美国学生世界地理教材 第130期:鱼儿峡湾瀑布和森林(1)

 HAVE you a good imagination? 你的想象力丰富吗？

I mean, when there are clouds in the sky, can you see giants or galloping¹ horses or rabbits with long ears or other things? 我是指，当天上有云朵时，你能看出是巨人？飞奔的骏马？耳朵长长的兔子？或是看见其他东西？

Then look at the map on page 260 and tell me what it looks like: Turn it on the side. 请看下面的地图，然后告诉我它看起来像什么？把地图转个方向，

Do you see what I see? 有没有看出我所看到的东西？

A WHALE, with his mouth open, ready to swallow little Denmark. 一头鲸，张着大嘴，正要吞下小小的丹麦，

Skagerrack and Kattegat are the whale's throat. 斯卡格拉克和卡特加特就是它的咽喉。

My geography calls this whale the "Scandinavian Peninsula²"—that's a big name, but then a whale is a big animal. 在我的地理知识里，这条鲸叫“斯堪的纳维亚半岛”——这个名字够大的，不过鲸鱼也是大动物哦。

The geography calls the back of the whale Norway, and it calls the other side Sweden. 从地理位置上看，“鲸”的背是挪威，另一边是瑞典。

Norway plus Sweden equals Scandinavian Peninsula. 挪威加上瑞典等于斯堪的纳维亚半岛。

Perhaps the reason I thought of a whale was because there are so many real whales in the sea near Norway. 我之所以觉得它像一头鲸，也许是因为在挪威附近的海域真的有许多鲸。

Now a whale is the largest fish there is, you know, only it isn't a fish. 鲸现在是世界上最大的鱼，不过，你要知道，它并不是鱼类。

Fish lay eggs as chickens and birds do, only much smaller and many more, but a whale mother doesn't lay eggs. 鱼类，像鸡和鸟一样也会下蛋，只不过下的蛋小得多而又多得多，但鲸妈妈不会下蛋，

She has babies as a cat has kittens. 鲸妈妈像猫妈妈生小猫一样生自己的小宝宝。

Besides, a whale has to have air to breathe and must come up to the top of the water as you would have to do if you were swimming under the water. 而且，鲸还一定得浮出水面来呼吸空气，就像你游泳时不得不做的那样。

A fish wouldn't do that, for he couldn't do that, so you see a whale is not a fish. 而鱼是不会那样做的，因为鱼也做不到，所以，你就知道鲸不是鱼。

The whale eats little fish called herring, lots of them at one gulp³, bones and all. 鲸吃一种叫“鲱鱼”的小鱼，鲸一口能吞下很多鲱鱼，连骨头带肉全吃掉。

There are millions, billions, trillions of herring in the sea, and millions, billions, trillions more than that. 海洋里有亿万条数也数不过来的鲱鱼。通常一大群鲱鱼生活在一起，

They live together in enormous⁴ crowds called "schools," 这一大群在英语里叫“school”，

but one school of herring has more pupils than all the schools in the World; 但是一个“学校”的鲱鱼比全世界所有学校的学生加起来的总数还要多，

so, although the whales eat some herring, there are plenty of herring left for us to eat. 所以，尽管鲸吃掉了一些鲱鱼，还是留下了足够多的鲱鱼让我们享用。

1 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

2 peninsula   

n.半岛

参考例句：

• Dalian is in the south of the Liaodong Peninsula.大连位于辽东半岛南部。
• Korean peninsula lies to the west of Japan.朝鲜半岛在日本以西。

3 gulp   

vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽

参考例句：

• She took down the tablets in one gulp.她把那些药片一口吞了下去。
• Don't gulp your food,chew it before you swallow it.吃东西不要狼吞虎咽，要嚼碎了再咽下去。

4 enormous   

adj.巨大的；庞大的

参考例句：

• An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。