69 Mark Your Territory

CHAPTER 1 What Is Territory? SIZE DOESN'T MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO TERRITORIES. Imagine you are sitting next to a stranger at a movie theater. There is one armrest between the two of you. Whose armrest is it? Do you claim the whole thing? Do you give it to your neighbor? Do you try to share? Or does your elbow fight a small war with the stranger's? Territories can be small, like the armrest between two chairs. Or they can be far larger, the size of a country or even a planet. Each territory brings the same question: Whose is it? Sometimes the answer is not very simple. For example, look at the land around the Sabine River in eastern Texas, USA. Before Europeans came to North America, it was the territory of the Tawakoni Indians. In the mid-1800s, the Tawakoni were forced to leave by European settlers, and the land was turned into farms.

第一章什么是领土？ 当涉及到领土时，大小并不重要。 想象一下，在电影院，你坐在一个陌生人旁边。 你们俩之间隔着一个扶手。 这是谁的扶手？你认领整个东西吗？ 你会把它送给你的邻居吗？ 你试着分享吗？还是你的手肘和陌生人的手肘打了一场小战争？ 领地可以很小，比如两把椅子之间的扶手。 或者它们可以大得多，有一个国家甚至一个星球那么大。 每一块领土都带来同样的问题：它是谁的？ 有时候答案并不简单。 例如，看看美国德克萨斯州东部萨宾河周围的土地。 在欧洲人来到北美之前，这里是Tawakoni印第安人的领地。 在19世纪中期，Tawakoni一家被欧洲殖民者强迫离开，这片土地变成了农场。

In 1960, the owners changed again. The State of Texas claimed the land and turned it into a state park. The river was damned and the land was flooded to make Lake Tawakoni. But even Texas could not keep all of the land. They lost some of it in 2007. To spiders! One morning, workers at the park found a giant web. It was bigger than two soccer fields. Thousands of spiders had claimed the area as their territory. People came from all over the country to see the amazing web. Several times the web was destroyed by bad weather, but again and again the spiders rebuilt it. What territories do you claim? Do you own a house or an apartment? Maybe it's a desk in a classroom where you always sit. Or maybe it's a garden with a fence around it to keep animals out. Think about your territory. Is it yours? Would you fight to keep it? Would you even fight spiders?

1960年，老板又换了。 德克萨斯州声称拥有这片土地，并将其变成了州立公园。 这条河被诅咒了，土地被淹没，形成了塔瓦阔尼湖。 但即使是德克萨斯也不能保留所有的土地。 他们在2007年失去了一部分。 蜘蛛!一天早上，公园里的工人们发现了一张巨大的网。 它比两个足球场还大。 成千上万的蜘蛛声称这片地区是它们的领地。 人们从全国各地赶来观看这张惊人的网。 有几次，这张网被坏天气破坏了，但蜘蛛一次又一次地把它重建起来。 你们主张哪些领土？ 你有房子或公寓吗？ 也许是你经常坐的教室里的桌子。 或者它可能是一个花园，周围有栅栏，可以防止动物进入。 想想你的领地。 是你的吗？你会为保住它而战吗？ 你会和蜘蛛战斗吗？

CHAPTER 2 Turf HOW DO YOU MARK YOUR TURF? If you wish to own land in California today, you'll need a lot of money. If you wished to own land there in 1849, you only needed four stakes. The year 1849 was the beginning of the California Gold Rush. That was when news of Californian gold traveled around the world. Nearly 100,000 people hurried to the area hoping to get rich. If you were one of them, you needed to bring four wooden stakes. At the time, land in California was free. Miners claimed their territory by placing four stakes in the ground at the corners. This was called "staking a claim." It meant the territory, and all the gold in that territory, belonged to the person who staked it.

