Did you ever see a parade—a very long one?  你看过阅兵队伍吗？非常长的那种？

I once saw a parade of soldiers that took all day to pass by.  我曾经看过一次阅兵队伍，队伍走了一整天才走完。

Tramp, tramp—tramp, tramp—tramp, tramp, hour after hour, all day long.  噔噔，噔噔—噔噔，噔噔— 噔噔，噔噔，一个钟头又一个钟头，走了整整一天。

I never had seen so many men in my whole life. There must have been a hundred thousand of them.  我一生中从没见过这么多人，肯定有十万人那么多。

It didn't seem possible that there were so many people in the World.  世界上居然有那么多的人，这似乎不可能。

But if all the people there are in the World should pass by in one long parade,  但是如果让世界上所有的人都排起来 进行一次大阅兵，

it would take not one day but a lifetime for them to pass by, for there are over two billion people in the world. 那么不是走一天，而是要走一辈子的时间才能走完，因为整个世界上一共有20多亿人。

A hundred new people—babies—are born every minute of the day and of the night;  每天每夜的每分钟，都有100个新人—新生婴儿—来到这个世界；

many are born while you are reading this, and with every tick of the clock some one has died.  就在你读这本书的时候，许多孩子又出生了；在时钟的每一次滴答声中又有人死去。

But more people are born than die each day, so that the World is getting fuller and fuller of people all the time. 但是每天出生的人比死去的 人更多，所以世界上的人越来越多。

The people on the World are all about the same size and shape.  世界上的人基本上个头和体形都差不多。

Only in fairy-tales are people as small as your thumb or as tall as a church-steeple.  只有在童话故事中才有像拇指般大的小人儿或是像教堂的尖塔那么高的巨人。

None have wings instead of arms or wheels instead of legs.  没有哪个人上身不长手臂而长着翅膀，也没有哪个人下身不长腿而长着轮子。

They all have one head, one nose, one mouth;  他们都有一个头、一只鼻子、一张嘴；

they all have two ears, two eyes, two arms, and two legs.  他们都有两只耳朵、两只眼睛、两个手臂、两条腿。

And yet in all these two billion people there are no two alike, there is not a single person exactly like any other one.  然而在世界的全部 人口中，没有两个人长得是一样的，没有哪一个人长的和别人一模一样。

Even twins are not exactly alike. 即使是双胞胎也不是完全一样的。

The chief difference in people is their color.  人与人之间的最主要区别是肤色的不同。

Most of the two billion are white,  全世界人中大多数是白色的，

but a great many are black and a larger number are halfway between white and black 也有大量的人是黑色的，还有更多的人是介于白色和黑色之间的

they are sort of yellow-brown. These three colors of people we call races.  近似黄褐色。我们把这三种肤色的人叫做种族。

It's a good day for the race, my father used to say.  这是全民族的好日子。我爸爸经常这么说。

I thought he was talking of a horse-race or a boat-race,  我认为他是在说赛马比赛或是划船比赛，

but when I asked, What race? he would smile and say,  但是当我问他什么比赛的时候，他会笑着说：

It's a good day for the white race, the black race, all the races. 是白色人种、黑色人种、所有种族的好日子。

Each race used to live by itself in its own part of the World,  每个种族原来都是住在世界上他们自己那块地方，

but many have wandered away to other parts.  但是很多种族游荡到了其他地方。

Most of the people in our part of the World are white, but there are also many black and a few yellow-brown.  在世界上我们这块地方人大都是白种人，但是也有很多黑种人和一些黄褐种人。 

Suppose you had been born black.  假如你生来就是一个黑种人。 

Suppose you'd been born yellow or red.  假如你生来就是一个黄种人或者红种人。

Suppose you had been born in Africa or Asia or Australia.  假如你生在非洲或者是亚洲或者是澳洲。 

Suppose you had been born with another father and mother.  假如你是别的爸爸妈妈所生。

Suppose you had been born in another world instead of this World. 假如你生在另一个世界而不是这个世界上。

Suppose you hadn't been born at all—where would you be now? 假如你根本没有出生—你现在会是在哪儿呢？