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The World is Growing Smaller
世界越來越小
The world is growing smaller.
世界越來越小。
Perhaps you don't believe it.
也許你不相信。
Well, it took Christopher Columbus sixty-nine days to cross the Atlantic Ocean, when traveling just as fast as anyone could in those days.
克里斯托弗·哥倫布花了69天橫渡大西洋，他的速度在當時是最快的。
But Charles Lindbergh crossed the ocean in less than two days.
但查爾斯·林德伯格在不到兩天的時間里橫渡了大洋。
The Atlantic must have grown smaller!
大西洋一定是變小了！
When President Lincoln was killed, only about seventy years ago,
約70年前林肯總統被殺時，
it was seven days before the people in California learned about what had happened, although the news was rushed across our country with the greatest speed.
盡管這個消息已經以最快的速度傳遍了全國，但是7天后加利福尼亞的人們才知道發生了什么。
But today you can sit in your home here in America and listen to a man talking in Germany, or England, or Italy.
但如今，在美國你可以坐在家里，聽到德國、英國或意大利的講話。
Admiral Byrd, far down at the bottom of the world, told us almost every day what his men were doing.
遠在地心的海軍上將伯德，幾乎每天都在告訴我們他的人在做什么。
Yes, it does seem as though our world is growing smaller.
是的，我們的世界似乎正變得越來越小。
It seems also that we are living closer together than people did one hundred years ago.
似乎我們比一百年前的人們住得更近了。
Why? You have probably already guessed the answer.
為什么？你可能已經猜到答案了。
Because men have learned things and invented machines—
因為人類學到了東西，發明了機器——
machines that make it possible for people to move rapidly from place to place and to send messages with lightning speed.
使人們能夠快速地從一個地方移動到另一個地方，以閃電般的速度發送信息的機器。
You are going to read about how men travel and send messages.
你將會了解到人是如何旅行和發送信息的。
You will learn of Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic trip,
你將了解到海軍上將伯德的南極之旅，
how brave dogs and men carried medicine over ice and snow to save lives in the far North,
了解到勇敢的狗狗和人類如何在冰雪中攜帶藥物拯救遙遠北方的生命，
how the mail was carried before the railroads came,
鐵路來之前，郵件是如何運輸的，
and how Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris.
林德伯格又是如何從紐約飛到巴黎的。
As you read these stories, think of how progress in transportation and communication makes the world grow smaller.
當你讀到這些故事時，想想交通和通訊的進步是如何讓世界變得越來越小的。
