美国学生世界地理教材 第209期:害怕黑暗(1)

 It takes about two months to cross the Sahara Desert by camel from top to bottom, 骑骆驼从撒哈拉沙漠北边到南边，大约需要两个月的时间。

and there is no other way to go than by camel or airplane—no railroads, no auto 1 roads, no roads of any kind. 除了骑骆驼或乘飞机，没有其他路可走——那里没有铁路，没有公路，没有任何一种路。
On the southern edge of the desert is a place called Timbuktu. 在撒哈拉沙漠的南部边缘有一个叫延巴克图的地方。
When people want to describe a very long distance they often say, "from Kalamazoo to Timbuktu." 当美国人要描述一段很长的距离时，他们常说：“从卡拉马祖到廷巴克图。”
Kalamazoo is in Michigan in the United States and Timbuktu is in Africa. 卡拉马祖在美国的密歇根州，廷巴克图在非洲。
Timbuktu is the starting point for caravans 2 going north across the Sahara to the countries along the Mediterranean 3  廷巴克图是旅行队向北穿过撒哈拉沙漠到地中海沿岸城市的起点，
and it is the ending point for caravans coming from those countries. 也是来自那些国家的旅行队的终点。
The Sahara has no rain, but south of the Sahara is a part of Africa called the Sudan, which has plenty of rain. 撒哈拉沙漠不下雨，但是在撒哈拉沙漠之南有一个叫苏丹的非洲地区，却有充沛的雨水。
The Sudan means "the land of the Black People." “苏丹”的意思是“黑人的土地”。
When-I-was-a-boy we used to say that God made white people in the day and black people at night. 小时候，我们常说上帝在白天创造了白人，在夜晚创造了黑人。
Some say black people are simply white people tanned by the sun, which is so hot where they live that the tan never wears off. 有些人说黑人只不过是被太阳晒黑的白人，他们居住的地方太热，所以黑色褪不掉了。
The Sudan has one great river called the Niger. 苏丹有一条大河叫尼日尔河。
Like the Nile, that other great river in Africa beginning with an "N," the Niger fertilizes 4 the land through which it runs. 和尼罗河一样，非洲这条大河的名字也是以“尼”字开头的。尼日尔河使其流域的土地变得非常肥沃。
The Niger empties into the great Gulf 5 of Guinea, a name which even intelligent people sometimes mix with Guiana in South America. 尼日尔河最终流入几内亚湾，即使是聪明人有时也会把“几内亚”这个名字和南美的“圭亚那”混淆。
Along the edge of the Gulf of Guinea are little countries, all of which except one belong to countries in Europe. 几内亚湾沿岸有许多小国，除了其中一个之外，其他都属于欧洲的国家。
This one country, at the corner of the Gulf of Guinea, is called Liberia. It is like a tiny United States; 这个不属于欧洲的国家，位于几内亚湾的角落里，叫利比里亚。它像一个极小的美国，
in fact, it was copied after the United States, but the president and all the people are colored, and the way it came to be so is this: 事实上，利比里亚就是仿照美国建立的，但是利比里亚的总统和人民都是黑人。它的发展历史是这样的：
When our country was first started, the white men wanted some one to do farming and other work for them. 美国刚建国时，美国的白人需要有人替自己干农活和其他粗活，
So pirates captured black people from the shores of Africa, brought them to the United States, 于是，海盗就从非洲沿岸抓了很多黑人，带到美国，
and sold them as slaves, just as the pirates on the Mediterranean captured white people from ships on the sea and made slaves of them. 卖给白人当奴隶，就像过去地中海上的海盗抢劫过往船只抓了白人，让他们成为自己的奴隶一样。