雙語+MP3|美國學生世界地理24 越洋之旅

     WHEN you go to Europe you have to take two things with you besides your ticket and your luggage. I wonder if you can guess what they are. You have to take plenty of money, but not of your country, as it wouldn't be any good, but of the kind used in the country to which you are going; and the second thing you have to have is a passport. A passport is a little book with only one picture in it-your own-and very few pages. The reading is not a story-it gives you permission to land in the country to which you are going. It is like a ticket of admission: Admit only the person whose picture is in the book. They won't let you go aboard the ship or airplane unless you have a passport, and they won't let you get off the ship unless you have a passport.
     It is about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from New York, the largest city in the New World, to London, the largest city in the Old World.
     Columbus took over a month to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to America.
     We can cross in less than a week by ship?
     We can cross in less than a day by airplane!
     But there is something that crosses the ocean faster than that and does it every day and is always on time. You would never guess what it is. It's the sun. The sun crosses from London to New York in five hours and does it every day.
     The people in London, when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky over their heads, set their clocks at 12 o'clock-midday. Five hours later the sun has reached New York and the people there set their watches at 12 o'clock too, because that's what 12 o'clock means: "when the sun is highest in the sky." While the sun has been crossing the ocean all the watches and clocks in London have been ticking along, so it is 5 o'clock in London when it is 12 o'clock here in New York. That is, London clocks are five hours ahead of our clocks.
     When you sail for London you have to set your watch ahead each night when you go to bed, so that when you reach London your watch will be five hours ahead of the time you started with. You will then be just right with London time when you reach London. When you sail back you must put your watch back too. If you telephoned to London now at 10 o'clock in the morning and asked them what time it was they would say 3 P. M.
     The clocks on board ship look the same as our clocks at home, but they strike differently. Our clocks, as you know, strike once for 1 o'clock, twice for 2 o'clock, and so on, but on board ship a clock strikes two bells for each hour from 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock, when it strikes eight times. It strikes one bell more for the in-between halves of the hour. Then it starts all over again-one stroke at 4:30, two at 5, and so on-never more than eight strokes altogether.
     "A watch" on board ship doesn't mean only a watch that you put in your pocket. It means something else too. A ship doesn't stop going at night. A ship must keep on going, night as well as day, so the men, the officers and crew who run the ship, take turns at running the ship, as they can't stay awake all the time, and their turns are called "watches," because they must be wide awake and watching when it is their "watch." Some men are running the engines, some are steering the ship, and some are just watching out to see that they do not run into other ships while the others are sleeping.


     How can the captain, when he leaves New York, know the way to go to London, when all the ocean in front of him as far as he can see on every side is just broad flat water or rolling waves or thick fog, with no sign-posts to guide him?
     Right in front of the steering-wheel is a box in which is a little pointer that, no matter how much the ship rises and falls, or twists and turns, or rears and plunges, always points one way. The box with its pointer is called a compass. You know what a magnet is-a little thing like a small horseshoe that pulls needles and nails to it. Well, near the North Pole there is a spot on the World like a magnet and this spot pulls all the compasses on the World toward it. So that spot on the World that pulls all the compasses toward it is called the Magnet-ic pole, though there is no pole. This Magnetic pole is where the stem would be if the World were an orange or an apple, though there is no stem.
     The captain knows from the way the compass points which way he must go to reach England. He doesn't follow the way the compass points-that would bring him to the Magnetic pole.
     When it's fine weather at sea the passengers have a fine time too. They play games, they dance, they take photographs, they write letters and postcards, they read books, they eat five meals a day, they lie in long steamer chairs wrapped up in rugs, and look out over the ocean or talk or sleep. Now and then porpoises, that look like big fishes, swim along the side or just ahead of the ship, and jump out of the water and dive in again, as if they were running a race with the ship. Occasionally a mountain of ice may be seen floating in the sea, many many times bigger than the ship, called an iceberg. It has broken away from the frozen part of the ocean far up north and floated down. And then at times a whale like a little island may rise out of the water, spout a fountain into the air, then sink out of sight again.
     Sometimes, but not often, the sea is so smooth it is like glass, no wind and no waves except those which the ship itself makes. That's why the Atlantic Ocean is sometimes called "The Big Pond." But then again the wind blows, clouds rise, rain pours down, the waves rise up higher and higher until the sea is all moving hills and valleys of water, and the ship pitches up and down and rolls and tosses from side to side. It is necessary to put fences on the dining tables to keep the dishes from sliding off, and of course many people are seasick. The ship slides down one water hill and rises up the next water hill, and, big though it is, seems almost to turn over. But it seldom does turn over or sink unless it runs into an iceberg or another ship and smashes a hole in its side.
     But it isn't rough weather that the captain fears most of all. It is a sea fog, especially when he knows there are other ships near, for when there is a fog he cannot see his way at all. It is like groping your way about in the dark at night, only the ship has no arms. The captain slows the ship down till it barely moves. He starts a big, deep horn a-blowing by clock-work, and it blows about once a minute regularly day and night as long as the fog lasts, which may be for several days, while sailors peer over the ship's side listening and looking. They can hear another ship's fog-horn some distance away, but often they cannot see another ship only a few feet away. When at last the fog clears off, land may be in sight-England.
     We can tell land is near long before we actually see it. How do you suppose? Large white birds called sea-gulls come out to meet the ship, but not as friends come out to welcome you. They are looking for food that they know is dumped overboard from the ship's kitchen. Just before we do land a man comes out in a small boat to meet the big ship. The big ship doesn't stop; it lets down over the side a ladder made of rope and the man grabs hold of the rope, kicks the boat away, and climbs aboard. Who do you suppose he is? Why do you suppose they take him aboard? He is the new captain of the ship. He is called the pilot, and it is his job to bring the ship into the harbor. A big ship is so big it can't sail into the dock itself; it has to have small boats called tug-boats push and pull it. A broad gang-plank is laid like a bridge across from the dock to the deck and the passengers and their baggage go ashore. The people in England speak English, so you can ask questions and understand their answers, though their language sounds strange to us and our language sounds funny to them. They call it "an American accent." You must show your passport and you must open all your bags and let a man examine everything inside before he will let you go on. So you must have nothing you don't want him to see. This man is called a customs officer. You may have to pay for some things you have. This that you have to pay is called a "duty."