Susan著 小哭译
一周后，我们家就要去华盛顿特区参观了！事实上，我们是去波士顿看望老朋友，但是一路上会在首都停留，去参观几个地方。妈妈让我在出发前查一些将要参观的地方的信息，这样我们就能做到心中有数，知道参观大概将会如何了。好了，我花了整整一上午的时间在维基百科和其它一些可靠的网站上查阅（呵呵，讲笑的。但是说真的，在你想确认其它网站上的信息时，维基百科是相当值得信赖的），现在我把资料汇总在这里：
美国国会图书馆
自从我看了《国宝》之后，就特别地想了解国会图书馆。这是一个什么样的图书馆呢？是有趣儿的那种，还是无聊的那种？什么人可以从那里借书看呢？又是什么样的人可以进去呢？直到今天，我才拿出行动去查找答案。事实上，这个图书馆的运作非常地简单。
美国国会图书馆是世界上最大的图书馆！！哇！有那么了不起的？我几乎不相信我将要去参观世界上最大的图书馆！我一直都喜欢猎奇，我已经迫不急待地要去感受那令人震撼的图书藏量了。多过1亿五千万种！当然，包括地图、报纸、有声读物等等，甚至更多，所以一亿五千万不仅仅是书籍。就算这样，书也还是非常地多！想像一下吧：国会图书馆的馆藏装满了大约838英尺长的书架，而大英图书馆（世界上第二大的图书馆）的馆藏据说是大约388英尺长的书架。天哪！英尺啊！我已经不能想像那看起来是什么样的了。
你是不是很想知道所有的这些书来自于哪呢？我也想知道。事实上，国家图书馆（国会图书馆实际上不是国家图书馆，它是国会的图书馆，不是联邦的。然而，很多人都当它是国家图书馆，当成是美国文学和教育的标志，所以人们开始管它叫国家图书馆）并非囊括任何一本出版物。所有的出版商都被要求必须得提交两份出版物给图书馆，但是图书馆并不会将这些资料全部收藏其中。在美国，每天会出版发行近22000种新读物，而国会图书馆平均每天只收藏10000种。图书馆会用舍弃的读物和世界上其它的图书馆进行交换，也会将舍弃的读物捐赠给美国的学校及机构。但是，10000种还是相当多了！我很想知道他们把每一个东西都放在哪里了。我知道他们有不只3600名员工（哇），所以他们有足够的人手把东西摆到相应的位置。可是，谁来决定这些东西是留下还是送走呢？如果平均每天要增加10000种读物的话，那图书馆是不是得一直扩建啊？
我想引用刚刚读过的一个网站上的评语：“今天的国会图书馆，是举世无双的世界资源。其所收藏的超过1亿4千7百万种读物，包括了470种语言的3千3百多万的编目书以及其它的印刷材料；超过6千3百万的手稿；北美最大的稀有书馆藏量；世界上最大的合法资料、电影、乐谱和录音资料的馆藏量”。做为一个喜欢收藏好玩儿东西的人，我已经相当地被震撼了，而我现在其实还没有见到图书馆呢。我想阅读一些关于图书馆的介绍资料可能和亲自去参观同样地令人惊叹，因为并不只是图书馆的建筑尺寸和外观形态会令人震撼（虽然那也是令人震憾的一部分），那些仅仅亲临现场观看三栋建筑物所绝不可能获知的统计信息同样令我震撼。比如我不可能知道图书馆有470种语言的的资料，也不可能知道那里有3597个正式员工。有很多东西都不可能仅仅是去到图书馆参观一下就能了解到的，所以事先阅读这些资料真的是一个非常好的主意。谢谢妈妈！
最后我想介绍的有关国会图书馆的事儿，是如何使用它的资源。国会图书馆对公众免费开放。有两类人可以参观图书馆，一类是游客，他们可以参观图书馆，观看三栋建筑物和书，走观光线路，参观历史展（例如：托马斯.杰克逊的工作，美国战争），还可以做大把的其它教育活动以满足他们对于世界上最大图书馆的好奇心；另一类是借阅人，他们可以借书来读，也可以在图书馆内做学术研究。第二类人需要到麦迪逊大楼办理手续，出示他们的身份证明，如果大于十六岁，就可以获得一张借书卡。之后，也只能之后，他们才能进到阅览室，拿到图书馆的藏书，真正地阅读国会图书馆的资料。他们不许将书借出去。只有国会会员、最高法院的法官和工作人员、国会图书馆的员工，还有某些政府官员可以真正地从图书馆大楼中将资料借出去读（实际上，也有特例，就是当美国的小图书馆需要从国会图书馆借阅无法在其它的地方找到书时。在那些情况下，那些书可以在借阅的图书馆内使用，但是不允许借阅出去）。所以，对于我们游客，这个图书馆实际上比一个真正的图书馆更像一个令人震撼的收藏馆和博物馆。但是不管怎么说，我都要去参观。
白宫
大部分人都听说过白宫，它就是美国总统生活和工作于其中的那个白色公馆。它是什么的标志呢…… 事实上，我也没弄懂它是什么的标志。我想它是美国的标志吧。它的第一个住户托马斯.杰斐逊是在1801年搬进来的，而英国军队在1814年放火把它给烧了。但是白宫随后被重建，并且被建得更新、更大和更好。我不想给出那些具体的数字，比如有多少个房间、什么时候增多了哪个房间等等这些来烦你，因为我知道反正你也记不住（我自己也记不住）。总之，现在，白宫骄傲地耸立在华盛顿D.C。
我一直想知道的一件事儿是：白宫对公众开放吗？我们可以进去参观吗？可以参观总统住的地方吗？查找的结果是说不可以，再也不行了。以前白宫是可以免费参观的，但是现在随着预算削减、人员短缺，总统决定关闭观光团参观白宫。开始我很迷惑，想知道如果不跟着观光团我是否可以进去参观呢？是否我再也没有机会进去参观了呢？后来我搞懂了。确实，我再也不能进到白宫参观了！总统不让人们在美国最重要的一栋建筑物里，在没有人监控的情况下到处转悠。
我可不想住在白宫里。是的，白宫的确很不寻常，它有剧场、游泳池、棒极了的卫生间等等这些设施……但是它也有着无处不在的摄像头。事实上，我不知道它到底有多少个摄像头，因为那是个一般公众不必知晓的国家秘密。不管怎样，我确信那里比普通的家庭缺少私人空间，住在一个那么重要的历史建筑古迹中会有很大的压力。还有，住在白宫里意味着你要么是总统、要么是他的家人、要么是清洁人员、要么是联邦情报局的雇员，而我不想是其中的任何一个。
所以我想，我们今年将从白宫旁边开车而过，拍几张照片，然后就走了。这不是非常令人激动的事情，但也是旅行的一个重要部分。因为然后，当人们问我们是否曾经亲眼见过白宫时，我们就能给出肯定的回答！
国家航空航天博物馆
当我第一次听说这个博物馆时，这个史密斯索尼亚航空航天博物馆听起来并不是非常地有吸引力。它不过就是一个关于飞机和宇宙飞船等等的博物馆而已。可等我对其做了一些研究后，嗯，这个博物馆听起来就有趣得多了。
