第4章 没有尽头的游行队伍
你们有没有见过一支游行队伍，一支很长、很长的游行队伍呢？我曾经见过一支由士兵组成的行军队伍，他们整整走了一天，队伍才完全经过呢。嗵、嗵，嗵、嗵，嗵、嗵，过了一个小时又一个小时，一整天都在走。我的一生中，还从来没有见过那么多的人。那支队伍里，一定有十万人吧。地球上有这么多的人，这一点看起来似乎不可思议得很。不过，倘若全世界的人组成一支长长的游行队伍经过的话，那么需要的可不只是一天，而是需要一生的时间了，因为世界上如今总共有二十多亿人口呢。
世界的一个昼夜当中，每一分钟都会新出生一百个人，即出现一百名新生婴儿。因此，就在你们看到这句话的时候，世界上又出生了许多的婴儿，并且，时钟每滴答一次，就有一个人死去。不过，由于每天出生的人数都比去世的人数要多，因此全球人口数量一直都在不停地增长。
世界上所有人的身材和模样都差不多。只有在童话故事里，才有小至大拇指、高至教堂尖顶的人物。人类没有翅膀，只有胳膊；没有轮子，唯有双腿。他们都只有一个脑袋、一个鼻子、一张嘴；他们都有两只耳朵、两只眼睛、两只胳膊和两条腿。而且，在所有这二十多亿人口当中，没有两个人的长相是相同的，也就是说，
exactly alike.
全世界所有人组成了一支没有尽头的游行队伍（玛丽·舍伍德·赖特·琼斯制图）
The chief difference in people is their color. Most of the two billion are white, hut a great many are black and a larger number are halfway between white and black—they are sort of yellow-brown.These three colors of people we call“races.”“It's a good day for the race，”my father used to say.I thought he was talking of a horse-race or a boat-race, but when I asked，“What race?”he would smile and say，“It's a good day for the white race, the black race, all the races.”
Each race used to live by itself in its own part of the World, but many have wandered away to other
没有一个人长得与另一个人一模一样。即便是双胞胎，长相也不是完全一样的。
人与人之间的主要区别，就在于他们的肤色不同。这二十多亿人口当中，绝大多数都是白种人，但也有许多属于黑种人，还有更多介乎白人和黑人之间的人种，就是皮肤有点儿带黄棕色的人。我们把这三种肤色不同的人，分称为三个“种族”。“今天对种族来说可是个好日子呢。”我的父亲以前常常这样说。我以为他说的是赛马或者赛艇，可当我问道：“什么比赛呢？”他却会微笑着回答说：“对白种人、黑种人和所有种族的人来说，今天都是个好日子。”
在过去，每个种族常常都独自居住在世界上属于他们自己的那个区域，可到了后来，许多人却漂泊到了其他的地方。在我们美国，绝大多数人都是白种人，但也有许多的黑种人，并且还有少量的黄种人。
parts. Most of the people in our part of the World are white, but there are also many black and a few yellow-brown.
Suppose you had been born black.
Suppose you'd been born yellow or red.
Suppose you had been born in
Africa or
Asia or
Australia.
Suppose you had been born with another father and mother.
Suppose you had been born in another world instead of this World.
Suppose you hadn't been born at all—where would you be now?
There are only six continents where people live, but on each of these there are several countries. A country doesn't mean the country.A country means cities, towns, villages and country under one ruler.There are eighty countries on the World.Some countries are small with only a few thousand people in the whole country, and some countries are large with many millions of people.Our country, the United States, has over one hundred and fifty million people, but there are several countries with more.China, which is on the other side of the World, has the most people.It has three times as many people as the United States；and India, another country on the other side of the World, has the next largest number of people.Both these countries are in Asia—the largest continent with the shortest name and
世界上只有六个大洲有人居住，但每个大洲上又分成了许多的国家。一个国家，指的可不是“乡村”。一个国家，是由同一个统治者统治着的城市、市镇、村庄以及乡村所组成的。如今，世界上有八十个国家。有些国家很小，全国只有数千人口；有些国家则很大，国内总人口达数百万。我们国家，即美利坚合众国，有一亿五千多万人口，不过，有几个国家的人口数量则更多。处于地球另一面的中国，是世界上人口最多的国家。该国的人口数量，达到了美国的三倍。还有同处于地球另一面的印度，人口数量则居世界第二。这两个国家都位于亚洲，虽说亚洲属于世界上面积最大的一个洲，但其名称最短，人口也最多。
每个国家都有一个统治者，就像每个家庭都有一位父亲、每支橄榄球队都有一位队长那样。有些国家的统治者是国王，有些国家则是总统，并且，在绝大多数国
the most people.
