PET3 公共英语三级阅读资料 第一课 Mister Imagination

Mister Imagination 先生想象力

There were very few places in the world that Jules Verne, the writer, did not visit. He went round the world a hundred times or more. Once he did it in eighty days, unheard of in the nineteenth century. He voyaged sixty thousand miles under the sea, toured around the moon, explored the center of the earth, and chatted with natives in Australia.

在这个世界上很少有地方是作家儒勒·凡尔纳没有游览过的。他周游世界100次以上。听说在十九世纪他曾经80天环游世界。他在海底航行六万英里,他环游过月球,探索了地球的中心,在澳大利亚和土著聊天。

Jules Verne, the man, was a stay-at-home. He was more likely to be tired from writing than from traveling. He did make a few visits to Europe and North Africa. And he made one six-week tour of New York State. But that was all. He spent less than one of his seventy-seven years really traveling. Yet he was the world’s most extraordinary tourist.

儒勒·凡尔纳是一个宅男。比起旅游他更容易从写作中变得疲劳。他几次游览了欧洲和北非。他花了六周在纽约州旅行。但这就是全部了。他花了不到77年在真正的旅行上。他是世界上最伟大的旅行家。

His books are crowded with hunting and fishing expeditions. Jules actually went hunting only once. Then he raised his gun and shot off the guard’s hat! 他的书都都是有关了打猎和钓鱼。儒勒其实只去了打猎一次。然后他举起枪,击中了卫兵的帽子!

He never held a test tube in his hand. But he was an inspiration to the scientist in the laboratory. Long before radio was invented, he had TV working in his books.

His name for it was phone-telephoto. He had helicopters fifty years before the Wright brothers flew their first plane at Kitty Hawk. In fact, there were few wonders of the twentieth century that this man of the nineteenth century did not foresee. In his stories you can read about neon lights, moving sidewalks, air-conditioners, skyscrapers,

guided missiles, tanks, electrically operated submarines, and airplanes. 他从来没有把试管拿在手里过。但是对于科学家们来说他是实验室的灵感。在广播发明之前很久，他的书里就有电视机工作。他的名字是电话长焦。莱特兄弟在基蒂霍克飞他们的第一架直升机的五十年前他的书里就有直升机了。事实上,只有为数不多的20世纪的奇迹是这个男人没有预见的。在他的故事中,你可以读到霓虹灯、人行道、空调、摩天大楼、导弹、坦克、电控潜水艇和飞机。

Many people took his ideas seriously. One reason was that he wrote about these wonderful things in such exact details. Learned men would argue with him. Experts in mathematics would spend weeks checking his figures. When his book about going to the moon was published, five hundred persons volunteered for the next expedition.

很多人都很认真地对待他的想法。原因之一是,他描写关于这些美好的东西有具体细节。有学问的人要跟他争论。数学专家会花几个星期去检查他的数据。当他去月球的书出版,有五百人愿意去下一次的探险。

Perhaps the best known of all his books is Around the World in Eighty Days. It first appeared as a serial in a Paris newspaper. Its hero had made a bet that he could circle the globe in eighty days, and his progress aroused great interest. 也许最著名的书是八十天环游世界。这个系列最早刊登在巴黎的报纸。它的英雄打赌,他能八十天环游地球,他的进步引起人们极大的兴趣。

In every country of Europe people made bets on whether the imaginary Mr. Fogg would arrive in London in time to win his bet. Verne kept the popular interest alive. His hero rescued a widow from death and fell in love with her. He was attacked by Indians while crossing the American plains. Arriving in New York, he saw the ship that was to take him to England disappearing over the horizon without him. 欧洲的每个国家人们都在打赌福格先生是否能及时到达伦敦来赢得他的赌约。凡尔纳使这个兴趣一直流行。他的英雄救了一个寡妇使她脱离死亡,并爱上了她。他是被印第安人袭击而穿越美国平原。到达纽约时,他看到了那艘把他带到英国的船没有带上他就消失在了地平线上。

All the big steamship companies offered Verne large sums of money if he would put Fogg on one of their ships. The author refused. Instead, he had Fogg charter a ship. As the world held its breath, Fogg reached London with only minutes to spare.

如果福格上他们的一艘船，所有的大轮船公司都将给凡尔赛提供大笔的钱。这个作者拒绝了，相反，他租了一艘船。整个世界都屏住了呼吸,福格在只剩下几分钟的时候到达了伦敦。

Many of Verne’s other books were set in the future. In these stories, people made diamonds and developed a kind of automobile-ship-helicopter-plane. They received news flashes on televisions, worked in giant skyscrapers, and rode to work on highways much like the ones we ride today. It is hard to believe that the books were written nearly on hundred years ago.

凡尔纳其他的很多著作将在未来出版。在这些故事,人们制造钻石,研制了航空母舰。他们在电视上接收新闻画面,在高耸入云的摩天大楼里工作,在高速公

路上驾车去上班，很像今天的人们。很难相信,书是写于在100年前。

Jules Verne had lived to see many of his fancies come true. But this had not surprised him, for he had once said: “ What one man can imagine, another man can do.”

儒勒?凡尔纳曾看到很多他的幻想成真。但这并不奇怪,因为他曾说过:“一个人能够想象的事,是另一个人能做的。”

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