This book is for the child who: thinks heaven is in the sky and hell is under the ground; has never heard of London or Paris and thinks a Dane is a kind of dog.It is to give a traveler's view of the World—but not a commercial traveler's view. It is to show the child what is beyond the horizon, from “Kalamazoo to Timbuktu.” It is to show him not only "the Seven Wonders of the World” but the seventy times Seven Wonders of the world.
这本书是写给这样的孩子：他认为天堂在天上，地狱在地下；他从未听说过伦敦或巴黎，他认为丹麦人是一种狗。这本书将呈现一个旅行者眼中的世界—但不是一个旅行推销员眼中的世界。这本书将告诉孩子，在地平线以外有什么地方：从“卡拉马祖到廷巴克图”。这本书不但给孩子“世界七大奇观”的故事，还要给他讲七十倍于世界七大奇观的故事。
When-l-was-a-boy in New England we had for Thanksgiving six kinds of pie: apple, peach, cranberry, custard, mince, and pumpkin, but I was allowed to have only two kinds and I never could make a satisfactory choice. I have had the same difficulty in selecting geographical places and subjects to tell about. There are too many “most important” places in the World to be included in this first survey, and there will inevitably be those readers who will wonder why certain countries and certain places have been omitted, especially the place where the reader may live.
我小时候在新英格兰过感恩节，有六种果馅派：苹果派、桃子派、越橘派、蛋奶派、百果派和南瓜派。但只准我从中选两种，而我从未能做出让自己满意的选择。在选择要讲述哪些地理上地点和主题时我也遇到了同样的困难。在这第一本世界地理概述中，世界上有太多的“最重要”的地方要提到，而不可避免的是，有些读者会奇怪为什么某些国家和某些地方被忽略了，尤其是读者本人生活的地方。
To me, as a child, geography was a bugbear of repellent names—Climate and Commerce, Manufactures and Industries, and products,products, PRODUCTS. It seemed that the chief products of every place in the World were corn, wheat, barley, rye; or rye, barley, wheat, corn; or barley, corn, rye, wheat. In my geography modern Greece had but a paragraph—because, I suppose, it did not produce wheat corn, barley, rye. Geography was a “stomach” geography; the “head” and “heart” were left out.
小的时候，我觉得地理是个令人头痛的学科，有着那么多令人厌恶的名字—气候和商业、各种制造业和行业以及产品、产品，还是产品！似乎世界各地的农产品都是玉米、小麦、大麦、黑麦；或者是黑麦、大麦、小麦、玉米；或是大麦、玉米、黑麦、小麦。在我读的地理课本里，现代希腊部分只有一个段落的叙述—我想，就是因为希腊不产小麦、玉米、大麦、黑麦吧。地理只关心“吃的”的学科，却忽视了“思想”和“感情”。
I loved the geography pictures and maps but hated the text. Except for an occasional descriptive or narrative paragraph the text was wholly unreadable—a confused jumble of headings and sub-headings and sub-sub- headings: Home Work, Notes, Map Studies, Suggestions to Teachers, Helps, Directions, Questions, Reviews, Problems,Exercises, Recitations, Lessons, Picture Studies, etc.,etc.,etc.
我爱看地理书上的图片和地图，却讨厌读上面的文字。除了偶尔出现的一段描写或叙述还能吸引人之外，地理书中的文字统统让人读不下去—大堆杂乱无章的大标题、小标题以及小标题下的小标题：家庭作业、注释、地图练习题、给老师的建议、辅导、指导、问题、复习、疑难、练习、背诵、课程、图片习题，等等。
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