英国学生科学读本 第14期:一杯茶

 　　Lesson 14 A CUP OF TEA

　　第十四课 一杯茶
　　After you have had your tea tonight, ask your mother to let you turn out the tea-leaves from the tea-pot into a basin of water. Spread these leaves out, and wash them in some fresh water.
　　小朋友, 今天晚上, 你喝完茶以后, 请让妈妈把茶壶给你, 把壶里的茶叶倒进一盆水里面。把这些茶叶分出来, 用清水洗干净。
　　Try to pick out some whole leaves, and gum 1 down any you can find on a piece of card. They will look something like this. The leaves are dark brown in colour. They have jagged edges, and are pointed 2 at each end.
　　把几片完整的茶叶挑出来, 都黏到一张卡片上。茶叶看起来就应该是这个样子, 颜色是深棕色的, 边上有锯齿, 两头都是尖的。
　　When we make tea, we put some tea-leaves into a tea-pot, and then pour boiling water on them. The juice of the tea-leaves makes the water brown. This brown water is the tea we drink.
　　我们泡茶的时候, 先往茶壶里放点儿茶叶, 然后倒上开水。茶叶里的汁液会让水变成棕色, 这种棕色的水, 就是我们喝的茶了。
　　Can we use these tea-leaves over again? No; the boiling water has taken all the strength or taste out of them.
　　我们能用这些茶叶再泡一次茶么? 不能了。开水已经把茶叶的“精华”和香味带走了。
　　But where did the tea-leaves come from? They are the leaves of the tea - plant, a shrub 3 which grows well in China and India. It has dark-green leaves and a pretty white flower. THE TEA-PLANT（茶树的局部）
　　可是, 茶叶是从哪儿来的呢? 茶叶是茶树的叶子, 茶树是一种灌木, 在中国和印度有很多。茶树的叶子是暗绿色的, 花是一种漂亮的白花。
　　The leaves are picked two or three times a year by girls and women. They are first dried in the sun, next roasted in big iron pans 5, and then rolled on long tables by hand or by a machine.
　　一年有两三次, 女孩子们跟妇女们把茶叶采下来, 先在太阳下晒干, 然后用大铁锅炒熟, 再用手或者机器, 在长长的桌子上, 把一片片茶叶卷起来。
　　The tea is then packed in boxes called tea-chests, and brought in ships to this country. Tea has been used in Britain for two hundred years; but it is not very long since it became cheap.
　　人们再把茶叶装进茶叶箱里, 用船运到英国来。在英国, 人们已经喝了两百年的茶, 但直到最近, 茶叶的价钱才变得便宜。
　　Long ago, when ships came from China with tea, they had to sail round Africa, and this took them many months. The captains used to have races every year to see who would land his tea first in London, because the one who came first got the best price for it. Tea is now brought from China by steamships 6 in a few weeks, for the steam-ships can come by a much shorter road.
　　很久以前, 运茶叶的船从中国来英国的时候, 必须绕过非洲, 要走好几个月才能到。以前的船长们, 每年都举行比赛, 看谁能第一个把茶运到伦敦, 因为第一个到达的人, 能把茶叶卖出最高的价钱。现在, 我们用蒸汽船从中国运茶叶, 因为蒸汽船可以走一条近得多的路。
　　Could we not gather some leaves from our hedges 7, and roast them in a pan 4, and then roll them up? Yes; but such leaves would not make "tea, " when you poured boiling water on them.
　　我们能不能从田野边的树篱上摘点儿叶子下来, 在铁锅里烤干, 再卷起来呢? 能, 但这些叶子, 倒上开水, 也泡不出“茶”来。
　　The juice of each plant has its own taste, and leaves from the hedges would not have the taste of tea. There are some wild flowers and leaves that poor people used in place of tea long ago, when tea was very dear. But I do not think that we should like them now.
　　每一种植物的汁液, 都有自己的味道, 树篱的叶子的味道, 跟茶叶的味道是不一样的。很久以前, 茶叶还很贵的时候, 穷人曾经把一些野花和野草叶子, 当成茶泡着喝。不过, 我觉得, 现在我们应该不喜欢这些东西了。