美国学生世界地理教材 第18期:没有尽头的队列(3)

 The country of a king is called a kingdom.If one man rules over several countries, he is called an emperor and the countries an empire. 一个国王的国家叫做王国。如果一个人统治好几个国家，他就叫做帝王，这些国家就叫做帝国。

A country with a president is called a republic. 一个总统领导的国家叫做共和国。

Our country is a republic. 美国就是一个共和国。

The king or the president and the others who rule with him are called the government. 国王或者总统以及和他一起统治国家的人叫做政府。

The government makes the rules, but it also does two things that no one else is allowed to do. 政府制定规章制度，政府还做两件别人不能做的事情。

The government makes the money of the country and the postage-stamps. 政府制造国家的货币和邮票。

The money of one country is not good in another country and neither are the postage-stamps. 一个国家的货币在另一国家并不能通用，邮票也是一样。

And neither is the language of one country good in another— usually. 同样的，一个国家的语言在另一国家里通常也不能通用。

The people on the World speak many different languages. 世界上的人说很多种不同的语言。

Even in the same country many different languages are spoken. 即使在同一个国家里也有许多不同的语言。

There are over 3,000 different languages in all—3,000，just think of that!  世界上总共有三千多种不同的语言，想想吧，三千多种！

You probably speak only one of these, and couldn't talk to any one nor understand any one who spoke¹ any other language than your own. 你也许只会说其中一种语言，不会说，也听不懂其他语言。

In the United² States almost every one speaks English, which, strange to say, is the language of another country—England. 在美国，几乎每个人都说英语；说起来有点奇怪，这也是另外一个国家—英国的语言。

But on a continent like Europe you could hardly go a day's journey without hearing a different language on the street in the shops, at the hotel. 但在欧洲大陆上， 上街走一天，在商店里、旅馆里，你总是能听到不同的语言。 我

I happened to be born in the United States, and as I heard everybody around me speaking English I learned³ to speak English too. 碰巧出生在美国，由于听到周围的人都说英语，我也就学会了说英语。

But I might have been born in Asia, a yellow boy, and learned to speak Chinese,or I might have been born in Africa, a black boy,  但是我也有可能出生在亚洲，是个黄色人种的小男孩，学会说汉语；我还有可能出生在非洲，是个黑色人种的小男孩，

and learned to speak a language I don't even know the name of. 于是学会说一种我也叫不上名字的语言。

I know a man who speaks a dozen different languages, and I know of a man who speaks 100！  我认识一个人，他会说12种不同的语言，我还听说过一个人，他会说100种语言！

You can understand how wonderful this is when it usually takes years to learn to speak one other language besides your own. 通常要学会另一种和你的母语不同的语言要花上几年的时间，所以你可以想象到他们有多了不起。

Letters of most of these languages are like ours, like the letters on this page—they are called Roman,  大多数语言的字母和我们的差不多，就像这本书上的字母一样，这种字母叫做罗马字，

because a people called Romans first used them long ago. 因为是由叫罗马人的一个民族在很久以前最先使用的。 

But letters of Chinese and Japanese and some other faraway languages are different. 但是汉语和日语以及其他更远地方的语言有着不一样的字母。

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

3 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。