儿童英文故事:伐木巨人保罗·班扬

【英文原文】

摘要：保罗·班扬是美国传说中的英雄，他是个伐木工，住在美国西北的伐木营地里。他由于力大无穷，伐木快如割草而威震四方。

Paul Bunyan was a hero in American folk tales. He was a lumberjack, living in lumber camps of the American Northwest. He became famous for his great strength and great skill in cutting trees. According to legend, Paul Bunyan was a giant. He was so big that a small step he took was about three city blocks. He created much of America. He dug Puget Sound in Washington to float huge logs to the mill. He cleared trees from North and South Dakota and made the land in those states suitable for farming. He dragged his huge ax in the field of Colorado, and thus created the Grand Canyon. He also scooped out the Great Lakes to provide drinking water for his giant blue ox, Babe. Babe weighed fifteen tons before breakfast and stood sixty feet tall. From the tip of one horn to the tip of the other, it measured 42 ax handles and a plug of chewing tobacco. The ox ate tremendous amounts of hay and potato peels and could haul a whole forest of logs. When Babe needed new shoes, the blacksmith had to open a new iron mine in Minnesota. The shoes were so heavy that the blacksmith sank knee-deep into solid rock while carrying them. Babe hadn’t always been blue. But nobody knew for sure how it had come to be that colour. Some said it had turned blue from playing outdoors too long during the Winter of the Blue Snow.