第4章　沒有盡頭的游行隊伍

你們有沒有見過一支游行隊伍，一支很長、很長的游行隊伍呢？我曾經見過一支由士兵組成的行軍隊伍，他們整整走了一天，隊伍才完全經過呢。嗵、嗵，嗵、嗵，嗵、嗵，過了一個小時又一個小時，一整天都在走。我的一生中，還從來沒有見過那么多的人。那支隊伍里，一定有十萬人吧。地球上有這么多的人，這一點看起來似乎不可思議得很。不過，倘若全世界的人組成一支長長的游行隊伍經過的話，那么需要的可不只是一天，而是需要一生的時間了，因為世界上如今總共有二十多億人口呢。

世界的一個晝夜當中，每一分鐘都會新出生一百個人，即出現一百名新生嬰兒。因此，就在你們看到這句話的時候，世界上又出生了許多的嬰兒，并且，時鐘每滴答一次，就有一個人死去。不過，由于每天出生的人數都比去世的人數要多，因此全球人口數量一直都在不停地增長。

世界上所有人的身材和模樣都差不多。只有在童話故事里，才有小至大拇指、高至教堂尖頂的人物。人類沒有翅膀，只有胳膊；沒有輪子，唯有雙腿。他們都只有一個腦袋、一個鼻子、一張嘴；他們都有兩只耳朵、兩只眼睛、兩只胳膊和兩條腿。而且，在所有這二十多億人口當中，沒有兩個人的長相是相同的，也就是說，

exactly alike.

The chief difference in people is their color. Most of the two billion are white, hut a great many are black and a larger number are halfway between white and black—they are sort of yellow-brown.These three colors of people we call“races.”“It's a good day for the race，”my father used to say.I thought he was talking of a horse-race or a boat-race, but when I asked，“What race?”he would smile and say，“It's a good day for the white race, the black race, all the races.”

Each race used to live by itself in its own part of the World, but many have wandered away to other

沒有一個人長得與另一個人一模一樣。即便是雙胞胎，長相也不是完全一樣的。

人與人之間的主要區別，就在于他們的膚色不同。這二十多億人口當中，絕大多數都是白種人，但也有許多屬于黑種人，還有更多介乎白人和黑人之間的人種，就是皮膚有點兒帶黃棕色的人。我們把這三種膚色不同的人，分稱為三個“種族”?！敖裉鞂ΨN族來說可是個好日子呢?！蔽业母赣H以前常常這樣說。我以為他說的是賽馬或者賽艇，可當我問道：“什么比賽呢？”他卻會微笑著回答說：“對白種人、黑種人和所有種族的人來說，今天都是個好日子。”

在過去，每個種族常常都獨自居住在世界上屬于他們自己的那個區域，可到了后來，許多人卻漂泊到了其他的地方。在我們美國，絕大多數人都是白種人，但也有許多的黑種人，并且還有少量的黃種人。

parts. Most of the people in our part of the World are white, but there are also many black and a few yellow-brown.

Suppose you had been born black.

Suppose you'd been born yellow or red.

Suppose you had been born in

Africa or

Asia or

Australia.

Suppose you had been born with another father and mother.

Suppose you had been born in another world instead of this World.

Suppose you hadn't been born at all—where would you be now?

There are only six continents where people live, but on each of these there are several countries. A country doesn't mean the country.A country means cities, towns, villages and country under one ruler.There are eighty countries on the World.Some countries are small with only a few thousand people in the whole country, and some countries are large with many millions of people.Our country, the United States, has over one hundred and fifty million people, but there are several countries with more.China, which is on the other side of the World, has the most people.It has three times as many people as the United States；and India, another country on the other side of the World, has the next largest number of people.Both these countries are in Asia—the largest continent with the shortest name and

假設你出生的時候是個黑種人。

假設你出生的時候是個黃種人或者紅種人。

假設你出生于非洲、亞洲或者大洋洲。

假設生你的是另一對父母。

假設你不是出生在地球上，而是出生在另一個世界里。

假設你根本就沒有出生；那么，現在你又會在哪兒呢？

世界上只有六個大洲有人居住，但每個大洲上又分成了許多的國家。一個國家，指的可不是“鄉村”。一個國家，是由同一個統治者統治著的城市、市鎮、村莊以及鄉村所組成的。如今，世界上有八十個國家。有些國家很小，全國只有數千人口；有些國家則很大，國內總人口達數百萬。我們國家，即美利堅合眾國，有一億五千多萬人口，不過，有幾個國家的人口數量則更多。處于地球另一面的中國，是世界上人口最多的國家。該國的人口數量，達到了美國的三倍。還有同處于地球另一面的印度，人口數量則居世界第二。這兩個國家都位于亞洲，雖說亞洲屬于世界上面積最大的一個洲，但其名稱最短，人口也最多。

每個國家都有一個統治者，就像每個家庭都有一位父親、每支橄欖球隊都有一位隊長那樣。有些國家的統治者是國王，有些國家則是總統，并且，在絕大多數國

the most people.

