Account of My Travels

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I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended the range of my observations. My holiday afternoons were spent in rambles about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed, or a ghost seen. I visited the neighboring villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs, and conversing with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long summer's day to the summit of the most distant hill, whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra ( ['terə] n.土, 土地)incognita, and was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabited.

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This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their contents, I neglected the regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would I wander about the pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes- with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft （[wɑ:ft, wɔft]vi.飘送）myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!

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Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vague （[veig]a.含糊的）inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally（ ['prɔdigli] adv. 浪费地, 丰饶地） lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming （ ['ti:miŋ] adj.充满的, 热闹的, 丰富的）with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure（[ˈvə:dʒə]n.翠绿）; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine;- no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime （[səˈblaim]a.壮丽的；高尚的 n.高尚，崇高）and beautiful of natural scenery.

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游历记述


我向来钟爱访历新境，采风问俗。自幼我就开始旅行，多次探查我所成长的城市的偏僻之处、陌生之所。这让我父母饱受虚惊，当然也让那些街头报讯员获益颇丰。随着我渐渐成长到少年，我探查的范围也扩大了。无数个假日的午后，我都消磨在邻近乡村的漫游中。不管哪个历史名胜还是哪个神话圣地，我都悉数知晓；不管哪个杀人越货之所还是哪个鬼魂出没之地，我皆如数家珍。访察邻村时，我观察村民们的风俗习惯，并和其中的学者名士相谈，这些都大大增加了我的知识储备。有一个漫长的夏日，我竟游历到了一座很远的小山头。纵目远眺，方圆数英里的无名大地尽收眼底，我惊奇地发现，原来我所居住的星球是如此的广袤。


随着我渐渐地长大，这种漫游癖好也与日俱增。我将激情皆付诸游记和旅行日记。由于如饥似渴地阅读这些书，我竟荒废了学校的常规课业。天气好的时候，我会无限惆怅地徘徊在码头岬角，目送远帆没入天际，用渴望的眼神追逐那渐渐消逝的白帆，放自己的想象随之到天涯地角。

书读得多了，思考也随之深刻了。虽然这将我那种模糊的漫游嗜好拘于理性，却也使它更为明确和坚定。我访遍祖国的各个地方；我要是钟爱美景，那就绝不屑于到其他地方去搜寻，因为没有哪个国家拥有我的祖国这么丰饶的自然的神采魅力了。广博的湖泊，波光粼粼；巍峨的山峦，危柱擎天；山谷幽幽，生机盎然；瀑布雄浑，巨响回肠；无边无垠的平原，草木时现，翠波绵延；广阔深邃的河流，静穆庄严，汩汩向海；植被繁茂的森林，樵径不通；夏云点燃的天空，光华灿烂；是的，除了美国，我们美国人绝不需要到任何其他地方去寻觅什么壮美的自然景色。