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Whenever it was possible, I touched the machinery while it was in motion, so as to get a clearer idea how the stones were weighed, cut, and polished. I searched in the washings for a diamond and found it myself—the only true diamond, they said, that was ever found in the United States.
只要有可能，我都會摸一摸正在運轉的機器，這樣我就能更清晰地感受到礦石有多重，它們又是如何被切割被拋光的。我還親自摸索到了一塊正在清洗之中的鉆石——人們告訴我說，這是在美國發現的唯一一顆真正的鉆石。
Dr. Bell went everywhere with us and in his own delightful way described to me the objects of greatest interest. In the electrical building we examined the telephones, autophones, phonographs, and other inventions, and he made me understand how it is possible to send a message on wires that mock space and outrun time, and, like Prometheus, to draw fire from the sky. We also visited the anthropological department, and I was much interested in the relics of ancient Mexico, in the rude stone implements that are so often the only record of an age—the simple monuments of nature's unlettered children (so I thought as I fingered them) that seem bound to last while the memorials of kings and sages crumble in dust away—and in the Egyptian mummies, which I shrank from touching. From these relics I learned more about the progress of man than I have heard or read since.
貝爾博士陪我們參觀了所有的地方，他以令人愉快的方式向我描述了最有趣的展品。在電子大廈，我們試用了電話機、對講機、留聲機和其他發明。貝爾博士讓我明白了信息是如何突破了空間和時間的羈絆而在電線上傳播的，這就像普羅米修斯將火種帶到了人間一樣偉大。我們還參觀了人類學展區，我對古代墨西哥文物產生了濃厚興趣。粗糙的石器是那個時代僅有的記錄，也是未開化的人類童年時期的簡陋遺物（這是我用手指觸摸后的感想）。一代代君王和圣賢的功勞簿在歷史的塵埃中分崩離析，在埃及的木乃伊中被死亡塵封，但有些遺跡仍有幸留存到現在。通過對這些遺物的觸摸，我更多地了解了人類文明的進化過程，而依靠別人的講解和閱讀是無法領會其中的深意的。
All these experiences added a great many new terms to my vocabulary, and in the three weeks I spent at the Fair I took a long leap from the little child's interest in fairy tales and toys to the appreciation of the real and the earnest in the workaday world.
所有這些經歷令我的詞匯量達到了一個新的水平。我在博覽會耽延了整整三個星期，我從一個沉迷于童話故事和玩具的小孩子，一躍成為懂得欣賞平凡世界真善美的有心人。