第二章草皮你如何标记你的草皮？ 如果你今天想在加州拥有土地，你需要很多钱。 在1849年，如果你想在那里拥有土地，你只需要四根木桩。 1849年是加利福尼亚淘金热的开始。 就在那时，加利福尼亚黄金的消息传遍了世界。 近10万人涌向该地区，希望借此致富。 如果你是他们中的一员，你需要带四根木桩。 当时，加州的土地是免费的。 矿工们在角落的地上放了四个木桩，以此宣称他们的领土。 这就是所谓的“划清界限”。 这意味着这块土地，以及这块土地上所有的黄金，都属于在这块土地上下注的人。

The phrase "stake a claim" is still used today. If you stake a claim, you identify something as belonging to you. In the beginning, there were few laws about land claims. People could make small or large claims, or even stake a claim to many different areas at once. There were even people who came in later and took over other miners' claims. These people were called claim jumpers, and were disliked by nearly everyone. It's easy to see why claim jumpers would be disliked, but who were the real claim jumpers? Before Europeans came to the area, California belonged to Native Americans. Over 50 different tribes lived in that area. When gold was found there, miners came and took the lands away from the Native Americans. Many tribes were forced to move to camps far away from their original land.

“断言”这个短语至今仍在使用。 如果你断言某物是属于你的，你就认定它是属于你的。 一开始，几乎没有关于土地所有权的法律。 人们可以提出或大或小的要求，甚至可以同时对许多不同的领域提出要求。 甚至有人后来进来，接管了其他矿工的所有权。 这些人被称为索赔跳楼者，几乎所有人都不喜欢他们。 很容易理解为什么索赔跳楼者不受欢迎，但谁是真正的索赔跳楼者呢？ 在欧洲人来到这个地区之前，加州属于美洲原住民。 超过50个不同的部落生活在那个地区。 当在那里发现黄金时，矿工们来到这里，从印第安人手中夺走了土地。 许多部落被迫搬到远离原始土地的营地。

The word turf means "grass," but it is also another name for "territory." Throughout history, people have had different ways to mark their turf. They may place a fence around their house or yard. They may draw a line on a map or place a flag in the ground. They may place a name on a parking space or office door. These markers identify their turf. When people mark their turf, they expect others to respect it, but this does not always happen. During the Gold Rush, people often argued over claims, especially claims with large amounts of gold. Sometimes these arguments turned violent. Arguments over larger territories, such as countries, can turn into wars. Even claiming small turfs can be the start of a bigger fight. Turf wars can happen over almost anything, even ice cream.

turf这个词的意思是“草”，但它也是“领土”的另一种说法。 纵观历史，人们有不同的方式来标记自己的地盘。 他们可能会在房子或院子周围围上栅栏。 他们可以在地图上画一条线，或者在地上插一面旗帜。 他们可能会把名字写在停车位或办公室的门上。 这些标记标明了它们的地盘。 当人们标记自己的地盘时，他们希望别人尊重它，但这并不总是发生。 在淘金热期间，人们经常为所有权而争论，尤其是对大量黄金的所有权。 有时这些争论演变成暴力。 对更大领土（如国家）的争论可能演变成战争。 即使是小地盘的主张也可能是一场更大斗争的开始。 地盘之争几乎可以发生在任何东西上，甚至是冰淇淋。

Like most places in the world, in New York City, ice cream is a summertime favorite. Ice cream trucks sometimes drive around parts of the city, but more often they simply stay in one place and sell ice cream to the neighborhood children and adults. Ice cream truck drivers are very serious about their turf and they don't like to share. Stories of drivers getting into fights or damaging each other's trucks are common. New trucks that enter another driver's turf can have their windows broken or tires cut. In one case, a new driver told the police that another driver had pointed a gun at him. Of course, the reason for ice cream truck turf wars is money. Sharing turf means sharing money. In a New York summer, that may mean losing over a thousand dollars per day.

像世界上大多数地方一样，在纽约，冰淇淋是夏天的最爱。 冰淇淋卡车有时会在城市的部分地区行驶，但更多的时候它们只是停留在一个地方，向附近的儿童和成年人出售冰淇淋。 冰淇淋卡车司机非常重视自己的地盘，他们不喜欢分享。 司机打架或损坏对方卡车的故事很常见。 新卡车进入另一个司机的地盘可能会打碎窗户或剪断轮胎。 在一起案件中，一名新司机告诉警方，另一名司机用枪指着他。 当然，冰淇淋车争夺地盘的原因是钱。 分享地盘意味着分享金钱。 在纽约的夏天，这可能意味着每天损失一千多美元。