最最西边（上）

V. M. 希利尔（汤敏?译）

V.M.希利尔（1875—1931），美国著名的儿童教育家、科普作家 ，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的世界地理》。

A land where they have the best， the biggest， the finest， the highest， the loveliest of everything—so they say—the best oranges， the biggest prunes， the finest grapes， the tallest trees， the highest mountains， the loveliest weather—i.t.w.w（if the world was）. No， its not Paradise. That s the est， est West—california.

California was named after an island in an old fairy-tale and in many ways the real California is a fairy-tale land. When gold was found in the rivers there， the story sounded like a fairy-tale， but it turned out to be a true tale. Many stories they tell nowadays about California still sound like fairy-tales to people in the East. Who would believe that there are trees in California so tall they seem to brush the sky—trees so big around that men have cut tunnels in them for automobiles to go through—trees so old that they were born before Christ was born！ Its true， there are. They are called Giant Redwoods. How more wonderful than a fairy-tale it would be if those trees could tell us the true story of what has happened in their long lives！

Let us see how many “ests” we can count in California.

California is the longest state in the United States. If you could take up California and put it down on the Atlantic coast it would stretch from Florida to New York.Thats one est.

California has the highest mountain in the United States. It is called Mount Whitney. Thats two ests.

California has the lowest place in America. Its a valley and the valley is more than two hundred feet lower than the ocean. Its so dry and so hot down in this hollow—this lowest spot—that nothing can live there， either animal or vegetable， except horned toads and lizards， both of which animals love heat—the more heat the better for them. Some people say they can even live in fire—but thats a fairy-tale. This low hot valley is called Death Valley. People usually keep away from it， but some men have strayed into it looking for gold and have lost their way， or some who wanted to get to the other side tried to cross it and before they could get out or reach the other side they have died of heat or thirst. Thats why it is called Death Valley. Thats longest， highest， lowest—three ests.

如果有一個地方，什么东西都是最好的、最大的、最美的、最高的、最可爱的，那么这个地方可不可以算作是天堂？在美国，有这么一个地方，那儿有全世界最甜的柑橘、最大的梅子、最好吃的葡萄、最高的树、最雄伟的山，还有最宜人的气候。这个地方不是天堂，而是美国的最最西边——加利福尼亚州。

加利福尼亞州这个名字来自某个童话故事。故事中的某个小岛就叫这个名字。而在现实中的加利福尼亚州，倒的的确确是一个童话般的美妙世界。不过当人们确实在加利福尼亚州发现金子之后，童话故事就变成了真事。即使在今天，很多关于加利福尼亚州的故事，在美国东部的人听起来就像是童话故事一样。谁会相信在加利福尼亚州有一种参天大树，高得几乎要穿过云霄，粗得可以让人在树身上开一个洞，让汽车从洞里开过去。而且，在耶稣诞生之前，这种树就存在了！可是，这是真的。在加利福尼亚真的有这样的大树，它的名字叫作红杉。要是它们能开口说话，就可以把漫长岁月中发生的故事讲给我们听。

让我们看看加利福尼亚州有多少个之最吧。

加利福尼亚州是美国最长的州。如果你把加利福尼亚州挪到美国东海岸，那么它能从北面的纽约州一直延伸到南面的佛罗里达州。这是第一个之最。

加利福尼亚州有美国本土最高的山峰——惠特尼山。这是第二个之最。

加利福尼亚州有美国最低的盆地。这是一处山谷，比海平面还要低200英尺。在这个山谷的最低处，空气非常干燥闷热，几乎没有什么动植物可以在这样的环境中生长，除了角蟾和角蜥。这两种动物喜热，越热的环境它们越觉得舒服。有人开玩笑说这里的角蟾和角蜥可以在火里生存——这当然不是真的。这个低洼闷热的山谷被称作死亡谷。因为这个地方的气候实在太不适合人类生活，所以大家轻易都不会走到里面去。但是现实中总有些不怕死的家伙，为了寻找金子而跑到山谷里去，结果却在里面迷了路，再也没有走出这个地方。另外也有些探险家想要横穿这片死亡地带，可是他们往往也是在还没有走出这片死亡地带的时候，就因为过度的炎热和干渴而丢了性命。正因为如此，这片山谷就得了死亡谷这样一个名字。这是最长的州，最高的山峰以外的第三个之最——最低的盆地。

Word Study

count /ka?nt/ v. （按顺序）数数;清点总数

stretch /stret? / v. 延伸;拉长;绷紧

stray /stre?/ v.迷路;偏离;走失

Tourists often get lost and stray into dangerous areas.

Besides Death Valley， California has another valley—but this is one of the loveliest valleys. It is called the Yosemite. It is a very deep trough， and streams of water fall over the edge into the trough from many high places. One of these falls turns to mist before it reaches the ground and looks like a huge veil of a bride， so it is called Bridal Veil Falls. Half a dozen of these waterfalls in the Yosemite Valley are higher than Niagara， and two of them tumble headlong a quarter of a mile from the top to the bottom of the valley， the highest falls in America—loveliest valley， highest falls; that makes two more ests.

The City of the Angels is now the largest city on the Pacific coast. Near the City of the Angels is Hollywood， the greatest （another est） moving-picture place.

There are 365 days in the year， as you know， but in Hollywood they say the sun shines on 400 days a year—fairy-tale land！ At any rate， the weather is fine most of the time for taking moving pictures. This is one reason why it is such a good place for making movies， but another is that there are so many different kinds of natural scenery nearby. If they want to make a picture of a ship scene or shipwreck， there is the ocean. If they want to make a picture of the desert with camels and Arabs， there is the seashore. If they want to make a picture in the hot countries， there are palms and flowers. If they want to make pictures of winter scenes， all they have to do is to go to the mountains near-by and there is snow and ice all the year round.

