美国学生世界地理教材 第226期:食人生番的岛屿(1)

 I suppose you know what cannibals are—savages who kill and eat each other. 我想你知道什么是食人生番——他们是野蛮人，互相残杀，把杀死的人吃掉。

They used to live on little islands in the Pacific Ocean, which is the biggest, broadest, deepest ocean of all. 他们以前居住在太平洋的小岛上，太平洋是所有大洋中最大、最宽和最深的。

The Atlantic Ocean has very few islands in it—you could cross the Atlantic without seeing a single island, 大西洋上没有什么岛屿——你在穿越大西洋时看不到一座岛屿，

but in the Southern Pacific Ocean there are thousands of islands, and if you were shipwrecked there you would probably be in sight of one. 但是在太平洋上就有几千座岛屿。假如在那儿遭遇海难，你很可能就会看到一座岛。

Many of these islands are so tiny that they are only specks¹ on the map, and some of them are not on the map at all. 许多岛屿很小，标在地图上只是一些小点，有些甚至在地图上都没有标出来。

If you could drain² all the water out of the Pacific Ocean as you drain water out of a bathtub, 如果能像放掉浴缸里的水一样，放掉太平洋中的海水，

you would not see a level bottom but thousands of mountains all over the bottom. 那么，你看到的不是一个平坦的底部，而是遍布海底的数千座山。

These mountains were once volcanoes³, but they are now drowned by the ocean. 这些山曾经是火山，但是现在都被海洋淹没了。

Where their tops are high enough to reach above the water you see islands. 在山峰高出水面的地方，你看到的就是岛屿。

In the warm water around these islands live the tiny little sea animals called polyps, which I told you made Florida. 在这些岛屿四周温暖的海水里生活着一种叫做“珊瑚虫”的微小海洋生物。

Their tiny little bones pile up until they reach the top of the water and form rings round these mountain tops. These we call coral islands. 我给你说过，佛罗里达州就是由它们构成的。它们微小的骨骼不断地堆积，直到露出水面，在山峰周围形成环礁，我们称这些岛屿为珊瑚岛。

On some of these coral islands live brown-skinned people who once were cannibals; on other islands no one lives. 在其中一些珊瑚岛上居住着棕色皮肤的人，他们以前也是食人生番；

On all these islands grows a tree from which the native gets his food, drink, clothing, house, and furniture. This tree is the cocoanut -palm. 在其他珊瑚岛屿上则无人居住。在所有这些岛上生长着一种树，当地土著人吃的、喝的、穿的、住的、家里用的全靠这种树。这就是椰子树。

I have told you before of that other palm on which dates grow. 我在前面给你讲过另一种长椰枣的棕榈树。

The cocoanut-palm has a tall trunk with all the leaves at the top, and in the center of the cluster⁴ of leaves grows a bunch of cocoanuts. 椰子树的树干很高，树叶全都长在顶部，就在那丛树叶的中央长着一串椰子。

Cocoanuts are about the size of a baby's head. 椰子和婴儿的脑袋差不多大，

There is a shuck around the outside, and when this is taken off, the nut is inside. 有一层外壳，剥了壳，就看到里面的坚果。

Strange to say, the cocoanut has what looks like two eyes, a mouth and a sort of coarse⁵ brownish hair. 奇怪的是，椰子看起来好像长着两只眼睛、一张嘴巴和毛糙的带棕色的头发。

1 specks   

n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Minutes later Brown spotted two specks in the ocean. 几分钟后布朗发现海洋中有两个小点。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• Do you ever seem to see specks in front of your eyes? 你眼睛前面曾似乎看见过小点吗？ 来自辞典例句

2 drain   

n.排水沟，阴沟；消耗，负担；v.排去，放干

参考例句：

• Drain off the rest of the wine from this barrel.把桶里剩余的酒排出去。
• First,you have to drain the container of all the old oil.首先，你得从油箱中把所有的陈油都抽去。

3 volcanoes   

n.火山( volcano的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Volcanoes and geysers erupt. 火山和间歇喷泉均能喷发。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He has been able to tell us more about active volcanoes than any man alive. 他现在比任何人都能更多地向我们讲述有关活火山的情况。 来自《用法词典》

4 cluster   

n.串，簇，群，组；vi.群集，丛生；vt.集中

参考例句：

• She held a cluster of flowers in her arms.她抱着一束鲜花。
• A cluster of tourists was surrounded in the hill.一群游客被困在了山中。

5 coarse   

adj.粗的，粗糙的；粗劣的；粗俗的

参考例句：

• His coarse habits have gradually fined away.他的粗俗习惯渐渐变得文雅起来了。
• She never wears clothes made of coarse material.她从来不穿粗布衣服。