雙語+MP3|美國學生世界歷史48 啟動

48
Getting a Start
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     ENGLAND is just a little island.
     It was quite an unimportant little island in 900 A.D. Much later, England grew rich and strong and, for a while, had an empire spread all over the world.
     England is still just a little island.
     But it is now an important island in the world!
     About one hundred years after Charlemagne-that is, 900-there was a king of England named Alfred. When Alfred was a boy he had a hard time learning to read, for he did not like to study. In those days many of the hand-written books made by the monks had pretty drawings and letters made in bright colors and even in gold. One day Alfred's mother showed such a book to her children and promised to give it to the one who could read it first. That was a game. Alfred wanted to win the book, so, for the first time in his life, he really tried. He studied so hard that in a very short time he had learned to read before his brothers. Alfred won the book.
     When Alfred grew up, England was being troubled by pirates. These pirates were cousins of the English-a Germanic tribe called Danes. The English had long ago become Christians and civilized, but the Danes were still rough and wild. They came over from their own country across the water, landed on the coast of England, robbed the towns and villages, and then sailed back to their homes, carrying off everything valuable they could lay their hands on-like bad boys who climb a farmer's fence and steal apples from his orchard. At last the Danes became so bold that they didn't even run away after robbing the country; they were like the bad boys who stick out their tongues and throw stones at the farmer who comes after them. The king's armies went out to punish these pirates, but, instead of beating, they were beaten. It began to look as if these Danes, who were able to do pretty much as they pleased, might conquer England and rule over the English.
     Once when things looked pretty bad for England, King Alfred was without an army. Alone, ragged, tired out, and hungry, he came to the hut of a shepherd and asked for something to eat. The shepherd's wife was baking some cakes by the fire, and she told Alfred he should have one if he watched them while she went out to milk the cow. Alfred sat down by the fire, but in thinking about what he could do to beat the Danes he forgot all about the cakes, and when the shepherd's wife returned they were all burned. Thereupon she scolded him roundly and drove him off, not knowing that it was her king that she was treating in this way, for he never told her who he was.
     Alfred decided that the best way to fight the Danes was not on land but on the water, so he set to work to build boats bigger and better than those the Danes had. After a while he had something of a fleet, and the boats he built were bigger than those of the Danes, but they were so big that they could not go into the shallow water without running aground. The Danes' boats, on account of their small size, could go safely close in to shore. In deep water, however, Alfred's fleet was very strong and powerful. This was the first navy that England ever had. England's navy became the largest in the world for a while, and Alfred the Great was the one who started it more than a thousand years ago.
     After fighting with the Danes for many years, Alfred finally thought it best to make an agreement with them and give them a part of England to live in if they would promise to stop stealing and live peaceably. The Danes did agree to this, and they settled down peaceably on the land that Alfred gave them-and then became Christians. Over the years, the Danes and the English married each other and raised families. Eventually they became one nationality and no one knew any more whose ancestors were Danes and whose were English.
     Alfred made very strict laws and severely punished those who did wrong. Indeed, it is said that the people of England were so careful to obey the law in his reign that one might leave gold by the roadside, and no one would steal it.
     Alfred not only built a navy and made wise laws, but he, like Charlemagne, started a school at court for both children and grownups, many of whom were as ignorant as the children. He did many other useful things besides.
     He invented, for instance, a way of telling time by a burning candle. You have heard how wonderful the clock, that which Harun al-Rashid sent to Charlemagne one hundred years before, was thought to be. Although striking clocks are, of course, very common nowadays, it was an extraordinary thing then when there were no clocks nor watches at all in England. Alfred found out how fast candles burned down and marked lines around them at different heights-just the distance apart that they burned in one hour. These were called time-candles.
     Candles were also used for lighting but when they were carried outdoors, they were very likely to be blown out by the wind. So Alfred put the candle inside of a little box, and in order that the light might shine through the box, he made sides of very thin pieces of cow's-horn, as glass then was very scarce.
     Such inventions may seem very small and unimportant, and they are when you think of the marvelous inventions and wonderful machines that are made by the thousands nowadays. These inventions of Alfred were no more than the household ideas for which some magazines now offer only a few dollars apiece. But I have told you about them just to show you how ignorant the English, as well as other Germanic tribes of Europe, were in those days. How much superior were the Arab thinkers with their striking clocks. The English were just getting a start.