美国学生世界地理教材 第89期:英格兰人的邻居(1)

 Chapter 27 The Englishman’s Neighbors 第27章 英格兰人的邻居

Here is the longest name I know. It has fifty-eight letters. It is LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.  下面是我所知道的最长的名字，共有58个字母，译成汉语有28个字：兰韦尔普尔古因吉尔戈格里惠尔恩德罗布尔兰蒂西利奥戈戈戈赫。

It looks as if a child had been playing on a typewriter and had pounded out the letters at random¹. 这个名字看起来就像是一个孩子在玩打字机，胡乱地敲出了这些字。 

But it is a real name, the name of a town in Wales—a little country on the same island with England.  但这是一个真的名字，是威尔士一个小镇的名字——威尔士和英格兰位于同一个岛上，以前是独立的国家。

It means “Church of St.Mary, in a hollow² of white hazel, near a rapid whirlpool, and near St. Tysilios Church, which is near a red cave.” 小镇名字的意思是“位于长满白榛树山谷中的圣马利亚教堂，附近有一个飞速旋转的漩涡，还有一座靠近红色山洞的圣泰西里奥教堂”。 

People who live there or direct letters there usually call this place simply “Llanfairpwll,” for short—and that’s long enough.  住在小镇的人或者写信到那里的人通常把这个地方简称为“兰韦尔普”，用英文写有12个字母——那也够长的了。

I’d rather call it “Gogogoch”! Wales is now a part of England, but once upon a time it was not.  我倒愿意叫它“戈戈戈赫”！威尔士现在是英国的一部分，但很久以前并不是。

The people in Wales spoke³ a different language—a difficult language with many long names hard to pronounce, 威尔士人说的是另一种语言——一种很难的语言，有很多又长又难念的名词， 

with many “ll’s” and “w’s” and “y’s” all mixed together. 还有很多字母如“ll’s”、“w’s”、“y’s”，混合在一起，让人困惑。

An English king at last conquered⁴ Wales, and in order to make the people here satisfied and happy, 一位英国国王最终征服了威尔士，为了安抚被征服的人民，

he told them he would give them a ruler who was born in Wales and couldn’t even speak a word of English.  他告诉他们他将让一个出生在威尔士，且一句英语也不会说的人当他们的统治者。

The people in Wales were pleased at that, for they thought the king would give them one of their own countrymen to rule over them.  威尔士人听到后感到十分高兴，因为他们以为国王将让一个威尔士人来统治他们。

But the king’s own son was born in Wales—of course, he was a baby and he couldn’t speak a word of English, nor of any other language either. 但是国王自己的儿子在威尔士出生了——当然他是个婴儿，不会说一句英语，也不会说其他任何语言。

So the king made him the ruler of Wales and the king called him the Prince of Wales. 就这样，国王让自己的儿子成为威尔士的统治者，称他“威尔士亲王”。

Ever since then the King of England’s first-born son, the one who will be king when his father dies, has been called the Prince of Wales. 从那以后，英国国王的长子，也就是王位继承人都被授予“威尔士亲王”这个称号。 

Nowadays few people of Wales can speak their own “mother-tongue,” for all the children learn English in the schools.  现在很少有威尔士人会说自己的“母语”，因为所有孩子在学校学的都是英语。

Many people study other languages besides their own, but it isn’t necessary to know Welsh in order to travel in Wales,  很多人除了他们自己的语言之外还学习其他语言，但是到威尔士去旅行没必要懂得威尔士语

for every one speaks English even if he speaks Welsh too. 因为那里每个人都会说英语，即便他也会说威尔士语。

The game of golf first started in Scotland⁵, the country north of England, on the same island, and some of the finest golf-courses are there.  高尔夫球运动最早起源于苏格兰。苏格兰在英格兰北边，与英格兰同处一个岛，以前是一个独立的国家。

Scotland is the land of the Scots and it once had a separate king.  苏格兰拥有世界上最好的一些高尔夫球场。苏格兰是苏格兰人的土地，曾经有自己的国王。

The Scotch⁶ men used to wear—and some do to-day—shawls of bright-colored squares, and skirts instead of breeches, and stockings rolled down,  苏格兰男子过去经常穿着——现在还有人这样穿——颜色鲜艳的方形披风，下身不穿裤子而穿裙子，袜子向下卷起，

leaving their knees bare even in the coldest weather—and they have a great deal of cold weather in Scotland. 即使在最寒冷的天气膝盖也是裸露在外——而苏格兰经常有寒冷的天气。 

The Scotch families are called Clans⁸ and each Clan⁷ has a special design called a plaid in which its shawls and skirts are woven.  苏格兰的家族叫做宗族，各个宗族都穿特定的格子花呢图案的披风和裙子，这种格子花呢叫做彩格呢。

A great many Scotch names and words are different from English, and yet similar. 苏格兰英语中的很多名称和单词和英语不同，但很相似。

They call a baby a bairn, and boys and girls they call lads and lassies, and a pretty girl they call a bonnie lassie. 他们把“婴儿”称为“小孩”，把“男孩”、“女孩”称为“小伙子”、“小姑娘”。把“漂亮的女孩”称为“好看的姑娘”。

1 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

2 hollow   

adj.空的，中空的，空心的；空洞的，无价值的

参考例句：

• The boys scraped out a hollow place for planting trees.那些孩子挖了个坑准备栽树。
• Bamboo is a sort of hollow plant.竹子是一种中空的植物。

3 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。

4 conquered   

攻克( conquer的过去式和过去分词 )； 征服； 破除； 克服

参考例句：

• The Normans conquered England in 1066. 诺曼人于1066年征服了英格兰。
• The mines were manned by forced labour from conquered countries. 这些矿由来自被征服国家的强制劳工开采。

5 Scotland   

n.苏格兰

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。

6 scotch   

n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的

参考例句：

• Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
• Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景，真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。

7 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

8 clans   

宗族( clan的名词复数 )； 氏族； 庞大的家族； 宗派

参考例句：

• There are many clans in European countries. 欧洲国家有很多党派。
• The women were the great power among the clans [gentes], as everywhere else. 妇女在克兰〈氏族〉里，乃至一般在任何地方，都有很大的势力。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源