V. M. 希利尔（汤敏?译）

V.M.希利尔（1875—1931），美国著名的儿童教育家、科普作家 ，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的世界地理》。

A land where they have the best， the biggest， the finest， the highest， the loveliest of everything—so they say—the best oranges， the biggest prunes， the finest grapes， the tallest trees， the highest mountains， the loveliest weather—i.t.w.w（if the world was）. No， its not Paradise. That s the est， est West—california.

California was named after an island in an old fairy-tale and in many ways the real California is a fairy-tale land. When gold was found in the rivers there， the story sounded like a fairy-tale， but it turned out to be a true tale. Many stories they tell nowadays about California still sound like fairy-tales to people in the East. Who would believe that there are trees in California so tall they seem to brush the sky—trees so big around that men have cut tunnels in them for automobiles to go through—trees so old that they were born before Christ was born！ Its true， there are. They are called Giant Redwoods. How more wonderful than a fairy-tale it would be if those trees could tell us the true story of what has happened in their long lives！

Let us see how many “ests” we can count in California.

California is the longest state in the United States. If you could take up California and put it down on the Atlantic coast it would stretch from Florida to New York.Thats one est.

California has the highest mountain in the United States. It is called Mount Whitney. Thats two ests.

California has the lowest place in America. Its a valley and the valley is more than two hundred feet lower than the ocean. Its so dry and so hot down in this hollow—this lowest spot—that nothing can live there， either animal or vegetable， except horned toads and lizards， both of which animals love heat—the more heat the better for them. Some people say they can even live in fire—but thats a fairy-tale. This low hot valley is called Death Valley. People usually keep away from it， but some men have strayed into it looking for gold and have lost their way， or some who wanted to get to the other side tried to cross it and before they could get out or reach the other side they have died of heat or thirst. Thats why it is called Death Valley. Thats longest， highest， lowest—three ests.

如果有一個地方，什么东西都是最好的、最大的、最美的、最高的、最可爱的，那么这个地方可不可以算作是天堂？在美国，有这么一个地方，那儿有全世界最甜的柑橘、最大的梅子、最好吃的葡萄、最高的树、最雄伟的山，还有最宜人的气候。这个地方不是天堂，而是美国的最最西边——加利福尼亚州。

加利福尼亞州这个名字来自某个童话故事。故事中的某个小岛就叫这个名字。而在现实中的加利福尼亚州，倒的的确确是一个童话般的美妙世界。不过当人们确实在加利福尼亚州发现金子之后，童话故事就变成了真事。即使在今天，很多关于加利福尼亚州的故事，在美国东部的人听起来就像是童话故事一样。谁会相信在加利福尼亚州有一种参天大树，高得几乎要穿过云霄，粗得可以让人在树身上开一个洞，让汽车从洞里开过去。而且，在耶稣诞生之前，这种树就存在了！可是，这是真的。在加利福尼亚真的有这样的大树，它的名字叫作红杉。要是它们能开口说话，就可以把漫长岁月中发生的故事讲给我们听。

让我们看看加利福尼亚州有多少个之最吧。

加利福尼亚州是美国最长的州。如果你把加利福尼亚州挪到美国东海岸，那么它能从北面的纽约州一直延伸到南面的佛罗里达州。……