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Lesson 14 A CUP OF TEA
第十四課 一杯茶
After you have had your tea tonight, ask your mother to let you turn out the tea-leaves from the tea-pot into a basin of water. Spread these leaves out, and wash them in some fresh water.
小朋友, 今天晚上, 你喝完茶以后, 請讓媽媽把茶壺給你, 把壺里的茶葉倒進一盆水里面。把這些茶葉分出來, 用清水洗干凈。
Try to pick out some whole leaves, and gum down any you can find on a piece of card. They will look something like this. The leaves are dark brown in colour. They have jagged edges, and are pointed at each end.
把幾片完整的茶葉挑出來, 都黏到一張卡片上。茶葉看起來就應該是這個樣子, 顏色是深棕色的, 邊上有鋸齒, 兩頭都是尖的。
When we make tea, we put some tea-leaves into a tea-pot, and then pour boiling water on them. The juice of the tea-leaves makes the water brown. This brown water is the tea we drink.
我們泡茶的時候, 先往茶壺里放點兒茶葉, 然后倒上開水。茶葉里的汁液會讓水變成棕色, 這種棕色的水, 就是我們喝的茶了。
Can we use these tea-leaves over again? No; the boiling water has taken all the strength or taste out of them.
我們能用這些茶葉再泡一次茶么? 不能了。開水已經把茶葉的“精華”和香味帶走了。
But where did the tea-leaves come from? They are the leaves of the tea - plant, a shrub which grows well in China and India. It has dark-green leaves and a pretty white flower. THE TEA-PLANT（茶樹的局部）
可是, 茶葉是從哪兒來的呢? 茶葉是茶樹的葉子, 茶樹是一種灌木, 在中國和印度有很多。茶樹的葉子是暗綠色的, 花是一種漂亮的白花。
The leaves are picked two or three times a year by girls and women. They are first dried in the sun, next roasted in big iron pans, and then rolled on long tables by hand or by a machine.
一年有兩三次, 女孩子們跟婦女們把茶葉采下來, 先在太陽下曬干, 然后用大鐵鍋炒熟, 再用手或者機器, 在長長的桌子上, 把一片片茶葉卷起來。
The tea is then packed in boxes called tea-chests, and brought in ships to this country. Tea has been used in Britain for two hundred years; but it is not very long since it became cheap.
人們再把茶葉裝進茶葉箱里, 用船運到英國來。在英國, 人們已經喝了兩百年的茶, 但直到最近, 茶葉的價錢才變得便宜。
Long ago, when ships came from China with tea, they had to sail round Africa, and this took them many months. The captains used to have races every year to see who would land his tea first in London, because the one who came first got the best price for it. Tea is now brought from China by steamships in a few weeks, for the steam-ships can come by a much shorter road.
很久以前, 運茶葉的船從中國來英國的時候, 必須繞過非洲, 要走好幾個月才能到。以前的船長們, 每年都舉行比賽, 看誰能第一個把茶運到倫敦, 因為第一個到達的人, 能把茶葉賣出最高的價錢。現在, 我們用蒸汽船從中國運茶葉, 因為蒸汽船可以走一條近得多的路。
Could we not gather some leaves from our hedges, and roast them in a pan, and then roll them up? Yes; but such leaves would not make "tea, " when you poured boiling water on them.
我們能不能從田野邊的樹籬上摘點兒葉子下來, 在鐵鍋里烤干, 再卷起來呢? 能, 但這些葉子, 倒上開水, 也泡不出“茶”來。
The juice of each plant has its own taste, and leaves from the hedges would not have the taste of tea. There are some wild flowers and leaves that poor people used in place of tea long ago, when tea was very dear. But I do not think that we should like them now.
每一種植物的汁液, 都有自己的味道, 樹籬的葉子的味道, 跟茶葉的味道是不一樣的。很久以前, 茶葉還很貴的時候, 窮人曾經把一些野花和野草葉子, 當成茶泡著喝。不過, 我覺得, 現在我們應該不喜歡這些東西了。
