DON’T READ THIS INTRODUCTION
This book is to give a traveler's view of the World—but not a commercial traveler's view.
本书旨在让孩子们能够用旅行家的眼光，而不是用旅行推销员的态度来看待世界。
It is to show the child what is beyond the horizon, from“Kalamazoo to Timbuktu.”
本书旨在让孩子们明白，从“卡拉玛祖到廷巴克图”，地平线之外还有些什么。
It is to show him not only“the Seven Wonders of the World”but the seventy times Seven Wonders of the World.
本书不仅会让孩子们了解所谓的“世界七大奇迹”，而且会让他们了解到七十倍于“世界七大奇迹”的内容。
When I was a boy in New England we had for Thanksgiving six kinds of pie：apple, peach, cranberry, custard, mince, and pumpkin, but I was allowed to have only two kinds and I never could make a satisfactory choice. I have had the same difficulty in selecting geographical places and subjects to tell about.There are too many“most important”places in the World to be included in this first survey, and there will inevitably be those readers who will wonder why certain countries and certain places have been omitted, especially the place where the reader may live.
To me, as a child, geography was a bugbear of repellent names—Climate and Commerce, Manufactures and Industries, and products, products, PRODUCTS. It seemed
我小的时候，在新英格兰地区过感恩节时，记得有六种馅饼：苹果饼、桃饼、越橘饼、蛋奶饼、肉末饼和南瓜饼。可是，大人每次都只允许我吃两种，而我也从来没有做出过一种满意的选择。在选择可以介绍给小朋友们的地理位置和题材时，我也面临着同样的难题。世界上属于“极其重要”的地点实在太多，无法囊括进本书这种初步性的概览之中，因此，有些读者必然会觉得奇怪，某些国家和某些地点，尤其是读者所在的国家和地方，为什么本书没有提及。
对小时候的我而言，地理就是一个大难题，充斥着令人反感的名称，比如气候与贸易、制造业与工业，以及物产、物产、物产。世界各地的主要物产，似乎不是玉米、小麦、大麦和黑麦，或者黑麦、大麦、小麦和玉米，就是大麦、玉米、黑麦和小麦。在我的地理概念中，现代希腊的内容只有短短的一段，因为我觉得，该国
that the chief products of every place in the World were corn, wheat, barley, rye；or rye, barley, wheat, corn；or barley, corn, rye, wheat. In my geography modern Greece had but a paragraph—because, I suppose, it did not produce wheat, corn, barley, rye.Geography was a“stomach”geography；the“head”and“heart”were left out.
I loved the geography pictures and maps but hated the text. Except for an occasional descriptive or narrative paragraph the text was wholly unreadable—a confused jumble of headings and sub-headings and sub-sub-headings：Home Work, NOTES, Map Studies, Suggestions to Teachers, Helps, Directions, Questions, REVIEWS, Problems, Exercises, Recitations, LESSONS, Picture Studies, etc.，etc.，etc.
The World was an orange when I went to school, and there were only three things I can remember that I ever learned“for sure”—that the Dutch children wore wooden shoes, the Eskimos lived in snow houses, and the Chinese ate with chopsticks.
We had a question and answer catechism which we learned as we did the multiplication tables. The teacher read from her book：
Q.“What is the condition of the people of the United States?”and a thirteen-year-old boy in the next seat answered glibly：A.“They are poor and ignorant and live in miserable huts.”At which astounding statement the teacher unemotionally remarked，“No, that's the answer to the next question，‘What is the condition of the Eskimos?'”
