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There are two kinds of coal.
煤有兩種。
One is called hard and the other is called soft.
一種叫硬煤，一種叫軟煤。
Soft coal doesn't mean soft like a cushion; it means it crumbles easily.
軟煤并不是說它像墊子一樣柔軟；而是說它容易破碎。
Hard coal is the best; soft coal is dirtier and smokier, but is a great deal cheaper.
硬煤是最好的，而軟煤更污染環(huán)境，冒出的煙也更多，但比硬煤要便宜很多。
Why is it that the best things almost always cost the most?
為什么最好的東西總是價格最高呢？
In the eastern part of Pennsylvania the coal thatncomes out of the ground is hard；in the western part it is soft.
賓夕法尼亞東部產(chǎn)出的煤是硬煤，西部產(chǎn)出的是軟煤。
Hundreds of thousands of men, called miners, work underneath the ground, where it is like night all day-long,
成千上萬叫做礦工的人，在地底下挖煤，那里從早到晚好像都是黑夜，
digging out the coal to run steam-engines and to heat our houses.
他們挖出煤用以運轉(zhuǎn)蒸汽機(jī)，給我們的房子供熱。
They have been digging away for years and years, so that there are huge hollow places underneath parts of Pennsylvania.
這些礦工們年復(fù)一年地挖掘煤礦使得現(xiàn)在賓夕法尼亞地下有些地方成了一個個大洞。
Coal is in layers underneath the ground and between layers of rock like the chocolate in a chocolate layer-cake.
煤炭在地下是一層層分布在巖石之間，就像巧克力夾心蛋糕中的巧克力一樣。
But there are also iron mines in Pennsylvania, and iron is not in layers;
但是在賓夕法尼亞還有鐵礦藏，鐵不是分層的，
it is all mixed through the rock under the ground and is called ore.
而是和地下的巖石混為一體，叫做礦石。
To get the iron out of the ore, men build huge fires under the ore and the iron melts and runs out,like water, into troughs which they make in the ground to catch it.
為了把鐵從礦石中提煉出來，人們生起大火，把礦石放在上面燒，鐵熔化成鐵水從礦石里流出來，流入地上的槽中，那是人們?yōu)榻幼¤F水事先在地上挖好的。
When the iron cools, the blocks of iron are called pigs—perhaps because they are about the size of pigs—or perhaps because a pig goes into a trough.
鐵水冷卻后形成的鐵塊叫生鐵一也許是因為它們和豬的大小差不多，或者因為豬也到槽里吃食。
To get iron out of iron ore you must have heat, and to have heat you must have something to make heat with, like coal.
要把鐵從礦石中提煉出來就得有熱量，要有熱量就得有像煤那樣的東西來產(chǎn)生熱量。
Some places have iron ore but no coal, and some places have coal but no iron.
有的地方有鐵礦卻沒有煤炭，而有的地方有煤炭卻沒有鐵礦。
It is as if some boys who wanted to play baseball had a ball but no bat, and some other boys had a bat but no ball.
就好像有的男孩想打棒球卻只有球沒有球棒，而其他的孩子卻只有球棒沒有球。
But Pittsburgh, in the western part of Pennsylvania, had both iron and coal near-by.
賓夕法尼亞西部的匹 茲堡附近既有鐵礦又有煤炭，
That is like boys who have both a bat and a ball.
就像有些男孩既有球棒又有球一樣。
From the ore they make iron, and from the iron they make steel,
人們從礦石中提煉出了鐵，將鐵制成了鋼，
and from the steel they make rails for railroad tracks and beams for tall buildings and bridges to cross rivers.
用鋼造出鐵路的鐵軌、高樓的橫梁和跨河的橋梁。
