The Bear熊國

V. M. 希利爾 （湯敏　譯）

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名兒童教育家、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》。

When I was a boy the story I liked best was one about wolves in Russia. Some Russians in a sleigh were driving across the snow， when they were attacked by a pack of hungry wolves. The men whipped up their horses， but the wolves drew nearer and nearer. When the wolves were just about to spring upon the sleigh the men threw out food， which the wolves stopped a moment to devour， allowing the sleigh to get ahead. But the wolves caught up and again food was thrown out and again and again， till there was no food left. See if you can guess the end of the story， or make up an ending of your own.

Naturally， I used to think of Russia as a land of wolves， though for some reason people call Russia “The Bear.”

我小的時候，最喜歡聽的一個故事，是關于一群俄羅斯人遭遇狼群的可怕經歷。這群俄羅斯人駕駛雪橇穿過雪原，沒想到遇上了饑餓的狼群。雪橇上的人不停地驅趕馬快跑，可是狼群一直跟在雪橇后面，并且慢慢接近。每當狼群蠢蠢欲動想要撲上雪橇的時候，人們就扔出一點食物。這樣狼群就會停下來搶食物吃。雪橇可以暫時跑出一段距離。可是當狼群吃完了食物，又會慢慢跟上來，這樣人們只好又扔出一點食物。可是食物越來越少，最后全部都扔完了。但是狼群依然沒有放棄，還是跟在雪橇后面。這個故事的結局我不告訴你，你猜猜最后發生了什么事情。當然你也可以運用自己的想象，給這個故事續寫一個你喜歡的結局。

因為讀了這個故事，自然而然地，我那時候認為俄羅斯遍地都是狼群。可是，不知出于什么原因，人們卻喜歡把俄羅斯叫作“熊國”。

Russia is a huge country—it is the largest country in Europe—it is as large as all the other countries of Europe put together， and in the far north there are wolves， snow， and sleighs. But there is also a middle Russia which is not so cold and a southern Russia which is quite warm.

In the north of Russia it is so cold that even in summer when the snow has gone and the ground has thawed out on top， the ground underneath remains frozen stiff， and， though grass and even flowers grow above， the ground below remains hard and icy. These frozen lands are called “tundras”， and there are thousands of miles of such tundras across the north of Russia.

At the top of Russia is a sea called “White” and at the bottom of Russia a sea called “Black”. The White Sea， I suppose， is called “White” because it is frozen over most of the year and covered with snow—and yet， during a few months of the summer when the ice in it has melted， great ships sail into the White Sea， bringing in loads of all sorts of goods to the one great port on this sea—a city called Archangel—a name that makes one think of heaven.

俄羅斯有龐大的國土——它是歐洲面積最大的國家——它的面積比歐洲其他所有國家加起來都要大。在俄羅斯偏遠的北邊，那兒確實有狼群、冰雪和雪橇。可是在俄羅斯中部，天氣并不是那么冷。而在俄羅斯南部，天氣則是非常溫暖和煦的。

在廣袤的北俄羅斯，氣候非常寒冷。即使是到了夏天，冰雪消融，也只是地表的一層解凍，有花草長出來。可在地表以下，土地依然凍得結結實實的。這種全年結冰的土層叫作“凍土”。在俄羅斯北部，有數千英里連綿不絕的凍土地帶。

在俄羅斯最北端，有一片海域叫作白海。而在俄羅斯最南端，有另一片海域叫作黑海。我猜，白海之所以被叫作“白”海，大概是因為它一年中絕大多數時候都被冰雪封凍著，看上去就是白茫茫的一片。在白海，只有夏季的很少幾個月中，冰雪會解凍。也只有在這時候，大型輪船才可以駛到白海邊一個叫作阿爾漢格爾斯克的港口城市。這些輪船滿載著各種物資，把貨物卸在阿爾漢格爾斯克的碼頭。

Word Study

sleigh /sle?/ n. 雪橇

devour /d?'va??（r）/ v. 狼吞虎咽地吃光;吞沒;毀滅

The big fish continued to devour the little ones.

thaw /θ??/ v. 解凍，融化;變暖

Leave the meat to thaw completely before cooking.

stiff /st?f/ adj. 僵硬的;硬的

tundra /'t?ndr?/ n. 凍原，苔原

melt /melt/ v. 熔化，融化

The snow showed no sign of melting.

