美国学生世界地理教材 第152期:新月之国(1)

 EVERY place is east of some other place. 每一个地方都在另一个地方的东边。

America is east of China. Europe is east of America. 美国在中国的东边，欧洲在美国的东边。
But the only place called "THE East," with a capital THE, is the land east of Europe. 但是，唯一被称为“东方”的地方，是欧洲东边那片陆地。
This land east of Europe is the continent of Asia. It's the biggest continent of all. 那片陆地就是亚洲大陆，是所有大陆中最大的。
Long years ago in fairy-tale days a god in Asia was in love with a beautiful girl whose name was Europa. 有一个童话故事说，很久以前，一位亚洲的神爱上了一位美丽的姑娘，姑娘名叫“欧罗巴”。
Now a god was not supposed to love a human being, so the god turned himself into a snow-white bull and, 神是不可以与凡人相爱的，于是，这个神化身为一头雪白的公牛。
persuading Europa to get on his back, he ran away with her. 公牛说服欧罗巴骑在自己的背上，带着她跑走了。
At last the bull came to a strait of water and swam across it with Europa still on his back. 最后，公牛来到一处海峡，公牛背着欧罗巴游过海峡，
On the opposite side of the strait where the bull landed with Europa on his back was a great new continent, 登上了海峡的对岸，来到一片新的大陆。
and today we call this continent Europe—after Europa. 今天我们用“欧罗巴”命名这个大陆，称之为“欧罗巴洲”，即欧洲。
People who do not believe in fairy-tales say, however, that Europe is a name that simply means The Land Where the Sun Goes Down, 然而，不相信童话故事的人说，欧洲只是个名字，意思仅指“太阳落下的地方”，
and they say that Asia, the land from which Europa and the bull came, means The Land Where the Sun Gets Up. 而且，他们还说，亚洲，就是欧罗巴和公牛原来所在的地方，意思是“太阳升起的地方”。
The strait across which the bull carried Europa we still call Bull-Carry Strait, 公牛驮着欧罗巴游过的海峡，我们称之为“牛涉水海峡”，
for in the Greek language "bull-carry" is Bosporus, and Bosporus is the name on the map. 在希腊语中“牛涉水”是“博斯普鲁斯”，地图上写的就是“博斯普鲁斯海峡”。
People built a city where Europa landed, and about a thousand years afterward 1 a Roman Emperor named Constantine, 人们在欧罗巴上岸的地方建立了一座城市。大约一千年之后，一位名叫“君士坦丁”的罗马皇帝
who was the first Christian 2 emperor, moved his capital from Rome to this city and it was called after him, Constantinople. 也是第一位罗马基督教皇帝,将首都从罗马搬到这座城市，这座城市就以他的名字被称为“君士坦丁堡”。
After another thousand years Constantinople was captured from the Christians 3 by some people from Asia called Turks, who had a ruler called the Sultan. 又过了一千年，来自亚洲的一个叫做“土耳其”的民族从基督徒的手中夺得了君士坦丁堡，他们的统治者叫做“苏丹王”。
Most of the people in Europe are Christians, but the Turks are not Christians. They do not believe in Christ. 欧洲的大多数人都是基督徒，但土耳其人不是基督徒，也不信仰基督，
They believe in a god whom they called Allah and a man named Mohammed who they say was Allah's messenger on earth. 他们信奉一个他们称之为“安拉”的神和一个名叫“穆罕默德”的人，他们认为穆罕默德是安拉在人间的使者。
So we call the people who believe in Mohammed Mohammedans or Moslems. 于是，我们就称信奉穆罕默德的人为“穆罕默德的信徒”，或“穆斯林”。