第7章　“玛丽之地”“弗吉妮亚之州”和“宾的森林”

你们有没有过用陀螺换弹珠，或者用苹果换橙子的经历呢？在什么华盛顿、什么合众国都还没有出现的很久以前，流经如今华盛顿的那条河流两岸，曾经生活着许多的印第安商人。那些印第安人划着独木舟在河上来去，与其他印第安人进行贸易，就是用自己已有的东西，换取他们想要的东西，比如用珠子换取毛皮，用弓换箭，以玉米换取土豆。在印第安语里，“商人”称为“波托马克”，因此后来我们便用这些印第安商人的名称，将那条河称为“波托马克河”。波托马克河隔开了两个具有姑娘名字的州，即马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州。那两个州，是以两位女王的名字来命名的。波托马克河沿岸的印第安人，划着他们的独木舟沿河而下，最终来到了一片宽阔得多的水域。那片水域非常广袤，在他们看来就像是大海似的，因此，他们便把这片水域称为“百川之母”，在印第安语里，就叫“切萨皮克”。你们可以在地图上看到这个地方。其实，切萨皮克湾并不是海洋，而是美国境内最大的一个海湾。

你们有没有吃过蜗牛、水龟或者青蛙腿呢？有些人可喜欢吃这些东西了。印第安人发现切萨皮克湾里出产牡蛎。起初，没有人想过要去吃牡蛎，因为那种东西看上去并不好吃。可后来有一天，一位饥肠辘辘的印第安人打开了一只牡蛎壳，吃掉了里面的牡蛎肉。牡蛎肉的味道很鲜美，也没有给他带来什么不适，所以其他人便

in other parts of the World too, but many people say that those in the Chesapeake Bay are the largest and best, but they are not supposed to be good unless they are eaten during the eight months that have an R in their names. They are good in March but not in June.

Near“the Mother of Waters”are two cities. One is named Annapolis.The other is named Baltimore.Annapolis means Anna's City, and it too was named after a queen.That makes three places—Anna's City, Mary's Land, and Virginia's State—named after queens.Annapolis is the capital of the State of Maryland, just as Washington is the capital of all the States.At Annapolis the United States has a school for teaching boys to be sailors and fit to fight the sea battles of the United States if the country should ever have any.This school is called the Naval Academy.Some of the best boys chosen from each State in the United States go to Annapolis.They study all about boats and fighting and about geography；they visit other countries and learn to command ships.

Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland. It was named after an English lord.The first railroad in our country started in Baltimore, and as it ran from Baltimore to the State of Ohio, it was called the Baltimore&Ohio, or the B.&O.for short.Baltimore is famous for the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital.Boys come from all over the World to study at the“Hopkins，”and people come from all over the World to be treated at the“Hopkins Hospital.”

A man named Penn once owned the State just north of Maryland. It was then all woods, so it was called Pennsylvania, which means Penn's Woods.But ages before Penn's Woods

开始跟着吃牡蛎了。如今，无论是生吃还是煮熟了，几乎每个人都很喜欢吃牡蛎了呢。虽说世界上其他一些地方也出产牡蛎，可许多人都说，切萨皮克湾里出产的牡蛎个头最大、质量最为上乘，不过人们也认为，只有在含有英文字母“R”的那八个月份里，这儿的牡蛎吃起来才口味最佳。比如说，在三月份（March）吃口味上乘，但若是在六月份（June）吃，口味就不好了。

距“百川之母”不远的地方，有两座城市。其中一座叫作安那波利斯，另一座叫作巴尔的摩。“安那波利斯”指的就是“安娜之城”，也是根据一位女王的名字命名的。因此，美国总共有三个地方，即“安娜之城”、“玛丽之地”和“弗吉妮亚之州”，都是以女王的名字命名的。安那波利斯是马里兰州的首府，就像华盛顿是合众国的首都一样。在安那波利斯，美国有一所学校，专门将男孩子培训成能打海战的水兵，以备美国爆发海战时所需。这所学校，叫作海军学院。美国各州都会选拔出一些最优秀的男孩子，并把他们送到安那波利斯的海军学院里去深造。他们会全面学习舰船、作战和地理方面的知识，他们会出访其他的国家，并且学会指挥战舰。

巴尔的摩是马里兰州最大的城市。它是以一位英国贵族的名字来命名的。我国的第一条铁路，就是在巴尔的摩兴修起来的。由于它从巴尔的摩通往俄亥俄州，因

other woods were there—huge forests of trees and giant plants growing high and thick and fast. More ages passed and these forests died and became buried and mashed down under the ground and turned into black rock.More ages passed and men dug up this black rock, and by accident they found that unlike other rock this rock would burn.Of course it would burn, because, as we know now, it was really only hardened wood—which we call coal.

There are two kinds of coal. One is called hard and the other is called soft.Soft coal doesn't mean soft like a cushion；it means it crumbles easily.Hard coal is the best；soft coal is dirtier and smokier, but is a great deal cheaper.Why is it that the best things almost always cost the most?In the eastern part of Pennsylvania the coal that comes out of the ground is hard；in the western part it is soft.

Hundreds of thousands of men, called miners, work underneath the ground, where it is like night all day long, digging out the coal to run steam-engines and to heat our houses. They have been digging away for years and years, so that there are huge hollow places underneath parts of Pennsylvania.