这个博物馆收藏了世界上最大数量的史上最有名的飞机和宇宙飞船！哇！那么就是说，博物馆里收藏有那些在著名战争中使用过的真正的飞机了？太酷了！并且还是全世界范围内最大的？我立即就想去参观了，甚至只是为了能够说“我参观过那里！”。这个博物馆是如此之大，它有四个大理石建筑物，总共有14970.9平方米的展厅。我不知道里面到底有什么，可是我已经等不及去弄清楚了。
我没有在博物馆这块儿做如上两个那么多的研究，因为我已经知道它是怎么回事儿了。我知道它是一个博物馆，以前我也去过博物馆，所以我知道它看起来会是什么样子的。然而，以前我从来没有参观过一个国家图书馆，我确信那不会跟普通的图书馆一样。所以，我很有动力去研究图书馆。还有，我也从来没有见识过一个超级有名的人正住着的公馆，所以研究白宫也是非常必需的。而这个航空航天博物馆，嗯，不需要做太多的研究，因为我知道博物馆是怎么回事儿。
太酷了，博物馆中的一些东西曾经在外太空待过。那里甚至正在展出原始的哈伯宇宙飞船的一个部件！维基百科上这句话引起了我的注意：“这个史密斯索尼亚博物馆也得到承诺，那个国际彗星探测器也将在此展出，条件是如果NASA将来能够成功地将其回收的话。因为探测器目前正在太阳系轨道上运行着呢，不过偶尔也会转到地球附近。”通常，博物馆有可能得到某个特殊的化石上面的几小块儿，或者一件其持有者想要放弃的艺术品，但是这个博物馆是如此之大，它竟能拥有曾经围绕着太阳系旋转过的东西（如果NASA可以将它带回地球并成功回收的话，肯定能啦）！
我确实很期待这次的华盛顿D.C之旅，我也很期待着和老朋友重逢。我不确定自己更期待着哪一个，可能是后者。对不起，爸爸！
【小哭介绍背景】Susan的这篇小文，也许不算是简单的攻略，更算是她阅读旅游景点介绍资料的读后感。文中充满了她的个人情感，读起来远比攻略更有趣儿。我印象最深的部分是她的那句“谢谢妈妈”。
让她写这种小文非常不容易，她不喜欢读与现实生活过于贴近的文章，她喜欢沉浸在幻想的世界里。哪怕如那个《猫战士》，其中的绝大部分情节都可以将猫换成人，可是她也还是喜欢猫来当主角儿，而不是人。如她所言，她当时读到猫是如何看待人的时候，那种换位思考的乐趣，让她非常地着迷。其实听她给我讲，我也觉得特别地有趣儿。
她看了那么多枯燥的资料，小结出来了一些有趣的部分，再加上她的个人感受，写得真是不错，我也确实要多谢她的文章。她说这几篇文章是专门照顾到我的实际情况所写，相信应该是我所喜欢的，也是我所想了解的。她说对了，我相当地意外，也相当地震惊，我原意仅仅是想找个借口让她在旅游之前读点相关的资料，不想她真的将我的需求当成了个事儿。所以读后我冲到她的房间里和她拥抱，感谢她的辛苦工作以及非常有趣的小文。然后，我就得寸进尺，说是这些资料还远远地不够，因为三天的旅行我们要参观的地方远不止这些，求她再为我写另一篇行前的介绍。
我对她的表扬和感谢是发自心底的，她当然能够感受得到。所以她很开心也很自豪，于是就有了之后的两篇：）
附上英文原文：
In a week, my family is going to visit Washington D.C.! Actually, we’re going to drive to the Boston area to visit some old friends, but along the way, we’ll stop at the capital and visit a few places there. My mom asked me to research some information about the places we’ll be visiting first before we leave, so that we would be prepared and know what to expect. Well, after spending all morning reading Wikipedia and other reliable websites (ha-ha, that was a joke. But actually, Wikipedia’s pretty reliable if you double check the information with other sites), I’ve put together this:
Library of Congress
I’ve wondered a lot about this place ever since I watched National Treasures. What kind of library is it? Is it one of those fun libraries, or one of those boring ones? Who are allowed to check out books in there? Who are allowed to go there at all? I’ve never bothered to find out the answers until today. Actually, the way this library works is pretty simple.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the WORLD!! WOW! Isn’t that amazing? I can hardly believe I’m going to visit the LARGEST LIBRARY IN THE WORLD! I’ve always liked being impressed, and I can’t wait to be impressed by the sheer size and amount of books I would soon encounter. More than 150 million items! Of course, some of them include maps, newspaper articles, sound recordings, and more, so that 150 million isn’t just books. Still, that’s a lot of stuff! To put it into perspective: The Library of Congress’ collection fills about 838 miles of bookshelves, while the British Library (second largest library in the world )reports about 388 miles of shelves. MILES! I can’t even begin to imagine what that would look like.
