If you are under fifteen years, eight months and three days old

DON’T READ THIS INTRODUCTION

小朋友們，如果你們還不到十五歲八個月零三天，那就不要看這一部分。

This book is to give a traveler's view of the World—but not a commercial traveler's view.

本書旨在讓孩子們能夠用旅行家的眼光，而不是用旅行推銷員的態度來看待世界。

It is to show the child what is beyond the horizon, from“Kalamazoo to Timbuktu.”

本書旨在讓孩子們明白，從“卡拉瑪祖到廷巴克圖”，地平線之外還有些什么。

It is to show him not only“the Seven Wonders of the World”but the seventy times Seven Wonders of the World.

本書不僅會讓孩子們了解所謂的“世界七大奇跡”，而且會讓他們了解到七十倍于“世界七大奇跡”的內容。

When I 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.

To me, as a child, geography was a bugbear of repellent names—Climate and Commerce, Manufactures and Industries, and products, products, PRODUCTS. It seemed

我小的時候，在新英格蘭地區過感恩節時，記得有六種餡餅：蘋果餅、桃餅、越橘餅、蛋奶餅、肉末餅和南瓜餅。可是，大人每次都只允許我吃兩種，而我也從來沒有做出過一種滿意的選擇。在選擇可以介紹給小朋友們的地理位置和題材時，我也面臨著同樣的難題。世界上屬于“極其重要”的地點實在太多，無法囊括進本書這種初步性的概覽之中，因此，有些讀者必然會覺得奇怪，某些國家和某些地點，尤其是讀者所在的國家和地方，為什么本書沒有提及。

對小時候的我而言，地理就是一個大難題，充斥著令人反感的名稱，比如氣候與貿易、制造業與工業，以及物產、物產、物產。世界各地的主要物產，似乎不是玉米、小麥、大麥和黑麥，或者黑麥、大麥、小麥和玉米，就是大麥、玉米、黑麥和小麥。在我的地理概念中，現代希臘的內容只有短短的一段，因為我覺得，該國

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.

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.

The World was an orange when I went to school, and there were only three things I can remember that I ever learned“for sure”—that the Dutch children wore wooden shoes, the Eskimos lived in snow houses, and the Chinese ate with chopsticks.

We had a question and answer catechism which we learned as we did the multiplication tables. The teacher read from her book：

Q.“What is the condition of the people of the United States?”and a thirteen-year-old boy in the next seat answered glibly：A.“They are poor and ignorant and live in miserable huts.”At which astounding statement the teacher unemotionally remarked，“No, that's the answer to the next question，‘What is the condition of the Eskimos?'”

When my turn came to teach geography to beginners nine years of age, I found the available textbooks either too commercial and industrial, on the one hand, or too puerile

并不出產小麥、玉米、大麥或者黑麥。這種地理，屬于只有“肚子”的地理，而其“頭部”和“心臟”，則被我們拋棄了。

我很喜歡地理書上的圖片和地圖，卻很討厭書中的文字。除了偶爾有那么一段描述性的或者敘述性的文字之外，整個正文完全都是枯燥無味的，充斥著一堆混亂不堪的標題、小標題和小小標題，比如“家庭作業”、“注釋”、“地圖研究”、“給教師的建議”、“幫助”、“題目要求”、“題目”、“復習”、“問題”、“練習”、“背誦”、“功課”、“圖片研究”，等等，等等，等等。

我上學之后，得知世界就是一個橙子。但如今還記得、當時我“很肯定”地了解到的，卻只有三件事情：一是荷蘭的孩子穿木屐；二是因紐特人住在冰雪建造的房子里；三是中國人用筷子吃飯。

