LESSON 32 The valley of the Nile

第三十二课 尼罗河流域

Egypt may be said to owe its very existence as a habitable country to the presence of the Nile. The course of that magnificent river has now been traced to great lakes lying across the Equator, more than two thousand miles south of Alexandria in a direct line. After receiving its two Abyssinian branches, at Khartoum and at Berber in Nubia, it pours the broad, deep volume of its waters through a flat, alluvial valley for fifteen hundred miles without being increased by any other tributary, and finally discharges itself by two principal channels and several minor outlets into the sea.

埃及之所以能成为一个适于居住的国家可以说完全归功于尼罗河的存在。这条壮丽的河流的源头如今可以追溯到横跨赤道的五大湖，距离亚历山大南部直线距离2000多英里。该河在与位于喀土穆和努比亚的阿比西尼亚的两条支流汇合后再未汇入其它支流，其宽阔而又深邃的水流穿过了1500英里的平坦的冲积河谷，最终通过两条主要渠道和几个次要出口流进了海洋。

The whole of the cultivable soil of Egypt, with the exception of the oases of the desert, consists of the meadow-land on either bank of this noble river; and it varies in width from five to one hundred and fifty English miles. It has been renowned for its fertility from the earliest ages, and was long rightly regarded as the granary of the ancient world. Even at the present day its fruitfulness is without a parallel in any region of like extent.

埃及所有的可耕地，除了沙漠中的绿洲，包括这条高贵的河流两岸的草地，其宽度上的差异从五英里到一百五十英里不等。那里土壤的肥沃自远古时代就已闻名于世，长期被视为古世界的粮仓，即便在今天，那里土地的富饶程度也是无与伦比的。

This fruitfulness is consequent upon the periodic inundations of the river. Although there is little or no rain in Egypt, there are continuous and heavy rains at the sources of the Nile. These begin to fall in March, and being supplemented by the melting of the mountain snows in the following months, occasion a perceptible rise in the river about the end of June. From this period to the close of September, the rise increases with a regularity almost certain and constant, at a rate of four inches a day.

这种富饶得益于尼罗河的周期性泛滥。埃及虽然很少下雨或者说不下雨，然而在尼罗河的源头却有连续不断的大雨。那里的雨季从三月开始，接下来的几个月里山上积雪的融化使得水位再次增加，以致于六月底的时候水位涨幅显著。之后从六月底到九月底这段时期，尼罗河水位将持续上涨且涨幅固定，即每天上涨四英寸。