最最西邊（上）

V. M. 希利爾（湯敏?譯）

V.M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名的兒童教育家、科普作家 ，創建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的世界地理》。

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，什么東西都是最好的、最大的、最美的、最高的、最可愛的，那么這個地方可不可以算作是天堂？在美國，有這么一個地方，那兒有全世界最甜的柑橘、最大的梅子、最好吃的葡萄、最高的樹、最雄偉的山，還有最宜人的氣候。這個地方不是天堂，而是美國的最最西邊——加利福尼亞州。

加利福尼亞州這個名字來自某個童話故事。故事中的某個小島就叫這個名字。而在現實中的加利福尼亞州，倒的的確確是一個童話般的美妙世界。不過當人們確實在加利福尼亞州發現金子之后，童話故事就變成了真事。即使在今天，很多關于加利福尼亞州的故事，在美國東部的人聽起來就像是童話故事一樣。誰會相信在加利福尼亞州有一種參天大樹，高得幾乎要穿過云霄，粗得可以讓人在樹身上開一個洞，讓汽車從洞里開過去。而且，在耶穌誕生之前，這種樹就存在了！可是，這是真的。在加利福尼亞真的有這樣的大樹，它的名字叫作紅杉。要是它們能開口說話，就可以把漫長歲月中發生的故事講給我們聽。

讓我們看看加利福尼亞州有多少個之最吧。

加利福尼亞州是美國最長的州。如果你把加利福尼亞州挪到美國東海岸，那么它能從北面的紐約州一直延伸到南面的佛羅里達州。這是第一個之最。

加利福尼亞州有美國本土最高的山峰——惠特尼山。這是第二個之最。

加利福尼亞州有美國最低的盆地。這是一處山谷，比海平面還要低200英尺。在這個山谷的最低處，空氣非常干燥悶熱，幾乎沒有什么動植物可以在這樣的環境中生長，除了角蟾和角蜥。這兩種動物喜熱，越熱的環境它們越覺得舒服。有人開玩笑說這里的角蟾和角蜥可以在火里生存——這當然不是真的。這個低洼悶熱的山谷被稱作死亡谷。因為這個地方的氣候實在太不適合人類生活，所以大家輕易都不會走到里面去。但是現實中總有些不怕死的家伙，為了尋找金子而跑到山谷里去，結果卻在里面迷了路，再也沒有走出這個地方。另外也有些探險家想要橫穿這片死亡地帶，可是他們往往也是在還沒有走出這片死亡地帶的時候，就因為過度的炎熱和干渴而丟了性命。正因為如此，這片山谷就得了死亡谷這樣一個名字。這是最長的州，最高的山峰以外的第三個之最——最低的盆地。

Word Study

count /ka?nt/ v. （按順序）數數;清點總數

stretch /stret? / v. 延伸;拉長;繃緊

stray /stre?/ v.迷路;偏離;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，加利福尼亞州還有一個山谷。這個山谷有另一個之最——最美麗的山谷。它的名字叫作優勝美地。優勝美地也是一個低洼的山谷，所以四周的河流都匯聚到這里形成了大大小小的瀑布。有一個瀑布由于實在太高了，瀑布的水流在落到下面的河谷之前，就已經被風吹散成水汽了，像極了新娘戴的面紗，所以這一處瀑布就被叫作新娘面紗瀑布。在優勝美地的所有瀑布中，有六個瀑布比尼亞加拉瀑布要高，有兩個瀑布的水流落差超過四分之一英里，可算得上是全美國最高的瀑布了。你看，又有兩個之最了——最美的山谷和最高的瀑布。

洛杉磯這座“天使之城”現在是太平洋沿岸最大的城市。在洛杉磯郊外，有世界上最大的電影制作基地——好萊塢（你看，又是一個之最）。

我們都知道，一年有365天，可是在好萊塢，人們說每年日照的時間是400天！這當然是一個夸張的說法。因為晴朗的天氣為拍電影提供了極佳的光線條件。這是好萊塢被各大電影公司選中作為拍片場地的一個重要條件。而第二個有利條件是，在好萊塢附近有很多很多適宜拍電影的自然景觀。如果想拍船景或船難，洛杉磯就在太平洋邊上;如果想拍沙漠、駱駝這樣的阿拉伯風情，那么海灘也可以在攝影機里呈現出和沙漠一樣的效果;如果想表現熱帶國家的景觀，那么這里也有棕櫚樹和熱帶花卉;如果想表現冬季的景色，那么只要稍微往加利福尼亞州內陸走一點，到山里去，就能找到終年積雪的地方。

在洛杉磯以北，同樣也是靠著太平洋海邊的地方，有另一個大城市舊金山。舊金山本來可能會發展得更大的，只不過在1906年，這里發生了一場非常可怕的大地震。大地震震垮了整座城市。實際上，地震持續的時間只有幾分鐘，但就是那幾分鐘，地震給這個城市帶來了巨大沖擊。地面裂開了很大的口子，房子就像是孩子用積木搭的一樣，全部都倒掉了。在地震中死去的人不計其數。可是地震帶來的危害還不止這些。裂開的路面把地下的煤氣管道給崩斷了，房子里的電線也扯斷了。這些危險的東西引起了一場極其可怕的大火，幾乎將舊金山市燒毀了。那么，舊金山的市民是不是絕望了呢？不，他們一點也沒有！他們從保險公司那里得到了賠償——并用這些錢重新修建了一個新的舊金山。

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.

除了上面說的這些之最，加利福尼亞州還有最甜的柑橘、最酸的檸檬、最大的葡萄柚，所以說這里是水果的天堂。可是有意思的是，人們說這些水果不是產自加利福尼亞州，而是“跑到”加利福尼亞州去的。因為在白人還沒有來到北美大陸的時候，在美國的土地上并不生長柑橘、檸檬這些水果。最早來到北美并在這里定居下來的是西班牙人，西班牙在大西洋的另一邊。在西班牙，人們種植柑橘和檸檬等水果。所以當西班牙人踏上前往北美的征程時，他們自然也把這些水果的種子帶到了美國，并最終讓它們在加利福尼亞州和佛羅里達州生了根。

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.

西班牙人來到美洲定居之后，按照他們在故土的習慣修建房子。典型的西班牙式的房子會在磚墻上抹一層白灰，在屋頂上鋪紅色的瓦片，房子中間是院子，他們還用西班牙語給他們居住的城市起名字。我們今天熟悉的很多美國城市的名字都有西班牙語的含義。比如洛杉磯，在西班牙語里就是“天使”的意思。不但如此，西班牙人還用很多基督教中的圣人的名字來給城市命名。比如舊金山（英文發音是圣弗朗西斯科），就是用的圣方濟會的發音——弗朗西斯科。加利福尼亞州的另一個城市圣巴巴拉，也得名于一個同名的基督教圣人。

Word Study

trough /tr??f/ n. 飲水槽;低壓槽

tumble /'t?mbl/ v. （使）跌倒;倒塌;翻滾下來

A small boy tumbled off a third floor.

crack /kr?k/ v. 破裂;裂開;斷裂

A gas main had cracked under my neighbors garage.