These continents have names, and if their names were printed across them in letters a thousand miles high—which they are not 这些大陆都有自己的名字，如果他们的名字在距大陆上方1000英里的高度印出来的话，

so that the man with a spy-glass could read them, he would read on one side of the World NORTH AMERICA/SOUTH AMERICA.  这样拿着小望远镜的人就可以看得清，他会看到在世界的一面写着：北美洲/南美洲。

And if he waited until the World turned round, until the other side showed in the sunlight as I've seen the World do in the movies,  如果他在那等着直到世界的另一面转到太阳光下时，就像我在电影院里看到的那样，

he would read on this continent EUROPE and on that continent ASIA and on the other continent AFRICA,  他会看到在这一个大陆上写着欧洲，那一个写着亚洲，还有一个写着非洲，

and the smallest one would have the longest name, AUSTRALIA.  最小的那个写着澳洲，

At the very bottom would be ANTARCTICA.  最下面的是南极洲。 

We call one side of a piece of money the head, because there is usually the head of some one on that side,  我们把硬币的一面叫做正面，因为那一面通常会有某个人的头像在上面；

and the other side we call the tail, as that is opposite from the head.  另一面叫做反面，因为它和正面正相反。

It would be easy to tell which side of the World was which if we could call one side heads and the other tails.  如果能把世界的一面叫做正面而另一面叫做反面的话，会更容易区分世界的每一面。

But there are no heads or tails on the World—only these queer shadows 但是世界上没有正反面—只有这些奇怪的阴影

so we use two big words instead of heads and tails to tell which side of the World is which.  因此我们不用正面、反面而用两个大词来区分世界的这两面。

We call one side the Western Hemisphere and the other side we call the Eastern Hemisphere.  我们把一面叫做西半球，另一面叫做东半球。

Whew! Why don't they call it something easy? 咳，为什么不用简单点的词呢？

Well, let's call it Half-a-Ball, for that is what Hemisphere means.  嗯，好吧，我们可以把它叫做半个球，半球就是这个意思。 

The Western Half-Ball has two continents and the Eastern Half-Ball has four continents.  西边半个球有两个大洲，而东边半个球有四个大洲。

The tip top and the very bottom of the World are called the Poles, although there are no poles.  世界的最顶端和最下端叫做极地，尽管那儿并没有杆子。 

Around the top and bottom Pole it would be all white —snow and ice—for the Poles are so cold there is snow and ice there all the time.  上在下两极到处都是白色的—冰和雪—因为极地地区非常的寒冷，终年都有冰雪。世界上没有阴影斑块和雪斑块的部分是水。