Each country has a ruler, just as every family has a father or every football team has a captain. Some countries have a king for a ruler and some have a president, and most countries have other people to rule with the king and the president.
A king is a king because his father was a king, and his son will be king for the same reason. A president is president because he was chosen by the people in the country, just as the captain of a football team is chosen by his team.Choosing we call“voting.”A king is king for his whole life, but a president is president for only a few years.
The country of a king is called a kingdom. If one man rules over several countries, he is called an emperor and the countries an empire.A country with a president is called a republic.Our country is a republic.The king or the president and the others who rule with him are called the government.The government makes the rules, but it also does two things that no one else is allowed to do.The government makes the money of the country and the postage-stamps.The money of one country is not good in another country and neither are the postage-stamps.And neither is the language of one country good in another—usually.
The people on the World speak many different languages. Even in the same country many different languages are spoken.There are over 3，000 different languages in all—3，000，just think of that！You probably speak only one of these, and couldn't talk to any one nor understand any one who spoke any other language than your own.In the United States almost every one speaks English, which, strange to say, is the language of another
家里，还有许多其他的人，与国王或者总统一起治理着整个国家。
一位国王之所以成为国王，是因为他的父亲就是一位国王，而他的儿子，也会出于同样的原因而成为国王。一位总统之所以成为总统，是因为该国人民挑选他来当总统，就像橄榄球队队长是由队员们推选出来的那样。这种选择，我们称之为“选举”。国王是终身制的，但总统的任期却只有数年。
设有国王的国家被称为王国。假如一个君主统治着好几个国家，那么这个君主就被称为皇帝，而他统治下的那些国家则组成了一个帝国。设有总统的国家被称为共和国。美国就是一个共和国。国王或者总统，加上与之一起治理整个国家的人，就组成了政府。政府制定法律法规，但同时还拥有两种其他人不允许去做的特权。政府可以发行该国的货币和邮票。一国的货币到了另一国并不一定有效，邮票也是这样。而一国的语言到了另一国，通常也是行不通的。
地球上的人，说着许多种不同的语言。即便是在同一个国家里，人们也会说多种不同的语言。世界上总共有三千多种语言，想象一下吧，竟然达到了三千多种！你们很可能只会说其中的一种，并且，除了那些与你们说同种语言的人，你们很可能无法与说其他语言的人交谈，也无法听懂说其他语言的人的话。在美国，几乎人人都说英语，但说来奇怪，英语也是另一个国家即英国的语言。不过，在一个像欧洲这样的大陆上，如果出去走上一天，大家是很难不在街道上、商店内、旅馆里听到另一种不同的语言的。
country—England. But on a continent like Europe you could hardly go a day's journey without hearing a different language on the street, in the shops, at the hotel.
I happened to be born in the United States, and as I heard everybody around me speaking English I learned to speak English too. But I might have been born in Asia, a yellow boy, and learned to speak Chinese, or I might have been born in Africa, a black boy, and learned to speak a language I don't even know the name of.I know a man who speaks a dozen different languages, and I know of a man who speaks 100！You can understand how wonderful this is when it usually takes years to learn to speak one other language besides your own.Letters of most of these languages are like ours, like the letters on this page—they are called Roman, because a people called Romans first used them long ago.But letters of Chinese and Japanese and some other faraway languages are different—they look like this：
我碰巧出生在美国，由于周围的人全都说英语，因此我也学会了说英语。但是，我也有可能出生在亚洲，是一个黄种男孩，并且学会了说汉语，或者，我也有可能出生在非洲，是一个黑人小男孩，并且学会了说一种连名称我也说不上来的语言呢。我认识一个能说十几种不同语言的人，并且我还听说过，有个人竟然能说一百种语言！如果你们知道，除了自己的母语，学会另一种语言通常都要花上好几年的时间，那你们就能理解，这一点有多么神奇了。这些语言中，大部分所用的字母都像我们所说的英语一样，与我写作本书所用的文字一样，这种字母，叫作“罗马字母”，因为它们是很久以前一个叫作罗马人的民族率先使用的。但中国的汉字和日文字母，以及许多与我们相距遥远的语言，却不一样，它们的样子，就像是这样：