Each country has a ruler, just as every family has a father or every football team has a captain. Some countries have a king for a ruler and some have a president, and most countries have other people to rule with the king and the president.

A king is a king because his father was a king, and his son will be king for the same reason. A president is president because he was chosen by the people in the country, just as the captain of a football team is chosen by his team.Choosing we call“voting.”A king is king for his whole life, but a president is president for only a few years.

The country of a king is called a kingdom. If one man rules over several countries, he is called an emperor and the countries an empire.A country with a president is called a republic.Our country is a republic.The king or the president and the others who rule with him are called the government.The government makes the rules, but it also does two things that no one else is allowed to do.The government makes the money of the country and the postage-stamps.The money of one country is not good in another country and neither are the postage-stamps.And neither is the language of one country good in another—usually.

The people on the World speak many different languages. Even in the same country many different languages are spoken.There are over 3，000 different languages in all—3，000，just think of that！You probably speak only one of these, and couldn't talk to any one nor understand any one who spoke any other language than your own.In the United States almost every one speaks English, which, strange to say, is the language of another

家里，還有許多其他的人，與國王或者總統一起治理著整個國家。

一位國王之所以成為國王，是因為他的父親就是一位國王，而他的兒子，也會出于同樣的原因而成為國王。一位總統之所以成為總統，是因為該國人民挑選他來當總統，就像橄欖球隊隊長是由隊員們推選出來的那樣。這種選擇，我們稱之為“選舉”。國王是終身制的，但總統的任期卻只有數年。

設有國王的國家被稱為王國。假如一個君主統治著好幾個國家，那么這個君主就被稱為皇帝，而他統治下的那些國家則組成了一個帝國。設有總統的國家被稱為共和國。美國就是一個共和國。國王或者總統，加上與之一起治理整個國家的人，就組成了政府。政府制定法律法規，但同時還擁有兩種其他人不允許去做的特權。政府可以發行該國的貨幣和郵票。一國的貨幣到了另一國并不一定有效，郵票也是這樣。而一國的語言到了另一國，通常也是行不通的。

地球上的人，說著許多種不同的語言。即便是在同一個國家里，人們也會說多種不同的語言。世界上總共有三千多種語言，想象一下吧，竟然達到了三千多種！你們很可能只會說其中的一種，并且，除了那些與你們說同種語言的人，你們很可能無法與說其他語言的人交談，也無法聽懂說其他語言的人的話。在美國，幾乎人人都說英語，但說來奇怪，英語也是另一個國家即英國的語言。不過，在一個像歐洲這樣的大陸上，如果出去走上一天，大家是很難不在街道上、商店內、旅館里聽到另一種不同的語言的。

country—England. But on a continent like Europe you could hardly go a day's journey without hearing a different language on the street, in the shops, at the hotel.

I happened to be born in the United States, and as I heard everybody around me speaking English I learned to speak English too. But I might have been born in Asia, a yellow boy, and learned to speak Chinese, or I might have been born in Africa, a black boy, and learned to speak a language I don't even know the name of.I know a man who speaks a dozen different languages, and I know of a man who speaks 100！You can understand how wonderful this is when it usually takes years to learn to speak one other language besides your own.Letters of most of these languages are like ours, like the letters on this page—they are called Roman, because a people called Romans first used them long ago.But letters of Chinese and Japanese and some other faraway languages are different—they look like this：

我碰巧出生在美國，由于周圍的人全都說英語，因此我也學會了說英語。但是，我也有可能出生在亞洲，是一個黃種男孩，并且學會了說漢語，或者，我也有可能出生在非洲，是一個黑人小男孩，并且學會了說一種連名稱我也說不上來的語言呢。我認識一個能說十幾種不同語言的人，并且我還聽說過，有個人竟然能說一百種語言！如果你們知道，除了自己的母語，學會另一種語言通常都要花上好幾年的時間，那你們就能理解，這一點有多么神奇了。這些語言中，大部分所用的字母都像我們所說的英語一樣，與我寫作本書所用的文字一樣，這種字母，叫作“羅馬字母”，因為它們是很久以前一個叫作羅馬人的民族率先使用的。但中國的漢字和日文字母，以及許多與我們相距遙遠的語言，卻不一樣，它們的樣子，就像是這樣：