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.
這本書是寫給這樣的孩子：他認為天堂在天上，地獄在地下；他從未聽說過倫敦或巴黎，他認為丹麥人是一種狗。這本書將呈現一個旅行者眼中的世界—但不是一個旅行推銷員眼中的世界。這本書將告訴孩子，在地平線以外有什么地方：從“卡拉馬祖到廷巴克圖”。這本書不但給孩子“世界七大奇觀”的故事，還要給他講七十倍于世界七大奇觀的故事。
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.
我小時候在新英格蘭過感恩節，有六種果餡派：蘋果派、桃子派、越橘派、蛋奶派、百果派和南瓜派。但只準我從中選兩種，而我從未能做出讓自己滿意的選擇。在選擇要講述哪些地理上地點和主題時我也遇到了同樣的困難。在這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，有些讀者會奇怪為什么某些國家和某些地方被忽略了，尤其是讀者本人生活的地方。
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.
小的時候，我覺得地理是個令人頭痛的學科，有著那么多令人厭惡的名字—氣候和商業、各種制造業和行業以及產品、產品，還是產品！似乎世界各地的農產品都是玉米、小麥、大麥、黑麥；或者是黑麥、大麥、小麥、玉米；或是大麥、玉米、黑麥、小麥。在我讀的地理課本里，現代希臘部分只有一個段落的敘述—我想，就是因為希臘不產小麥、玉米、大麥、黑麥吧。地理只關心“吃的”的學科，卻忽視了“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.
我愛看地理書上的圖片和地圖，卻討厭讀上面的文字。除了偶爾出現的一段描寫或敘述還能吸引人之外，地理書中的文字統統讓人讀不下去—大堆雜亂無章的大標題、小標題以及小標題下的小標題：家庭作業、注釋、地圖練習題、給老師的建議、輔導、指導、問題、復習、疑難、練習、背誦、課程、圖片習題，等等。
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