"Could you dig down as deep as the Washington Monument goes up?" he asked. I thought perhaps I could, but I was a little doubtful for the Washington Monument seemed terribly high. “Men have dug wells many times as deep as the Washington Monument,” my father told me, “but never all the way nor nearly all the way through the World. You would have to dig many thousands of times deeper than the Washington Monument to get down even to the center of the World. It's eight thousand miles straight through the earth and most all the way is rock—just rock, and more rock, that's all." Then I gave it up.
“你能在地下挖出華盛頓紀念碑那么高的深度嗎？”他問我。我想也許我能，但是我有點不確定，因為華盛頓紀念碑看起來真是高得怕人。“人們挖過比華盛頓紀念碑還要高很多倍的深井，”爸爸告訴我，“但是從來沒有人挖通，或者接近挖通過世界。要挖到世界的中心，你就得挖上比華盛頓紀念碑還要深幾千倍的深度才行。從世界的一面直穿到另一面有八千英里，而這中間幾乎全是巖石，巖石，還是巖石，就是這樣。”于是我放棄了。
"How do you know it's eight thousand miles if no one has ever been through the World?" asked the inquisitive child. I don't know what my father answered. I was too young to understand. I wonder if you are too young, if I tell you how we know it's eight thousand miles; for without ever having been through the World, we do know how far it is.
“如果沒有人穿過世界，你怎么知道是八千英里呢？”我這個好奇的孩子又問道。我不記得當時爸爸是怎么回答我的了，我太小了根本聽不懂。我在想如果我告訴你我們是怎么知道那是八千英里的，你是不是太小了而聽不懂。因為沒有人穿過世界，而我們確實知道那有多遠。
This is how we know. It's a funny thing, but every ball whether it is a little ball or a medium-sized ball or a great big ball is always just a little more than three times as big round as it is through. I have often wondered why this was so—why a ball shouldn't be exactly three times or four times or five times as big round as through, but it isn't. You can try it yourself if you don't believe it. Take an apple or an orange and measure it around and then cut it and measure it through.
我們是這樣知道的。很有意思的是，每個球，不管是小球還是中等大的球，還是很大的球，它一周的長度總是垂直深度的三倍多點。我常想為什么是這樣—為什么它一周的長度不正好是垂直深度的三倍、四倍或五倍呢？但確實不是。你如果不相信的話可以自己試一試。拿一個蘋果或橙子，量一量它的一 圈的長度，再把它切開，量一量它垂直的深度。
Now we know the World is a ball a huge ball, and yet as it is a ball it must, like all other balls, be a little more than three times as big around as it is through. It is twenty-five thousand miles round the World, because men have actually measured that.
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