Level/难度等级: Level 4 专业, ESL BC, CEFR ,A2B1;国内:初中 高中,词汇：516个
mp3/听力:慢速
To LÉON WERTH
I apologise to children for dedicating this book to a grown-up. But I have a good excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have ever had. I have another excuse too: this grown-up understands everything, even books for children. And I have a third excuse: this grown-up lives in France where he is hungry and cold and needs comforting. If these reasons are not enough, I should like to dedicate this book to the child this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children once (but most of them have forgotten). So I will alter my dedication:
To LÉON WERTH WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY
献给莱翁·维尔特
请孩子们原谅我把这本书献给了一个大人。我有一条正当的理由：这个大人是我在世界上最好的朋友。我另有一条理由：这个大人什么都懂；即使儿童读物也懂。我还有第三条理由；这个大人住在法国，忍冻挨饿。他很需要有人安慰。要是这些理由还不够充分，我就把这本书献给这个大人曾经做过的孩子。每人大人都是从做孩子开始的。（然而，记得这事的又有几个呢？）因此，我把我的献词改为：
献给童年时代的莱翁·维尔特
Chapter 1
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
在我还只有六岁的时候，在一本书中看到了一副精彩的插画，这本书的内容是关于原始森林的，名叫《来自大自然的真实故事》。这副插画画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。页头上就是那副画的摹本。
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion .”
书上写道：“这些蟒蛇不加咀嚼地把猎物囫囵吞下，然后就不能再动弹了；它们在六个月的漫长睡眠中消化这些食物。”
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:
当时，我对丛林奇遇无比着迷，于是，我用彩色铅笔练习画画，终于完成了我的第一副图画。我的第一号作品。它是这样的：
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
我把这副杰作拿给大人们看，问他们怕不怕我的画。
But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”
可是他们却说：“害怕？一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
我画的不是帽子。那是一条巨蟒吞食了一头大象后，在消化它。但是大人们不明白，我就又把巨蟒肚子里的情况画了出来，以便让大人们能够看懂。他们总是需要解释一些事情。我的第二号作品是这样的：
The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
大人们这次的反应，是劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的，或闭上肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，而是专心学习地理、历史、算术、语法。就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了 当画家这一美好的职业。我的第一号、第二号作品的不成功，使我很沮丧。大人们看问题总是循规蹈矩，还得不断地给他们作解释，这真叫孩子们腻味。
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机，世界各地差不多都飞过。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑那。要是 夜里迷失了航向，这是很有用的。
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately , close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.
这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多严肃的人有过很多的接触。我在大人们中间 生活过很长时间。我仔细地观察过他们，但这并没有使我对他们的看法有多大的 改变。
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:
“That is a hat.”
当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时，我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一 号作品来测试测试他。我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。可是，得到的回答总是：“这是顶帽子。”
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。我只得迁就他们的水平，和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。