12歲男孩給《大英百科全書》挑錯英語美文

A Schoolboy with a fascination for Poland and wildlife has uncovered several significant errors in the latest - the fifteenth - edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Lucian George, 12, a pupil at Highgate Junior School in North London, was delving into the volumes on Poland and wildlife in Central Europe when he noted the mistakes.

The first was the assertion by the internationally acclaimed reference book that the small town of Chochim, in which two battles were fought between the Poles and the Ottoman Empire, now lies in Moldova.

"Wrong," said Lucian, "Chochim is in Ukraine."

Carefully noting the page and column of each error, the boy continued his investigations of the 32-volume tome like a diligent sub-editor.

In volume 25, page 934, column 2, the encyclopaedia states that the European bison, or wisent, may be found only in the Bialowieza Forest in Poland, which is also incorrect.

"The European bison also inhabit the southern mountains of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, eastern Slovakia and the Romanian Carpathians," Lucian said.

Far from being the school swot, Lucian, who spends his evenings watching The Simpsons and chatting on the internet, made the discoveries thanks to his interest in his Polish roots. His mother, Elizabeth, is Polish and every year he spends a month on a farm in Yamy, southwest Poland.

"He has always been fascinated by Polish history. On the farm he has long chats with his 90-year-old great-grandmother about how she survived the pogroms of the Nazis."

Ten days ago, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was first issued by the Society of Gentlemen in Scotland between 1768 and 1777 in Edinburgh, wrote to Lucian.

Anita Wolff, the senior editor, thanked him for "pointing out several errors and misleading statements" and promised that a geography editor was working on a "major revision of our Poland coverage" and would make the changes as requested.

In spite of the mistakes, Lucian said he still considered the encyclopaedia to be the single best source of information.

The errors, too, while serious, were arguably less egregious than one in the first volume, which declared California to be an island.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica was founded in 1768 in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, with the first edition published one section at a time over a three-year period.

《大英百科全書》中有幾處明顯錯誤。

12歲的盧西恩·喬治是倫敦北部海格特國小的學生，他在鑽研波蘭和中歐野生動植物卷時注意到這些錯誤。

第一處錯誤是這本受到國際認可的百科全書中説，波蘭與奧斯曼帝國曾經兩度交戰的小鎮霍希姆位於摩爾多瓦。

“錯了，霍希姆在烏克蘭。”盧西恩説。

每發現一處錯誤，盧西恩都會仔細標註錯誤的頁碼和卷數，他像一位勤奮的助理編輯一樣孜孜不倦地研究這部32卷的大作。

《大英百科全書》第25卷934頁第2欄中寫到，歐洲野牛僅在波蘭比亞沃維耶扎森林生活，這一點也是錯誤的。

盧西恩説：“歐洲野牛還分佈於波蘭南部山區﹑俄羅斯﹑立陶宛﹑白俄羅斯、烏克蘭、東斯洛伐克及羅馬尼亞境內的咯爾巴阡山區。”

盧西恩並非一個刻苦讀書的孩子，晚上他經常看《辛普森一家》，並上網聊天。他能夠有如此發現歸功於他的波蘭淵源。他母親伊麗莎白是波蘭人。每年他都要在波蘭西南部亞彌的農場住上一個月。

“他對波蘭歷史十分着迷。在農場時，他會和90歲的曾祖母長時間閒談有關她是如何從納粹大屠殺中生還的事情。”

10天前，《大英百科全書》致函盧西恩。該書由蘇格蘭紳士協會於1768至1777年間在愛丁堡出版。

《大英百科全書》資深編輯安尼塔·沃爾夫(在信中)感謝盧西恩“指出了嚴重的錯誤和令人誤解的陳述”，並允諾一位地理編輯正在對“波蘭卷做大修訂”，並將按(盧西恩的)要求改正。

盧西恩説盡管百科全書中出現了一些錯誤，他仍然認為這部書是唯一最好的`信息來源。

這些錯誤雖然嚴重，但和第1卷中誤把加利福尼亞當成一座島嶼的錯誤相比，相對輕一些。

1768年，印刷工科林·麥克法夸爾和刻版工安德魯·貝爾在愛丁堡創辦了《大英百科全書》。他們花了三年時間陸續將第一版(3卷)出版發行。

Vocabulary:

delve : to search deeply and laboriously(鑽研，深入刻苦地研究：)

wisent: the European bison (Bison bonasus) having a smaller and higher head than the North American bison(歐洲野牛，比北美野牛的頭小且高)

swot: 刻苦學習的人;書呆子

egregious: conspicuously bad or offensive(令人惱怒的，過分的，驚人的)(：夏根建)