and hang it point downwards from a strip of wood placed across the top of a wide-mouthed bottle, or a pickle-glass, or a tumbler, half full of water.

然后尖头朝下悬挂在一片横放在装有半瓶水的宽口瓶、泡菜瓶或平底玻璃杯口的木片之上。

The point of the acorn should barely touch the top of the water;

橡子的尖端应该正好与水面接触;

and you must add a little water from time to time to keep the liquid up to this mark.

你必须要经常往瓶中加水, 确保水位保持平稳。

It is best to hang up the acorn by threads of cotton.

最好使用棉线来悬挂橡子。

Keep the glass in the dark till the acorn begins to sprout,

你需要将瓶子放在黑暗处, 直到橡子开始发芽。

and then you may place it on your mantel-piece and watch it slowly change into a little oak-tree.

随后, 就可以把它放在壁炉架上, 看着它逐渐成长为一棵小橡树。

The "oak-apples, " or little brown balls about the size of marbles, which you see on some oak-trees, are not the fruit of the tree,

有时候, 你可以在一些橡树上看到弹珠大小的棕色小球, 这些“树瘿”古译“橡树的苹果”, 可不是橡树的果实,

but "galls, " or swellings of the bark, produced by certain insects which lay their eggs in the bark of trees.

它们实际上是“虫瘿”, 或者说是树皮上的突起。这是因为有些昆虫在树皮上产卵所致。

Have you ever seen boys wearing oak-leaves in their hats on the 29th of May?

你有没有看到过孩子们在5月29日这天头戴橡树叶做成的帽子呢?

This is the date on which Charles the Second entered London, in the year 1660.

1660年的这一天, 查理二世来到了伦敦。

He had been forced by his enemies to leave England for a time, and he had on one occasion escaped by climbing into an oak-tree.

在敌人的逼迫下, 他有一段时间不得不暂时离开英格兰。有一次, 他就是躲到了橡树的树洞里才躲过了劫难。

英语美文