Are you wondering where all the books come from? So am I. Actually, the national library ( The Library of Congress isn’t really the national library. It’s the Library of Congress, not of the United States. However, many sees it as the nation library, as the symbol for America’s literature and education, so people have started to call it the national library) does not have every single book that has ever been published. All publishers have to submit two copies of their published works to the Library, but the Library does not keep all the work they get. Nearly 22,000 new items get published in the U.S. and gets sent to the Library every day, yet only an average of 10,000 is added to its permanent collection per day. The rejected items are used to trade with other libraries around the world, or donated to schools and organizations in the United States. But still, 10,000 is A LOT! I wonder where they put everything. I know there’s more than 3600 staffs (WOW), so there are enough people to put items where they belong. But who decides whether the items belong or not? And if there’s an average of 10,000 items added per day, wouldn’t the Library have to keep on expanding?
I want to quote from a website I just finished reading. “Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 147 million items includes more than 33 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 63 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.” As a person who collects and hoards interesting things, I’m pretty impressed already, and I haven’t even seen the Library yet. I think reading about the Library might just be as amazing as actually visiting it in person, because it’s not just size and looks of the Library that would be impressive (though that’s part of it). The other part of what amazes me is the statistics and information about the Library that I wouldn’t be able to know just by going there and seeing the three buildings. I wouldn’t be able to find out that it has materials in 470 languages, or that there is a permanent staff of 3,597 employees. There are a lot of things that I wouldn’t be able to know just by going to the Library. Reading about it beforehand is actually a pretty good idea. Thanks, mom!