When my turn came to teach geography to beginners nine years of age, I found the available textbooks either too commercial and industrial, on the one hand, or too puerile
并不出产小麦、玉米、大麦或者黑麦。这种地理，属于只有“肚子”的地理，而其“头部”和“心脏”，则被我们抛弃了。
我很喜欢地理书上的图片和地图，却很讨厌书中的文字。除了偶尔有那么一段描述性的或者叙述性的文字之外，整个正文完全都是枯燥无味的，充斥着一堆混乱不堪的标题、小标题和小小标题，比如“家庭作业”、“注释”、“地图研究”、“给教师的建议”、“帮助”、“题目要求”、“题目”、“复习”、“问题”、“练习”、“背诵”、“功课”、“图片研究”，等等，等等，等等。
我上学之后，得知世界就是一个橙子。但如今还记得、当时我“很肯定”地了解到的，却只有三件事情：一是荷兰的孩子穿木屐；二是因纽特人住在冰雪建造的房子里；三是中国人用筷子吃饭。
我们在学习地理的时候，也像学习乘法口诀表那样，用的是问答式教学法。老师会照本宣科，看着课文朗读。
比如，老师会问道：“美国人民的现状是怎样的呢？”坐在旁边座位上的一个十三岁的男孩，立即会不假思索地回答道：“他们都很穷，没有文化，住在破烂的棚子里。”听到这种令人吃惊的说法，老师却丝毫不为所动，只是说：“不对，那是下一题的答案。下一题就是：‘因纽特人的生活状况是怎样的呢？’”
轮到我来向那些年仅九岁、刚刚入学的孩子讲授地理的时候，我却发现，手头可用的教科书一方面是要么太过注重商业，要么太过注重工业，另一方面则是要么太过幼稚，要么便是逻辑上没有连贯性。九岁的孩子根本无法理解统计数据和抽象
and inconsequential, on the other. Statistics and abstractions were entirely beyond the ken of the child of nine, and random stories of children in other countries had little value as geography.
As I had been a traveler for many years, had visited most of the countries of the Globe, and in actual mileage had been five times the distance around the World, I thought I would write a geography myself. Vain conceit！A class would listen with considerable attention to my extemporaneous travel talks, so I had a stenographer take down these talks verbatim.But when I read these notes of the same talk to another class, then it was that I discovered a book may be good—until it is written.So I've had to try, try again and again, for children's reactions can never be forecast.Neither can one tell without trial what children will or will not understand.Preconceived notions of what words they should or should not know are worthless：“Stupendous and appalling”presented no difficulties whatever but much simpler words were misunderstood.
I had been reading to a class from an excellent travel book for children. The author said，“We arrived, tired and hungry, and found quarters in the nearest hotel.”The children understood“found quarters”to mean that the travelers had picked up 25-cent pieces in the hotel！Then again I had been describing the“Bridge of Sighs，”in Venice, and picturing the condemned prisoners who crossed it.Casually I asked if any one could tell me why it was called the Bridge of Sighs.One boy said，“Because it is of big size.”A little girl, scorning his ignorance, said，“Because it has sides.”A boy from the country, with a farfetched
概念，而杂乱无章地选取出来的、关于其他国家一些孩子的故事，对于地理来说，其实也没有什么意义。
由于我多年来一直热衷于旅行，已经去过世界上绝大多数国家，而实际的旅行里程也已经相当于绕着地球转了五圈，因此我觉得，自己完全可以来编写一部地理书了。不过，这其实完全是虚荣和自负在作祟！一个班级的学生，会极为专心地听我即兴讲述自己的旅行见闻，于是，我请了一位速记员，一字不漏地将这些内容记录了下来。可待我把记录下来的相同内容读给另一个班的学生去听时，这才发现，虽然一本书的确可以很好，但要编写得好才是真的好。因此，我不得不试了一次又一次。因为孩子们的反应，是我们永远也预计不到的。而且，不经过尝试，我们也无法搞清楚哪些内容孩子们听得懂，哪些内容孩子们又听不懂。先入为主地假定他们应当了解哪些内容、不应该了解哪些内容，是没有意义的：“举世瞩目和令人震惊”这样的词汇，无论用来修饰什么，孩子们都能够理解。而一些简单得多的话语，却经常让孩子们产生误解。
我曾经给一个班级朗读过一本专门针对儿童而编写的优秀游记。该书作者写道：“我们到达后，又累又饿，便在最近的一家旅店里找了个住宿的地方。”孩子们却将“找了个住宿的地方”理解为，游客们在那家旅店里捡到了一些二十五美分的硬币呢！而且，有一次我正在给孩子们介绍威尼斯的“叹息桥”，并且描述那
imagination, suggested it might be because they used“scythes”；and a fourth child said，“Because it belonged to a man named‘Cy.'”
