美国学生世界地理教材 第74期:橡胶和咖啡之国(3)

 Men go through the Selvas and wherever they find a rubber-tree they cut notches 1 in the tree trunk and fasten a cup underneath 2 to catch the tree’s sap, 人们在热带雨林中穿行，无论在哪里，只要发现橡胶树，他们就在树干上刻一个凹槽，在凹槽下方挂一个杯子，接住树的汁液， 

which flows out from the notches like blood out of a cut finger. 汁液从凹槽流淌出来，就像血会从划破的手指流出来一样。 
Then they go round again and empty the cups of rubber sap into a bucket and carry it to their camp. 过一段时间他们再次经过那里，把杯子里的橡胶汁倒到桶里，带回营地。 
When they have collected enough sap they take a stick, pour some of the sap on it, and dry it over a fire.  当他们采集到了足够的橡胶汁后，他们拿一根棍子，浇上一些树汁，在火上烤干。
They do the same thing again and again until there is a big lump 3 of rubber on the stick.  他们会一次又一次地反复这样做，直到棍子上有一大团烤干的橡胶。
These lumps 4 of rubber they pile into canoes 5 and carry down the Amazon River to larger boats that carry the rubber to the United States and to other countries. 他们把一团团的橡胶堆放到独木舟上，沿着亚马逊河向下游运送，然后由大船把橡胶运到美国和其他国家。
But there is something that grows in Brazil that begins with a “C”—that almost every family in the United States has at breakfast each morning.  但是在巴西还盛产一种东西，它的英语名字以“C”开头——几乎每个美国家庭吃早餐时都必备的东西。
Can you guess what it is? It’s coffee. Coffee doesn’t grow in Brazil wild as the rubber-tree does.  你能猜到那是什么吗？是咖啡（英语是Coffee）。在巴西，咖啡不像橡胶树那样是天然生长的。
In fact, coffee didn’t grow in Brazil at all until some men brought coffee bushes from across the ocean and planted them in Brazil. 实际上，直到有人从大洋对岸带来咖啡树苗，在巴西种植，巴西才有了咖啡。
They planted them on high ground near the shore, not in the Selvas. 他们把咖啡树种在海岸附近的高地上，而不是种在热带雨林里。 
They found that the high ground and the weather were just exactly right for growing coffee, 他们发现海边的高地和气候正适宜咖啡生长， 
and now much more coffee grows in Brazil than in the place where coffee came from first, and indeed more than in any other place  现在巴西种植的咖啡树已经比它的原产地种的还要多，甚至，比世界上任何其他地方都要多。
Coffee grows on a small tree, and the coffee berries 6 look something like cherries. Inside of each cherry-like berry 7 are two seeds.  咖啡长在一种小树上，咖啡果形似樱桃。在每一个樱桃般的咖啡果里都有两颗种子。
These seeds are coffee, but before coffee can be made into a drink the coffee seeds must be toasted brown and then ground to powder. 这些种子就是咖啡豆，但是咖啡豆必需烘烤成褐色后，磨成粉，才能冲泡成饮料。
One New Year’s Day a long time ago a man was sailing along the coast of Brazil when he came to what seemed to be the mouth of a river.  在很久以前某个元旦那一天，有个人正沿着巴西海岸航行，突然来到一个看起来像河口的地方。
As it was the first day of January he named the place River of January, which in his language was Rio de Janeiro. 因为那天是一月的第一天，他就把那个地方叫做“一月河”，用他自己的语言说就是“里约热内卢”。 
It turned out to be no river; but the city that grew up at that place is still called Rio de Janeiro, and it is the capital of Brazil.  后来发现那里根本就没有河流；但在那里发展起来的城市现在仍然叫做“里约热内卢”，是巴西的首都。
In the harbor 8 of Rio, as it is called for short, there is a huge rock which is called “The Loaf of Sugar,” 在里约港（里约就是里约热内卢的简称）有一块巨大的岩石，叫做“糖块”，
and as you see Rio from a ship the mountains back of the city look like a “Sleeping Giant,” and that is what they are called. 从船上看里约市，城市后面的山脉看起来就像一个沉睡的巨人，于是人们就把这条山脉叫做“沉睡的巨人”。
More coffee is shipped from Rio than from any other place  , except another place on the coast of Brazil just south of Rio.  从里约运出的咖啡比世界上其他任何地方都要多，除了一个叫做桑托斯的地方，桑托斯在里约市的南边，也在巴西海岸边。
This other place is called Santos. The cup of coffee your father drinks in the morning probably comes from either Rio or Santos. 另一个地方叫做桑托斯，你爸爸早晨喝的咖啡也许就来自里约市或者桑托斯。
If coffee and cocoa could talk, and tin cans and asphalt streets and rubber tires, as such things do in fairy-tales,  如果咖啡和可可粉、锡罐、沥青马路和橡胶轮胎能像在童话故事里那样都会说话，
what tales they could tell of their homes and travels! 那么关于它们的家乡和长途游历它们会说出多么有趣的故事啊！