At a little distance from this ship there was a model of the Santa Maria, which I also examined. The captain showed me Columbus’s cabin and the desk with an hour-glass on it. This smallinstrument impressed me most because it made me think how weary the heroic navigator must have felt as he saw the sand dropping grain by grain while desperate men were plotting against his life.

　　海盗船附近还有一艘“圣玛利亚”号仿制帆船。“船长”领我参观了哥伦布住的船舱，其中，放在桌子上的一个沙漏给我留下了深刻印象。这个小巧的仪器让我想到了这位伟大的航海家所承受的巨大考验，在身心疲惫的状况下，他要看着沙粒一点一点滴落;与此同时，他还要同内心的绝望情绪作顽强的抗争。

　　Mr. Higinbotham, President of the World’s Fair, kindly gave me permission to touch the exhibits, and with an eagerness as insatiable as that with which Pizarro seized the treasures of Peru, I took in the glories of the Fair with my fingers. It was a sort of tangible kaleidoscope, this white city of the West. Everything fascinated me, especially the French bronzes. They were so lifelike, I thought they were angel visions which the artist had caught and bound in earthly forms.

　　希金鲍瑟姆先生是世界博览会的主席，他为人随和并且允许我随意触摸展会上的展品。于是，我就像贪得无厌的皮萨罗掳掠秘鲁的珍宝一样，我用手指“吸纳”了博览会的所有精华。这有点像一个可以触摸的万花筒，每一样东西都让我感到无比新奇，特别是法国的青铜雕像。这些栩栩如生的雕像宛如再现的天使，我想，艺术家们一定是抓住了天使的形象并将其塑造成型的。

　　At the Cape of Good Hope exhibit, I learned much about the processes of mining diamonds. Whenever it was possible, I touched the machinery while it was in motion, so as to get a clearer idea how the stones were weighed, cut, and polished. I searched in the washings for a diamondand found it myself—the only true diamond, they said, that was ever found in the United States.

　　在“好望角”展区，我了解了许多有关钻石开采过程的知识。只要有可能，我都会摸一摸正在运转的机器，这样我就能更清晰地感受到矿石有多重，它们又是如何被切割被抛光的。我还亲自摸索到了一块正在清洗之中的钻石——人们告诉我说，这是在美国发现的唯一一颗真正的钻石。

　　Dr. Bell went everywhere with us and in his own delightful way described to me the objects of greatest interest. In the electrical building we examined the telephones, autophones, phonographs, and other inventions, and he made me understand how it is possible to send a message on wires that mock space and outrun time, and, like Prometheus, to draw fire from the sky. We also visited the anthropological department, and I was much interested in the relics of ancient Mexico, in the rude stone implements that are so often the only record of an age—the simple monuments of nature’s unlettered children (so I thought as I fingered them) that seem bound to last while the memorials of kings and sages crumble in dust away—and in the Egyptian mummies, which I shrank from touching. From these relics I learned more about the progress of man than I have heard or read since.

　　贝尔博士陪我们参观了所有的地方，他以令人愉快的方式向我描述了最有趣的展品。在电子大厦，我们试用了电话机、对讲机、留声机和其他发明。贝尔博士让我明白了信息是如何突破了空间和时间的羁绊而在电线上传播的，这就像普罗米修斯将火种带到了人间一样伟大。我们还参观了人类学展区，我对古代墨西哥文物产生了浓厚兴趣。粗糙的石器是那个时代仅有的记录，也是未开化的人类童年时期的简陋遗物(这是我用手指触摸后的感想)。一代代君王和圣贤的功劳簿在历史的尘埃中分崩离析，在埃及的木乃伊中被死亡尘封，但有些遗迹仍有幸留存到现在。通过对这些遗物的触摸，我更多地了解了人类文明的进化过程，而依靠别人的讲解和阅读是无法领会其中的深意的。

　　All these experiences added a great many new terms to my vocabulary, and in the three weeks I spent at the Fair I took a long leap from the little child’s interest in fairy tales and toys to theappreciation of the real and the earnest in the workaday world.

　　所有这些经历令我的词汇量达到了一个新的水平。我在博览会耽延了整整三个星期，我从一个沉迷于童话故事和玩具的小孩子，一跃成为懂得欣赏平凡世界真善美的有心人。