part 6

50 We can see why distances between people are not as important now as they were. They may be bridged in so many ways. What is a bridge? Here is a wide river with a bridge over it. The bridge is more than a mile long and is made of steel. It can carry very heavy weights. It is so strong that not only automobiles but trains go across it. It is so high that great ships go under it. Language is a bridge between minds, a bridge so strong that trains of thought can go across. Language can bridge distances.

我们可以看出为什么人与人之间的距离现在不像以前那么重要了。 他们可能在很多方面都有联系。 桥是什么？这里有一条很宽的河，河上有一座桥。 这座桥有一英里多长，是钢制的。 它能扛很重的东西。 它是如此坚固，不仅汽车，而且火车通过它。 它是如此之高，以至于大船可以从它下面经过。 语言是心灵之间的桥梁，一座如此坚固的桥梁，可以让思绪穿越。 语言可以跨越距离。

51 Language can bridge time as well as space. Ideas can go from mind to mind across the language bridge, and they can come from the past to the present. We can read what people before us wrote and keep their books for others to read in the future. Here are some of the great books of all time. Books are the most important records we have of people's thoughts and feelings, their ideas and desires.

语言可以跨越时间和空间。 思想可以跨越语言的桥梁从一个思想传递到另一个思想，它们可以从过去传到现在。 我们可以阅读前人写的东西，并保存他们的书供将来的人阅读。 这里有一些有史以来最伟大的书。 书籍是人们思想感情、观念和欲望的最重要的记录。

52 All people have more in common with all others on earth than most of them know. What do the words "in common" mean? What is their meaning? What do the people in this family have in common? They have their family name in common. They are the Smiths, or the Wangs. They have a house in common; it is their home. The husband and wife have their children in common. In some parts of the world a man may have a number of wives. In other parts a woman may have a number of husbands. In these countries the wives have their husband in common or the husbands have their wife in common. People of the same country have that country in common. It is their country. Every country has a flag. What is the flag of your country?

所有人与地球上其他所有人的共同之处比大多数人所知道的要多。 “in common”是什么意思？ 它们的含义是什么？这个家庭里的人有什么共同点？ 他们有共同的姓氏。 他们是史密斯家，或者是王家。 他们共有一栋房子；这是他们的家。 这对夫妻有共同的孩子。 在世界上的某些地方，一个男人可能有很多妻子。 在其他地方，一个女人可能有好几个丈夫。 在这些国家，妻子和丈夫是共同的，或者丈夫和妻子是共同的。 同一个国家的人有一个共同的国家。 这是他们的国家。每个国家都有国旗。 你们国家的国旗是什么？

53 People who talk the same language have that language in common. It is their language, the language of each and all of them. They have the ideas and feelings about things which that language carries. People who do not talk a language do not know what those who use it are saying. They do not know what its words can mean. They have less in common with those who talk it than those people have with one another. Sometimes, as in India, in one country under one flag people talk many languages. They have their country and their flag in common, but some of them have to learn the language of others if they are to have a language in common.

说同一种语言的人有共同语言。 这是他们的语言，是他们所有人的语言。 他们对语言所承载的事物有想法和感受。 不会说一种语言的人不知道使用这种语言的人在说什么。 他们不知道它的意思。 他们和说这种话的人之间的共同点比那些人彼此之间的共同点要少。 有时，就像在印度，在一个国家，在一个旗帜下，人们说多种语言。 他们有共同的国家和旗帜，但如果他们想要有共同的语言，他们中的一些人必须学习其他人的语言。

54 Talking with someone is saying things to him, hearing what he says and taking in his meaning. People can talk together only when they have a language in common. When you were very young your parents talked to you and after a time you saw what they meant and learned to talk to them. A baby's first words are commonly names for its parents. Some children learn to talk earlier than others. We go on learning our language all our lives. Some people talk more than they think, and some people think more than they talk. Most of our thinking is done through language.

与人交谈就是对他说话，听他说话，领会他的意思。 只有当人们有共同的语言时，他们才能在一起交谈。 当你很小的时候，你的父母和你说话，过了一段时间，你明白了他们的意思，学会了和他们说话。 婴儿的第一句话通常是对父母的称呼。 有些孩子比其他孩子更早学会说话。 我们一生都在学习我们的语言。 有些人说的比想的多，有些人想的比说的多。 我们的大部分思维都是通过语言完成的。

55 There are more than six billion people on the earth and about 2500 languages. Of these languages only about twelve are used by more than 50 million people. Here are the names of some languages which have very wide use: Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Bengali. All these languages have more people talking them today than ever before. Two hundred years ago there were only about twenty million people who talked English, for example. Now there are about five hundred million, and there may be many, many more.

地球上有60多亿人口，大约有2500种语言。 在这些语言中，只有大约12种被超过5000万人使用。 以下是一些使用非常广泛的语言的名称：汉语（普通话和广东话）、英语、法语、德语、印地语、日语、俄语、西班牙语、葡萄牙语、阿拉伯语和孟加拉语。 今天，所有这些语言的使用者都比以往任何时候都多。 例如，200年前，只有大约2000万人说英语。 现在大约有5亿，可能还有很多很多。