英国语文第六册(双语):热带地区(二)(1)
LESSON 18 The tropical world (II)
第18课 热带地区(二)
the eastern hemisphere
东半球
Owing to the absence of inlets, gulfs, and great estuaries, Africa has been the last of the continents to yield to the advances of civilization. Its interior is therefore less known than any other part of the tropical world, excepting perhaps the centre of Australia; but what is known of it shows that it is not destitute of those grand and varied features which characterize the western tropics. Tropical Africa extends from the middle of the Sahara in the north to the plains of the Bushmen in the south. Chief among the natural features of this wide area are the great lakes lying across the Equator, which most probably constitute the highest sources of the Nile. The Nile itself, which rivals the Amazon in the length of its course, is a tropical river; and it is one of the wonders of the world. Three other great rivers belong to tropical Africa—the Niger in the north; the Congo in the west; and in the south the Zambeze, on which is the highest waterfall in the world.
非洲由于水湾、海湾及河口数量过少，所以几乎没有受到文明进步的染指，其内部景态除了澳洲中心或许比任何其它的热带地区都要更鲜为人知，但我们所知的是，非洲的热带地区和其它的西部热带地区一样具备宏伟而多样的特征。非洲的热带地区从北边撒哈拉沙漠的中部向南一直延伸到布什曼的平原地带。这一广阔地区最大的自然特征便是横跨了赤道的五大湖，该五大湖极有可能是尼罗河的最高源头。流长可与亚马逊河相竞的尼罗河本身便是热带河流，是世界奇迹之一。另外的三大河流全部分布在热带非洲境内——分别位于北边的尼日尔、西边的刚果以及南边的赞贝泽，那里还孕育了世上最高瀑布。
The interior of Africa—so far from being a desolate waste, as was at one time supposed—is a well watered and fertile region, and is remarkable for the extraordinary dimensions both of its vegetable and of its animal life. The chief of its vegetable wonders is the baobab-tree, which has been well called the elephant of the vegetable world. One baobab has been seen whose trunk was thirty feet in diameter and ninety-five in circumference. As these trees are generally hollow, they are frequently made use of as dwellings or stables; and Dr. Livingstone mentions one in which twenty or thirty men could lie down and sleep as in a hut! There are also gigantic sycamores, under whose branches the negroes pitch their huts; while picturesque-looking mangroves are found flinging the shores of the sea and the mouths of rivers.
非洲的内部景态远不像前人所说的那样是一片荒无人烟的落寞之地，相反那里水源充足、土壤肥沃，而且动植物的数量之多让人惊叹。非洲的一大奇蔬便是那里的猴面包树，该树被形象地唤为蔬菜界的大象，人们还曾发现过一棵树干直径长三十英尺、周长九十五英尺的巨型猴面包树。这些树的树干内部通常是空心的，所以被大量用作房屋或者马厩，据说利文斯敦就有这么一棵巨型猴面包树，树干内部像小木屋一样可以躺下甚至二三十个男人！非洲还生长着巨型梧桐树，黑人们会在树枝下搭建小木屋。此外非洲的海边和河口处还生长着美如佳画的红树林。