我們在學習地理的時候，也像學習乘法口訣表那樣，用的是問答式教學法。老師會照本宣科，看著課文朗讀。

比如，老師會問道：“美國人民的現狀是怎樣的呢？”坐在旁邊座位上的一個十三歲的男孩，立即會不假思索地回答道：“他們都很窮，沒有文化，住在破爛的棚子里。”聽到這種令人吃驚的說法，老師卻絲毫不為所動，只是說：“不對，那是下一題的答案。下一題就是：‘因紐特人的生活狀況是怎樣的呢？’”

輪到我來向那些年僅九歲、剛剛入學的孩子講授地理的時候，我卻發現，手頭可用的教科書一方面是要么太過注重商業，要么太過注重工業，另一方面則是要么太過幼稚，要么便是邏輯上沒有連貫性。九歲的孩子根本無法理解統計數據和抽象

and inconsequential, on the other. Statistics and abstractions were entirely beyond the ken of the child of nine, and random stories of children in other countries had little value as geography.

As I had been a traveler for many years, had visited most of the countries of the Globe, and in actual mileage had been five times the distance around the World, I thought I would write a geography myself. Vain conceit！A class would listen with considerable attention to my extemporaneous travel talks, so I had a stenographer take down these talks verbatim.But when I read these notes of the same talk to another class, then it was that I discovered a book may be good—until it is written.So I've had to try, try again and again, for children's reactions can never be forecast.Neither can one tell without trial what children will or will not understand.Preconceived notions of what words they should or should not know are worthless：“Stupendous and appalling”presented no difficulties whatever but much simpler words were misunderstood.

I had been reading to a class from an excellent travel book for children. The author said，“We arrived, tired and hungry, and found quarters in the nearest hotel.”The children understood“found quarters”to mean that the travelers had picked up 25-cent pieces in the hotel！Then again I had been describing the“Bridge of Sighs，”in Venice, and picturing the condemned prisoners who crossed it.Casually I asked if any one could tell me why it was called the Bridge of Sighs.One boy said，“Because it is of big size.”A little girl, scorning his ignorance, said，“Because it has sides.”A boy from the country, with a farfetched

概念，而雜亂無章地選取出來的、關于其他國家一些孩子的故事，對于地理來說，其實也沒有什么意義。

由于我多年來一直熱衷于旅行，已經去過世界上絕大多數國家，而實際的旅行里程也已經相當于繞著地球轉了五圈，因此我覺得，自己完全可以來編寫一部地理書了。不過，這其實完全是虛榮和自負在作祟！一個班級的學生，會極為專心地聽我即興講述自己的旅行見聞，于是，我請了一位速記員，一字不漏地將這些內容記錄了下來。可待我把記錄下來的相同內容讀給另一個班的學生去聽時，這才發現，雖然一本書的確可以很好，但要編寫得好才是真的好。因此，我不得不試了一次又一次。因為孩子們的反應，是我們永遠也預計不到的。而且，不經過嘗試，我們也無法搞清楚哪些內容孩子們聽得懂，哪些內容孩子們又聽不懂。先入為主地假定他們應當了解哪些內容、不應該了解哪些內容，是沒有意義的：“舉世矚目和令人震驚”這樣的詞匯，無論用來修飾什么，孩子們都能夠理解。而一些簡單得多的話語，卻經常讓孩子們產生誤解。

我曾經給一個班級朗讀過一本專門針對兒童而編寫的優秀游記。該書作者寫道：“我們到達后，又累又餓，便在最近的一家旅店里找了個住宿的地方。”孩子們卻將“找了個住宿的地方”理解為，游客們在那家旅店里撿到了一些二十五美分的硬幣呢！而且，有一次我正在給孩子們介紹威尼斯的“嘆息橋”，并且描述那

imagination, suggested it might be because they used“scythes”；and a fourth child said，“Because it belonged to a man named‘Cy.'”

The study of maps is interesting to almost all children. A map is like a puzzle picture—but new names are hard.And yet geography without either name or place is not geography at all.It is only fairyland.The study of maps and names is therefore absolutely essential and large wall maps most desirable.

