About 1984, I guess, I was in Basel,
1984年的时候 大概是 我当时在巴塞尔
right across the border from the Black Forest in Germany into Switzerland
刚刚过了德国黑森去往瑞士的边界
One of the things to see in Basel,
在巴塞尔 必须要去看的景观之一就是
they have a really neat modern art museum
那座整洁又现代的艺术博物馆
As you come into the exterior foyer, there's a bunch of big sculptures
当你进入外部大厅 那儿有许多大型雕塑
and there were the Burghers of Calais
以及"加莱的公民"
There must be a copy
那一定是个赝品
So I go up to the guard and I said, "That's a copy "
因此我朝保安走去并对他说"那是个赝品"
"No," he said, "That's the original "
"不"他说"这是真品"
"What about the one in Calais?"
"那在加莱的那个又是什么呢"
He says, "That's a copy "
他说"那才是赝品"
I couldn't track all those students down
我没法在我所有教过的学生面前纠正这个错误
I just hope they never talked about it, "You know, Dr George told me "
我只是希望他们从来没谈起过"乔治告诉过我 "
Anyway, that's a story about myself
无论如何 那是个关于我的故事
How I thought I was giving good information
我以为我提供的是好信息
I should have been more careful
我应该更谨慎些
One point, maybe we're about to point to stop today on page 97
那今天我们就停在97页
Something to correct you, if you were reading,
如果你阅读的话 有一些东西会纠正你的错误
you notice that this is the king's English
你会注意到这就是王的英语
I have a hard time since I've read so many history books
我阅读了大量历史书 那段时间我陷入了痛苦之中
written in English-English
那些历史书是用英式英语写的
that I simply spell some words
而我仅会拼写一些简单的单词
like armor m-o-u-r
例如把armor拼成了m-o-u-r
They don't look right to me, spelled in American-English
从美式英语的拼写来看 它们是不正确的
So I type them in on stuff I hand out and everything
因此 我把它们输入电脑 并分发出去
When I spell check, my computer comes back,
当我做拼写检查时 我的电脑就起作用了
"No, that's spelled wrong," it said "不
那个拼写是错误的"电脑反馈
So I click ignore because it looks right to me
但是我会忽略它们 因为对我来说它们是正确的
I figure, well, they'll just think I'm trying to be uppity,
我觉得 嗯 他们会认为我很自负
spelling in a different way
采用不同的拼写方式
They refer on the bottom of the page to a lime tree
他们在这一页的底部谈到了椴树
Gosh, if you read this, you must think, "This is the biggest lime tree "
天哪 如果你读这个 你肯定认为"这是最大的椴树"
It must have limes the size of grapefruits or watermelon
就像葡萄树或者是西瓜那么大
Since I teach German, this has been a problem in German classes
因为我是教德语的 在德语课上这也成为了一个问题
because a lot of the good dictionaries are produced in England
因为很多好的词典都是英格兰出版的
People look up a word and they'll find lime tree
大家在查找一个单词时 他们将找到椴树这个词
They'll say, "What's a lime tree doing growing there?"
他们会问"生长在那的椴树是什么样的"
A lime tree is a British term for a Linden tree
椴树在英国被称为菩提树
This isn't important
这不重要
I'm just telling you, if you're wondering, why it's a lime tree
我只是告诉你 如果你想知道为什么它是一棵椴树
It's a big shade tree
它有很大的树荫
Actually, if you walk out of Craig, headed toward main park campus
实际上 如果你走出克雷格 走向主校区
and turn back toward National, on that little piece of sidewalk
然后转身走到National 两旁郁郁葱葱的
where there's road trees on each side, those are Lindens
是菩提树
Those are huge Lindens
那些是巨型菩提树
The traditional Lindens are just a huge flowering shade tree,
传统的菩提树只是有着巨型的花样树荫
kind of the idea of a tulip tree or something that
它是一种构思的郁金香或者是
has a leaf that looks like a blossom in the spring
一种有叶的植物 那些叶让它看起来像春天开了花的植物
What you need to do for next class meeting,
尽管我一直都试着不说细节
I've been trying to be good about not saying any particular
但是我还是得提醒你为下次课堂做的准备
that ties us to where we are or what semester we're in but
将会让我们在接下来的课堂学习中如鱼得水