The study of maps is interesting to almost all children. A map is like a puzzle picture—but new names are hard.And yet geography without either name or place is not geography at all.It is only fairyland.The study of maps and names is therefore absolutely essential and large wall maps most desirable.
Geography lends itself admirably to research on the part of the child. A large scrap-book arranged by countries may easily be filled with current pictorial news, clippings from magazines and Sunday newspapers, and from the circulars of travel bureaus.There is a wealth of such scrap-book material almost constantly being published—pictures of temples in India, wild animal hunts in Africa, parks in Paris—from which the child can compile his own Geographic Magazine.Furthermore, the collection of stamps offers a most attractive field, particularly for the boy just reaching the age when such collections are as absorbing as an adult hobby.
Of course, the best way to learn geography is by travel but not like that of the business man who landed in Rome with one hour to see the city. Jumping into a taxi and referring to a slip of paper, he said：“There are only two things I want to see here—St.Peter's and the Colosseum.Drive to them as fast as you can and back to the station.”He was accordingly driven to St.Peter's.Sticking his head out of the window he said to the driver，“Well, which is this?”
些已经定罪、经过该桥的囚犯。我随口问他们，看谁能跟我说一说，这座桥为什么会叫作“叹息桥”。一个男孩回答道：“是因为它的尺寸非常巨大。”一个小姑娘嘲笑那个男孩很无知，说道：“是因为这座桥有侧面。”还有一个乡下来的男孩子，他的想象力实在牵强得很，认为可能是因为那些囚犯用的是“长柄大镰刀”。第四个孩子则说：“因为那座桥是属于一个叫作‘赛’的人。”
学习地图的时候，差不多所有孩子都觉得很有意思。一幅地图，就像是一幅拼图。可地图上的新名称，记起来却很不容易。不过，要是没有名称或者地点，地理就根本不成其为地理，只是仙境了。因此，学习地图和地名绝对必要，而那种大型的挂图也是最合适的。
就孩子而言，地理其实极其适合于他们来进行研究。一本列有各国国名的大型剪贴簿，可以轻而易举地用当前的图片新闻、从杂志和周日报纸以及旅行社散发的传单上摘取下来的剪报填满。如今，人们几乎经常出版有许多这样的剪贴簿材料，比如印度寺庙的图片、在非洲狩猎野生动物的图片、巴黎各大公园的照片。孩子们可以用这些材料，汇编出一本属于自己的《地理杂志》来。此外，集邮也是一件极其吸引孩子们的事情，而对于那些刚刚达到一定年龄的男孩子来说，收集某种物品尤其有吸引力，他们甚至可能将这种业余爱好带到成人阶段。
当然，学习地理的最佳办法还是旅行，不过，这种旅行可不像是商人急急忙忙
In the little town where I was born, there lived an old, old man whose chief claim to distinction was the fact that he had never in his whole life been ten miles away from home. Nowadays travel is so easy that every child may look forward to traveling some day.This book is to give him some inkling of what there is to see, so that his travel may not be as meaningless as that of the simple sailor who goes round the world and returns with nothing but a parrot and a string of glass beads.
地到达罗马，只有一个小时看看那座城市那样。商人会跳上一辆出租车，看着一张纸条，说：“我只想看看这里的两个地方：圣彼得大教堂和圆形竞技场。尽快开到这两个地方，然后赶回车站来。”于是，出租车便会带着他来到圣彼得大教堂。他把头伸出车窗，然后问司机：“哦，这是哪儿呀？”
在我出生的那个小镇里，有一个年纪很大、很大的老人，他最主要的与众不同之处，便是一生中从未到过离家超出十英里远的地方。如今，旅行已经变得非常容易，因此每个孩子可能都会渴望着自己将来哪天出去旅行。本书的目的，就是为了让孩子有个模糊的概念，知道到了那时他们可以看些什么，以便不让这种旅行变得毫无意义，不像那些愚笨的水手一样：他们虽说周游了整个世界，回来时却只带了一只鹦鹉、一串玻璃念珠，其余什么也没有。