美国学生世界地理教材 第211期:害怕黑暗(3)

 A hundred years ago people knew little or nothing about this part of Africa. 一个世纪以前，人们对非洲的这块地方所知甚少或一无所知。

It was an unhealthful and a dangerous country for the white man. 对白人来说，这是一个不利于健康、不安全的地方。

The marshes¹ and jungles gave white men fever,  白人待在这里，经常患一种热病，

and there was a little fly called the tsetse which gave men a disease called sleeping sickness, from which they never awoke. 而且还有一种很小的苍蝇叫舌蝇，人被咬后会患一种叫“昏睡病”的疾病，

Besides all these terrible things there were fierce wild animals that killed those who escaped other things. 睡着后就再也醒不过来了。除了这些令人恐怖的事物，那里还有凶猛的野兽，那些有幸逃脱其他危险的人，往往又被野兽咬死。

And then there was born in Scotland a boy named David Livingstone.  后来，有一位名叫大卫 ?利文斯通的小男孩在苏格兰出生。

He was just like you or me until he was ten years old. 他在10岁前，和你我小时候一样，没什么特别之处。

But when he was ten years old he left school and went to work in a cotton mill.  但他在10岁的时候，离开了学校，在一家棉纺厂干活。

There he worked all day from six in the morning until eight at night. 在那儿，他每天从早晨6点一直做到晚上8点。

If you count this up you will find that it was fourteen hours a day he worked—and he was only ten years old. 如果你算一下，你会发现他一天干14个小时的活，而他只是个10岁的孩子。

Every day in the week he worked this way, but when he went home at night he wasn't through working. 每周的每一天他都这样辛苦工作。但是，晚上回家后，他并没有休息，

After his supper he would study until he fell asleep over his books. 晚饭后，他就开始读书，直到趴在书本上睡着了。

Livingstone's one idea in life was to be of some good in the world and to help people who were sick and miserable². 利文斯通的人生计划就是为这个世界作点贡献，帮助那些身患疾病和生活不幸的人。

So he studied to be a doctor, and he decided³ he would go to China.  于是，他学习医学，还决定去中国。

He thought also they should be made Christians⁴. 他也认为中国人应该信仰基督教。

So he learned to be a minister as well as a doctor. 所以利文斯通不仅学了医学，还学了神学。

But he didn't go to China at all. He was sent to Africa instead. 但是他后来根本没有去中国，而是被派往非洲。

Every one said he would die, he would be stung by the deadly tsetse fly, 人人都说他去了会死，不是被致命的舌蝇叮咬，

or he would drink water that would give him a fever, or he would be devoured⁵ by some wild animal. 就是会喝那里的水患上热病；或者会被某个野兽吃掉。

"If I'm going to die," said he, "it doesn't matter which way." “如果我要死了，”他说，“怎么死都没有关系。”

I'll have to die some day, but I want to do some good before that day. So he went to Africa. 我总有一天会死的，但是我想在那一天来临之前，做一些好事。于是，利文斯通去了非洲。

1 marshes   

n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cows were grazing on the marshes. 牛群在湿地上吃草。
• We had to cross the marshes. 我们不得不穿过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

5 devoured   

吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光

参考例句：

• She devoured everything she could lay her hands on: books, magazines and newspapers. 无论是书、杂志，还是报纸，只要能弄得到，她都看得津津有味。
• The lions devoured a zebra in a short time. 狮子一会儿就吃掉了一匹斑马。