Coal is in layers underneath the ground and between layers of rock like the chocolate in a chocolate layer-cake. But there are also iron mines in Pennsylvania, and iron is not in layers；it is all mixed through the rock under the ground and is called ore.To get the iron out of the ore, men build huge fires under the ore and the iron melts and runs out, like water, into troughs which they make in the ground to catch it.When the iron cools, the blocks of iron are called“pigs”—perhaps because they are about the size of pigs—or

此被称为“巴尔的摩—俄亥俄铁路”，或者简称“巴—俄铁路”。巴尔的摩还因为该市有约翰·霍普金斯大学和约翰·霍普金斯医院而著称。世界各地都有孩子来到“霍普金斯大学”就学，而世界各地也都有病人来到“霍普金斯医院”接受治疗。

马里兰州北部的那个州，原本为一个叫作“宾”的人所有。当时，那里全都是森林，因此被称为“宾夕法尼亚”，意思就是“宾的森林”。不过，在“宾的森林”出现的很久以前，那里就有其他的森林了，并且面积广袤，各种树木和巨型植物都高大、茂密且生长迅速。过了许多年之后，那些森林都枯死了，并且被埋到了地下，挤压成了黑色的岩层。又过了许多年后，人们挖掘出了这种黑色的岩层，并且在无意中发现，与其他岩层不同，这种岩石竟然能够燃烧。它们当然能够燃烧啦，因为如今我们都知道，它们实际上不过是硬化了的木材罢了，我们称之为“煤炭”。

煤炭分为两种。其中一种叫作硬煤，另一种叫作软煤。“软煤”可并不是指这种煤炭像垫子那样柔软，而是指它们很容易粉碎。硬煤的品质最佳，软煤非但比较脏，而且燃烧后产生的烟雾也较多，但它比硬煤要便宜得多。为什么品质最好的东西，费用几乎总是最昂贵呢？宾夕法尼亚东部地区出产的是硬煤，而西部地区出产的则是软煤。

有成千上万个叫作“矿工”的人，都在暗无天日的地下工作，将煤炭开采出来，供蒸汽发动机运行，以及为我们的房子供暖。他们已经年复一年地开采了很久的时间，因此宾夕法尼亚州的部分地区下面，全都留下了一个个巨大的空洞。

煤炭是一层一层地分布在地下岩层之间的，就像多层巧克力蛋糕上的那一层层

perhaps because a pig goes into a trough.

To get iron out of iron ore you must have heat, and to have heat you must have something to make heat with, like coal. Some places have iron ore but no coal, and some places have coal but no iron.It is as if some boys who wanted to play baseball had a ball but no bat, and some other boys had a bat but no ball.But Pittsburgh, in the western part of Pennsylvania, had both iron and coal near-by.That is like boys who have both a hat and a ball.From the ore they make iron, and from the iron they make steel, and from the steel they make rails for railroad tracks and beams for tall buildings and bridges to cross rivers.

A name that is in the Bible is the name of a city, Philadelphia. It means the City of Brotherly Love.This name was'chosen to give to the largest city in Pennsylvania, in fact, the third largest city in all the United States, but I don't know whether it suits or not.Philadelphia was the capital of the United States before there was any Washington, D.C.，but now it isn't even the capital of its own State.Here in an old building, called Independence Hall, is the bell that rang

巧克力一样。不过，宾夕法尼亚州也储有铁矿，而铁矿却不是成层分布的，铁矿与地下的岩石全都混杂在一起，这种岩石就称为铁矿石。为了从矿石中开采出铁矿，人们在矿石下生起大火，使得铁矿石熔化，然后像水一样流淌出来，流进人们在地上建造的、用于接住铁水的那种槽子里。铁水冷却后形成的铁块，被称为“生铁锭”；之所以如此称呼，或许是因为它们的形状与猪差不多，或许是因为猪喜欢跑到饲料槽子里去的缘故吧。

要想从铁矿石里提炼出铁来，必须对铁矿石加热才行，而要想加热铁矿石，就必须有某种能够产生热量的东西，比如煤炭才行。有些地方储有铁矿石，却没有煤炭；有些地方储有煤炭，却没有铁矿石。这就好比是一个想要打板球的孩子有球却没有球棒，而其他孩子则是有球棒却没有球一样。不过，位于宾夕法尼亚州西部的匹兹堡却既储有铁矿，附近地区也出产煤炭。这就好比是那些既有球棒、又有球的孩子了。

人们从铁矿石中开采出铁，然后将铁提炼成钢，再用钢材制造出铁路所用的铁轨、高楼大厦里的梁桁，以及横跨河流的桥梁来。

out the news when the United States was first made a country. It is now cracked, so will not ring any more, but is more treasured than any bell in the United States that can ring.

The biggest bathtub in the World is not far from Philadelphia. It is an ocean bath called Atlantic City, on the coast of New Jersey.People from all over the World go there to take salt baths and sun baths and to be amused.There is a boardwalk miles long and as wide as a street close by the ocean, and along its side is every kind of thing to amuse you and your“stummick.”If you want to see a board“walk，”go to Atlantic City.

费城这个城市的名称，来自《圣经》。它的意思就是指“兄弟友爱之城”。人们选择了这个名称，来给宾夕法尼亚州最大的、实际上也属于全美第三大的这座城市命名，可我不知道，这样做合不合适。在哥伦比亚特区的华盛顿出现之前，费城曾经是美国的首都，而如今，这里连本州的首府也不是了。费城有一栋叫作“独立大厅”的旧楼，正是里面的一座大钟敲响，宣告了合众国最初建国的消息。虽说这座大钟如今已经开裂，因而没法再敲响了，可它比美国现存的、任何一座能够敲响的大钟，却都要宝贵哩。

世界上最大的浴场，位于距费城不远的地方。那是一个海上浴场，叫作“大西洋城”，就在新泽西州的海滨。世界各地的人纷纷来到这里，享受盐浴、日光浴以及休闲娱乐。离海边很近的地方，有一条长达数英里、并且像街道那样宽阔的木板路，两侧全都是各种各样、让你们觉得有意思并且能够让你们“大快朵颐”的东西。如果你们想要看到一块会“走路”的木板，那就去大西洋城吧。