it too is just like an English city. Only about a hundred years ago these cities were jungle in which only savage blackmen lived.
If you collect stamps you may have heard of a famous stamp called “A Mauritius” that a collector paid $20,000 for, enough money to buy a good house and lot, yet the only thing he can do with it is put it in a stampalbum. Why should he pay so much money for it? Just to show others something he has that no one else has. Mauritius is a little island off the east coast of Africa. There are other islands near Africa. Madagascar is the biggest. Mauritius is one of the smaller ones. Zanzibar is another small one. Pictures of their stamps you will have in your album, if not the stamps themselves. From Zanzibar come the cloves your mother uses to spice baked apples, pickles, and hams. Cloves look like little burnt match heads, and I don’t believe you would ever guess what they really are. They are tiny flower blossoms that grow on the clove-tree!

参考译文

一位名叫塞西尔 ·罗得斯的英国人，为了健康来到南非；正当人们发现钻石、纷纷发财的时候，他恰巧在南非，于是他不仅获得了健康，也找到了财富。非洲有些地区就是以他的名字来命名的，叫做罗得西亚。罗得斯死后留下了一大笔遗产，其中的一部分用于资助从美国和其他国家选出的最优秀的男青年去英国著名的牛津大学学习，这些年轻人被称为罗得斯奖学金获得者。
罗得斯生前想修建一条铁路，从非洲北部一直延伸到非洲南部，从埃及的开罗一直到最南端的开普敦。罗得斯去世后，这条铁路一直在修建，大部分路段已经完成了，现在叫做“开普敦——开罗铁路”。不过，还有很长一段路没有完成。罗得斯是少有的几个没有要求自己死后送回英国的英国人之一。他选择葬在非洲的一座高山的山巅，这个地方很高，他就称之为“世界景观”。
南非的首都，比勒陀利亚，像一座英国的城市。最重要的城市是开普敦，也像一座英国的城市。大约一百年以前，这些城市所在地还是热带丛林，里面住着未开化的黑人。
如果你爱好集邮，也许听说过一枚著名的邮票，叫做“毛里求斯”。一位收藏家花了两万美金买了这枚邮票，这笔钱足以买到一栋很好的房子和一块空地，然而他利用这枚邮票，唯一所能做的就是把它放进集邮簿里。他为什么要花这么多钱买这枚邮票呢？只是为了向别人显示他拥有别人没有的东西。毛里求斯是非洲东海岸边的一座小岛。在非洲附近还有其他一些岛屿。马达加斯加岛是最大的，毛里求斯是较小的岛之一，桑给巴尔岛是另一个小岛。这些地方的邮票即使你没有，你集邮簿上也会有这些邮票的照片。桑给巴尔岛出产丁香，你母亲把这种香料用于做云莓干、泡菜和火腿。丁香看起来像燃烧后的小火柴头。我想你一定猜不到丁香到底是什么。它们是长在丁香树上的非常小的花朵！