The last thing I would like to mention about the Library of Congress is how its resources are used. The library is open to the general public for free. There are two types of people that would visit the library: Tourists can visit the Library, see the three buildings and the book, take tours, visit historical exhibits (ex: works by Thomas Jefferson, Civil War in America), and do a bunch of other educational stuff to satisfy their mild curiosity about the largest library in the world. Another type is people who want to check out books and use the resources in the Library for academic research. Those people need to go to one of the buildings (the Madison building), present their ID, be more than sixteen years old, and get a Reader Identification Card. Then, and ONLY THEN, would they be able to go into the reading rooms and access the Library Collection, and actually read stuff that is in the Library of Congress. They’re not allowed to check out books, though. Only members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, their staff, Library of Congress staff, and certain other government officials may actually remove items from the library buildings (actually, there are special instances when small libraries in America may need to borrow a book from the Library of Congress because they can’t find it elsewhere. In those cases, that books is allowed to be used within the borrowing library only, and not allowed to be checked out). So, to us tourists, the Library is actually more of an impressive collection and a museum than an actual library. But it would be just visiting it anyway.
White House
Most people know about the white house. It’s that big white mansion the president lives and work in. The symbol of… actually, I’m not really sure what it’s a symbol of. I suppose it can be one of the symbols for America. Its first residence (Thomas Jefferson, 2nd U.S. president) moved in in the year 1801. It got burned in 1814 by the British Army, but was then reconstructed newer, bigger, and better. I won’t bore you with the details of just what exact room were added when, because I know you’re not going to remember anyway (I don’t remember myself). Anyway, now, the White House is standing proud and tall in Washington D.C.
One of the things I’ve always wondered: is the White House open for the public? Are we allowed to just go in there? To just go in where the president lives? Turns out that it’s not, not anymore. The White House use to have free tours, open to the public, but now, with the budget cuts and staff shortages, the president decided that tours have to be shut down. That confused me at first. Can I go in there without taking a tour? Does that mean I can’t go in there anymore? And then I figured it out. Of course I can’t go in the White House anymore! The president wouldn’t let people wander around unwatched in one of the most important piece of architecture in the United States!
I wouldn’t want to live in the White House. Yeah, sure, it’s great. It’s got theaters, pools, awesome bathroom… but it also has cameras all over the place. Actually, I don’t know how many cameras it has. It’s a state secret, meaning that it’s not for the general public to know. However, I’m sure it’s way less private than normal homes. And there’s a lot of pressure about living in an important historical piece of architecture. And, to live in the White House means you either have to be the President or his family, the cleaning staffs, or members of the Secret Service. And I don’t want to be any of those.
So, I suppose this year, we’ll just drive by the White House, take a few pictures, and then move on. Not very exciting, but it’s still an important part of our visit, because then, when people ask us if we’ve ever seen the White House in real life, we can say yes!
National Air and Space Museum
When I first heard about it, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum doesn’t sound very impressive. It’s just a museum about planes and spaceships and stuff. After I did some research on it, though, it sounds a lot more interesting.
The museum holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world! Whoa! So there are actual aircrafts in that museum that was used in famous wars and stuff? That’s pretty cool! And the largest in the world? That immediately makes it a place that I have to visit, even if it’s just for the sake of being able to say “I visited that place!”. The museum is so big that it’s four marble buildings. 14,970.9 m2) of exhibition floor space in total! I’m not sure what exactly is in there, but I can’t wait to find out more.
I didn’t do as much research on this as I did on the other two, because I know the basics of how it works already. I know it is a museum, and I’ve been to museums before, so I have an idea of what it would be like. However, I’ve never visited a national library before, and I’m sure it’s not like a normal library. So, I had a lot of motivation to search about it. Also, I’ve never had any experiences with huge mansions that are occupied by super-famous people, so researching about the White House was also very necessary. This Air and Space Museum, though, didn’t need as much research, because I already kind of know how museums work.
It’s pretty cool, how some of the stuff in the museum has been to outer space. There’s a piece of the original Hubble space craft on display there! One sentence on Wikipedia that got my attention was this: “The Smithsonian has also been promised the International Cometary Explorer, which is currently in a solar orbit that occasionally brings it back to Earth, should NASA attempt to recover it.” Usually, museums are promised pieces of a particular fossil if it is ever found, or a particular piece of art if the owner ever gives it up, but this museum is so great that it’s promised something that’s been orbiting the solar system (if NASA ever brings it back to Earth, of course)!
I’m really looking forward to the Washington D.C. trip. I’m also really looking forward to meeting my old friends again. I’m not sure which one I’m looking forward to more. Probably the latter. Sorry, dad!
| 心桥 (2013-09-10 05:12:27) |
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感谢 Susan 细心的介绍，更感谢小哭这么辛勤并用心的妈妈翻译给大家。让孩子自己先查信息再去参观，收获就不一样了；能记录下来更是不一般。我在的校区，写作通常是80%以上的孩子最不喜欢做的功课。 |
| 周小哭 (2013-09-10 13:05:31) |
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如果这些小文最后能够成集，到时候请心桥写个序，介绍一下普通的情况和个案的特点！ |