英语听书《海底两万里》第273期 第21章 在陆地上的两天(5)

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　　However, Ned Land still found these provisions inadequate².  可是尼德，兰觉得他的食物还不够。

　　But fortune smiled on him. Just as we were boarding, he spotted³ several trees twenty-five to thirty feet high, belonging to the palm species.  算他走运，他又得了些东西。在我们上小艇的时候，他看见好几棵树，高二十五英尺至三十英尺，属于棕搁一类。

　　As valuable as the artocarpus, these trees are justly ranked among the most useful produce in Malaysia. 这些树跟面包树一样有用，一样宝贵，正是马来亚地方最有用的产物之一。

　　They were sago palms, vegetation that grows without being cultivated; like mulberry trees, they reproduce by means of shoots and seeds. 这是西米树，是不用种植就生长起来的植物，像桑树那样，由于自己的嫩枝和种子，不需人工，自然繁殖滋长。

　　Ned Land knew how to handle these trees.  尼德·兰知道对付这些树的方法。

　　Taking his ax and wielding⁴ it with great vigor⁵, he soon stretched out on the ground two or three sago palms,  他拿出斧子，挥动起来，不久就把两三棵西米树砍倒在地下，

　　whose maturity⁶ was revealed by the white dust sprinkled over their palm fronds⁷. 从洒在叶上的白粉屑来看，这几棵树是很成熟了。

　　I watched him more as a naturalist⁸ than as a man in hunger.  我看着他砍树，与其说是拿饿肚人的眼光看，

　　He began by removing from each trunk an inch-thick strip of bark that covered a network of long, hopelessly tangled⁹ fibers¹⁰ that were puttied with a sort of gummy flour.  不如说是拿生物学家的眼光看。他把每一根树干剥去一层厚一英寸的表皮，表皮下面是缠绕作一团的结子所组成的长长纤维网，上面就粘着胶质护膜般的细粉。

　　This flour was the starch-like sago, an edible¹¹ substance chiefly consumed by the Melanesian peoples. 这粉就是西米，就是作为美拉尼西亚居民粮食的主要食物。

　　For the time being, Ned Land was content to chop these trunks into pieces, as if he were making firewood;  尼德·兰此刻只是把树干砍成片，像他砍那要烧的劈柴一般，准备将来提取树干上的粉，

　　later he would extract the flour by sifting¹² it through cloth to separate it from its fibrous ligaments, let it dry out in the sun, and leave it to harden inside molds. 让粉通过一块薄布，使它跟纤维丝分开，把它晾在太阳下，让水汽干了，然后把它放在模中，让它凝固起来。

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