Big paper kites in the form of a fish called the carp are hung out on poles in front of the houses where there are boys. 有男孩子的人家，在房前的杆子上悬挂鲤鱼形状的大型纸风筝。

The carp is a fish that swims upstream against the current, which is a hard thing to do, instead of downstream, which is easy. 鲤鱼是一种逆流而上的鱼，逆流而上比顺流而下，要困难得多。

So the carp is a model for boys—to do the hardest thing, not the easiest. 所以，鲤鱼为男孩子们树立了一个榜样——去做最难的事情，而不是最容易的。

The Japanese love flowers perhaps more than any people and they have holidays when the flowers are in bloom. 日本人也许比世界上其他任何一个民族都更喜欢花，当鲜花盛开的时候，他们都有专门的节日。

One holiday comes when the cherry-trees, plum-trees, and peach-trees bloom in the spring, and another when the chrysanthemums bloom in the fall. 一个是在春季，这时樱桃树、李树还有桃树的花都竞相开放；另一个是在秋季，这时各种各样的菊花盛开。

Every house in Japan has a garden, no matter how small it may be— 在日本，每户人家都会有一个花园，不管这个花园有多小——

a tiny imitation of the country-side, with tiny lakes and tiny mountains, and tiny rivers with tiny bridges over them, 它就是一个微型的乡村，有小小的湖泊、小小的山、小小的河流，河流上还有小小的桥,

all so perfectly made that a photograph of such a garden looks like a picture of real mountains and lakes and rivers—like a doll garden. 所有这一切都做得栩栩如生，把这样的一座花园拍成照片，照片里的山、湖泊、河流看起来就像是真的——这样的花园像是一个玩偶花园。

The Japanese grow dwarf trees—oaks and maples — which look in a picture as if they were a hundred feet tall and a hundred years old, 日本人种植矮生树木——橡树和枫树——在图片中它们看起来好像有100英尺高，有100年的树龄，

 but which are actually only a foot or so tall, but may be a hundred years old. 但实际上大约只有1英尺高，不过也许有100年的树龄。

The Japanese school-boys seem to "hunger and thirst" after knowledge. 似乎日本男生的求知欲“如饥似渴”。

I was looking into a shop window where beautiful Japanese umbrellas were displayed, 有一次，我正在看商店橱窗里展示的漂亮的日本伞，

when a school-boy came up to me and asked me in English if he couldn't act as my guide for a day without charge. 一个小男生走到我跟前，用英语问我，是否可以免费给我当一天导游。

"Why," said I, "do you want to show me around?" “为什么?”我问，“你想带我参观这里吗？”。

"Just to practise speaking English," he replied. “只是想锻炼一下英语口语。”他回答道。

I visited a Japanese school, and a dozen boys gave me their calling cards  我参观了一所日本学校，有十几名男孩给了我他们的名片，

and asked me to write them when I reached home, promising to reply in English if I did so. 请求我回家后给他们写信，还答应收到我的信，他们一定用英语回信。