The city of San Francisco on the coast north of Los Angeles is nearly as large as Los Angeles. It might have been larger， but in 1906 a terrible earthquake shook down the city. The quake only lasted a few minutes， but in that few minutes it rocked the city， cracked open the ground， and knocked down buildings as if they were houses of childrens blocks， and hundreds and hundreds of people were killed. But the worst thing the earthquake did was to upset stoves and lamps that started one of the worst fires ever known—fires that burned up most of the city. Were the people discouraged？ Not at all. They collected their insurance money—and they built the city up again.

除了死亡谷，加利福尼亚州还有一个山谷。这个山谷有另一个之最——最美丽的山谷。它的名字叫作优胜美地。优胜美地也是一个低洼的山谷，所以四周的河流都汇聚到这里形成了大大小小的瀑布。有一个瀑布由于实在太高了，瀑布的水流在落到下面的河谷之前，就已经被风吹散成水汽了，像极了新娘戴的面纱，所以这一处瀑布就被叫作新娘面纱瀑布。在优胜美地的所有瀑布中，有六个瀑布比尼亚加拉瀑布要高，有两个瀑布的水流落差超过四分之一英里，可算得上是全美国最高的瀑布了。你看，又有两个之最了——最美的山谷和最高的瀑布。

洛杉矶这座“天使之城”现在是太平洋沿岸最大的城市。在洛杉矶郊外，有世界上最大的电影制作基地——好莱坞（你看，又是一个之最）。

我们都知道，一年有365天，可是在好莱坞，人们说每年日照的时间是400天！这当然是一个夸张的说法。因为晴朗的天气为拍电影提供了极佳的光线条件。这是好莱坞被各大电影公司选中作为拍片场地的一个重要条件。而第二个有利条件是，在好莱坞附近有很多很多适宜拍电影的自然景观。如果想拍船景或船难，洛杉矶就在太平洋边上;如果想拍沙漠、骆驼这样的阿拉伯风情，那么海滩也可以在摄影机里呈现出和沙漠一样的效果;如果想表现热带国家的景观，那么这里也有棕榈树和热带花卉;如果想表现冬季的景色，那么只要稍微往加利福尼亚州内陆走一点，到山里去，就能找到终年积雪的地方。

在洛杉矶以北，同样也是靠着太平洋海边的地方，有另一个大城市旧金山。旧金山本来可能会发展得更大的，只不过在1906年，这里发生了一场非常可怕的大地震。大地震震垮了整座城市。实际上，地震持续的时间只有几分钟，但就是那几分钟，地震给这个城市带来了巨大冲击。地面裂开了很大的口子，房子就像是孩子用积木搭的一样，全部都倒掉了。在地震中死去的人不计其数。可是地震带来的危害还不止这些。裂开的路面把地下的煤气管道给崩断了，房子里的电线也扯断了。这些危险的东西引起了一场极其可怕的大火，几乎将旧金山市烧毁了。那么，旧金山的市民是不是绝望了呢？不，他们一点也没有！他们从保险公司那里得到了赔偿——并用这些钱重新修建了一个新的旧金山。

California has， beside these ests， the sweetest oranges，the sourest lemons， the biggest grape-fruit， so they say， but they didnt come from California; they went there. There were no oranges and no lemons growing in America at all before white men came to this country. The first white people to settle in California came from the country of Spain on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In Spain oranges and lemons grew， and the people from Spain， called Spaniards，brought over orange and lemon plants and started them growing in California and also in Florida.

除了上面說的这些之最，加利福尼亚州还有最甜的柑橘、最酸的柠檬、最大的葡萄柚，所以说这里是水果的天堂。可是有意思的是，人们说这些水果不是产自加利福尼亚州，而是“跑到”加利福尼亚州去的。因为在白人还没有来到北美大陆的时候，在美国的土地上并不生长柑橘、柠檬这些水果。最早来到北美并在这里定居下来的是西班牙人，西班牙在大西洋的另一边。在西班牙，人们种植柑橘和柠檬等水果。所以当西班牙人踏上前往北美的征程时，他们自然也把这些水果的种子带到了美国，并最终让它们在加利福尼亚州和佛罗里达州生了根。

The Spaniards built houses like those back in Spain， with white stucco walls and red tile roofs and with the “back yards” in the center of the house. They gave their cities Spanish names—Los Angeles， which means The Angels; and they named many of their cities after saints—San Francisco after St. Francis， Santa Barbara after St. Barbara—for many of the Spaniards were priests， who built mission churches up and down the land.

西班牙人来到美洲定居之后，按照他们在故土的习惯修建房子。典型的西班牙式的房子会在砖墙上抹一层白灰，在屋顶上铺红色的瓦片，房子中间是院子，他们还用西班牙语给他们居住的城市起名字。我们今天熟悉的很多美国城市的名字都有西班牙语的含义。比如洛杉矶，在西班牙语里就是“天使”的意思。不但如此，西班牙人还用很多基督教中的圣人的名字来给城市命名。比如旧金山（英文发音是圣弗朗西斯科），就是用的圣方济会的发音——弗朗西斯科。加利福尼亚州的另一个城市圣巴巴拉，也得名于一个同名的基督教圣人。

Word Study

trough /tr??f/ n. 饮水槽;低压槽

tumble /'t?mbl/ v. （使）跌倒;倒塌;翻滚下来

A small boy tumbled off a third floor.

crack /kr?k/ v. 破裂;裂开;断裂

A gas main had cracked under my neighbors garage.