You may wonder why people live in such faroff places， why they dont move to other places that are more comfortable. But people live where they can make a living， and cities usually start with a few houses and more and more houses are built until there is a city. But there is a great city farther south than Archangel which was built all at once—to order. It was built by a man named Peter， who was one of the rulers of Russia. They were called “czars”. Peter wanted to live by the water so that he could sail ships， just as you might like to go to the seashore to sail boats， so he built a city by the sea， with streets， shops， houses， and palaces， and then， as he was a czar who could make people do what he wanted， he made people come and live in this city. Peter had been named for St Peter， so he called his city St Petersburg， which meant St Peters City. That was two hundred years ago.

你也許會好奇，為什么人們要在如此偏遠的地方修建城市，住在這里。為什么他們不到另外更加舒服的地方去生活呢。嗯，其實，城市建在哪里是個自然選擇的過程。人們能在哪里求得生存的基本條件，就會在哪里慢慢發展起來。一開始的時候，可能只是幾間小房子，當這里變得越來越繁榮的時候，房子也就會越建越多，城市也就逐漸形成并且壯大起來。不過，在離阿爾漢格爾斯克更南的地方，卻有一座城市是因為人為的原因，受命而建的。下令修建這座城市的人叫作彼得，他當時是俄羅斯的統治者之一。俄羅斯的統治者有個特別的尊稱，叫作沙皇。這位彼得就是一個沙皇。彼得想要在海邊居住，這樣可以方便他出海游玩。我想很多人都希望居住在海邊，這樣能夠隨時去航海。彼得也是這樣。于是他下令在海邊修建了這座城市，城市里有街道、商店、各色房屋以及供他居住的宮殿。因為彼得的沙皇身份，所以他可以動用整個國家力量來辦這件事。當城市修好之后，他還下令讓人們遷居到這座城市來生活。這位沙皇彼得曾被封圣，又稱為圣彼得，因此他就把這座奉他之命修建的城市叫作圣彼得堡，意思是“圣彼得的城市”。那是兩百年（距作者寫作本書——編者注）前的事了。

When Russia was fighting in World War I the people of St Petersburg said that they wanted a real Russian name for their city， for “burg” was the German name for city， and they were fighting the Germans， so they called it Petrograd， which was the Russian name for Peters City. But the people got tired of the war and all of a sudden they said they would not fight any more; they had a revolution， killed the czar and set up a government of their own. They wanted the city of Petrograd called for the leader of the revolution， a man named Lenin， so they changed the name of the city again to Leningrad， which meant Lenins City. St Peterburg， Pertrograd， Leningrad was built to be the capital of Russia， but it was so cold there they moved the capital to a city still farther south near the center of Russia that had been the capital before. This city is called Moscow.

第一次世界大戰期間，俄羅斯同德國是交戰國。圣彼得堡的人說，他們要給這座城市重新起一個名字，因為“堡”也是一個德國詞，在德語里也是“城市”的意思。圣彼得堡的人希望給自己的城市起一個純正的俄羅斯名字。于是他們把城市改成彼得格勒，在俄語中就是“彼得的城市”的意思。但人們已經厭倦了戰爭，他們說不想再打仗了。但一戰之后沒過多久，俄羅斯發生了革命，人們殺了沙皇，建立起了自己的政權。人們又希望用革命領導人的名字來為這座城市命名。革命的領袖叫作列寧，于是這座城市又改名為列寧格勒，意思是“列寧的城市”。于是，圣彼得堡、彼得格勒、列寧格勒在歷史上都曾是俄羅斯的首都。可是，這個地方還是太冷了，于是人們繼續往南，在俄羅斯中部，一個曾經成為過俄羅斯首都的地方，重新建都。這個地方就是今天的莫斯科。

Word Study

faroff /'fɑ?r??f/ adj. 遙遠的

czar /tsɑ?/ n. 沙皇;獨裁者;獨攬大權者

revolution /'rev?'lu??n/ n. 革命;巨變;大變革

A revolution in information technology is taking place.