Geography lends itself admirably to research on the part of the child. A large scrap-book arranged by countries may easily be filled with current pictorial news, clippings from magazines and Sunday newspapers, and from the circulars of travel bureaus.There is a wealth of such scrap-book material almost constantly being published—pictures of temples in India, wild animal hunts in Africa, parks in Paris—from which the child can compile his own Geographic Magazine.Furthermore, the collection of stamps offers a most attractive field, particularly for the boy just reaching the age when such collections are as absorbing as an adult hobby.

Of course, the best way to learn geography is by travel but not like that of the business man who landed in Rome with one hour to see the city. Jumping into a taxi and referring to a slip of paper, he said：“There are only two things I want to see here—St.Peter's and the Colosseum.Drive to them as fast as you can and back to the station.”He was accordingly driven to St.Peter's.Sticking his head out of the window he said to the driver，“Well, which is this?”

些已經定罪、經過該橋的囚犯。我隨口問他們，看誰能跟我說一說，這座橋為什么會叫作“嘆息橋”。一個男孩回答道：“是因為它的尺寸非常巨大。”一個小姑娘嘲笑那個男孩很無知，說道：“是因為這座橋有側面。”還有一個鄉下來的男孩子，他的想象力實在牽強得很，認為可能是因為那些囚犯用的是“長柄大鐮刀”。第四個孩子則說：“因為那座橋是屬于一個叫作‘賽’的人。”

學習地圖的時候，差不多所有孩子都覺得很有意思。一幅地圖，就像是一幅拼圖。可地圖上的新名稱，記起來卻很不容易。不過，要是沒有名稱或者地點，地理就根本不成其為地理，只是仙境了。因此，學習地圖和地名絕對必要，而那種大型的掛圖也是最合適的。

就孩子而言，地理其實極其適合于他們來進行研究。一本列有各國國名的大型剪貼簿，可以輕而易舉地用當前的圖片新聞、從雜志和周日報紙以及旅行社散發的傳單上摘取下來的剪報填滿。如今，人們幾乎經常出版有許多這樣的剪貼簿材料，比如印度寺廟的圖片、在非洲狩獵野生動物的圖片、巴黎各大公園的照片。孩子們可以用這些材料，匯編出一本屬于自己的《地理雜志》來。此外，集郵也是一件極其吸引孩子們的事情，而對于那些剛剛達到一定年齡的男孩子來說，收集某種物品尤其有吸引力，他們甚至可能將這種業余愛好帶到成人階段。

當然，學習地理的最佳辦法還是旅行，不過，這種旅行可不像是商人急急忙忙

In the little town where I was born, there lived an old, old man whose chief claim to distinction was the fact that he had never in his whole life been ten miles away from home. Nowadays travel is so easy that every child may look forward to traveling some day.This book is to give him some inkling of what there is to see, so that his travel may not be as meaningless as that of the simple sailor who goes round the world and returns with nothing but a parrot and a string of glass beads.

地到達羅馬，只有一個小時看看那座城市那樣。商人會跳上一輛出租車，看著一張紙條，說：“我只想看看這里的兩個地方：圣彼得大教堂和圓形競技場。盡快開到這兩個地方，然后趕回車站來。”于是，出租車便會帶著他來到圣彼得大教堂。他把頭伸出車窗，然后問司機：“哦，這是哪兒呀？”

在我出生的那個小鎮里，有一個年紀很大、很大的老人，他最主要的與眾不同之處，便是一生中從未到過離家超出十英里遠的地方。如今，旅行已經變得非常容易，因此每個孩子可能都會渴望著自己將來哪天出去旅行。本書的目的，就是為了讓孩子有個模糊的概念，知道到了那時他們可以看些什么，以便不讓這種旅行變得毫無意義，不像那些愚笨的水手一樣：他們雖說周游了整個世界，回來時卻只帶了一只鸚鵡、一串玻璃念珠，其余什么也沒有。