2024年06月六级第1套长篇阅读匹配原文翻译及答案

A) In the city of Athens, Georgia, there exists a rather curious local landmark—a large white oak that is almost universally stated to own itself. Because of this, it is considered one of the most famous trees in the world. So how did this tree come to own itself and the land around it?

在乔治亚州雅典市，有一个相当奇特的当地地标——一棵大白橡树，几乎普遍被认为它拥有自己。因此，它被认为是世界上最著名的树木之一。那么，这棵树是如何拥有自己和周围土地的呢？

B) Sometime in the 19th century a Georgian called Colonel William Jackson reportedly took a liking to the said tree and endeavored to protect it from any danger. As to why he loved it so, the earliest documented account of this story is an anonymously written front page article in the Athens Weekly Banner published on August 12, 1890. It states, "Col. Jackson had watched the tree grow from his childhood, and grew to love it almost as he would a human. Its luxuriant leaves and sturdy limbs had often protected him from the heavy rains, and out of its highest branches he had many a time gotten the eggs of the feathered singers. He watched its growth, and when reaching a ripe old age he saw the tree standing in its magnificent proportions, he was pained to think that after his death it would fall into the hands of those who might destroy it."

据报道，在19世纪的某个时候，一位名叫威廉·杰克逊上校的乔治亚人喜欢上了这棵树，并努力保护它免受任何危险。至于他为何如此喜爱它，最早记载这个故事的是1890年8月12日发表在《雅典每周旗帜报》上的一篇匿名头版文章。文章写道：“杰克逊上校从小就看着这棵树长大，几乎像爱一个人一样爱上了它。它茂盛的树叶和坚实的枝干经常为他遮挡大雨，他多次从它最高的树枝上取下鸣禽的蛋。他看着它成长，当到了晚年，看到这棵树以宏伟的姿态屹立时，他痛心地想到，自己死后它可能会落入那些可能摧毁它的人手中。”

C) Towards this end, Jackson transferred by means of a deed ownership of the tree and a little land around it to the tree itself. The deed read, "W. H. Jackson for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears the said tree, and his great desire to see it protected has conveyed unto the said oak tree entire possession of itself and of all land within eight feet of it on all sides."

为此，杰克逊通过契约将这棵树及其周围一小块土地的所有权转让给了树本身。契约写道：“W. H. 杰克逊，出于他对所述树木的深厚感情以及他希望看到它受到保护的强烈愿望，将所述橡树的完全占有权以及其周围八英尺内所有土地转让给了它。”

D) In time, the tree came to be something of a tourist attraction, known as The Tree That Owns Itself. However, in the early 20th century, the tree started showing signs of its slow death, with little that could be done about it. Father time comes for us all eventually, even our often long lived, tall and leafy fellow custodians (看管者) of Earth. Finally, on October 9, 1942, the over 30 meter tall and 200-400 year old tree fell, rumor has it, as a result of a severe windstorm and/or via having previously died and its roots rotted.

久而久之，这棵树成为一个旅游景点，被称为“拥有自己的树”。然而，在20世纪初，这棵树开始显示出缓慢死亡的迹象，几乎无能为力。时间之父最终会降临到我们所有人身上，即使是我们通常长寿、高大、枝叶茂盛的地球同胞看管者。最后，在1942年10月9日，这棵超过30米高、树龄200-400年的树倒了，据传闻是由于一场强风暴和/或先前已死亡且根部腐烂所致。

E) About four years later, members of the Junior Ladies Garden Club (who'd tended to the tree before its unfortunate death) tracked down a small tree grown from a nut taken from the original tree. And so it was that on October 9, 1946, under the direction of Professor Roy Bowden of the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia, this little tree was transplanted to the location of its ancestor. A couple of months later, an official ceremony was held featuring none other than the Mayor of Athens, Robert L McWhorter, to commemorate the occasion.

大约四年后，初级女子园艺俱乐部的成员（在树不幸死亡前曾照料它）追踪到一棵从原始树上取下的坚果长成的小树。于是，在1946年10月9日，在乔治亚大学农学院罗伊·鲍登教授的指导下，这棵小树被移植到其祖先的位置。几个月后，举行了一场官方仪式，出席的正是雅典市长罗伯特·L·麦克沃特，以纪念这一时刻。

F) This new tree became known as The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself and it was assumed that, as the original tree's heir, it naturally inherited the land it stood on. Of course, there are many dozens of other trees known to exist descending from the original, as people taking a nut from it to grow elsewhere was a certainty. That said, to date, none of the original tree's other children have petitioned the courts for their share of the land, so it seems all good. In any event, The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself still stands today, though often referred to simply as The Tree That Owns Itself.

这棵新树被称为“拥有自己的树的儿子”，并被假设为原始树的继承人，自然继承了它所站立的土地。当然，已知有数十棵其他树木从原始树繁衍而来，因为人们从它那里取坚果在其他地方种植是必然的。尽管如此，迄今为止，原始树的其他后代都没有向法院申请他们的土地份额，所以似乎一切都好。无论如何，“拥有自己的树的儿子”至今仍然屹立，尽管通常简称为“拥有自己的树”。

G) This all brings us around to whether Jackson ever actually gave legal ownership of the tree to itself in the first place and whether such a deed is legally binding.

这一切让我们回到杰克逊最初是否真的将树的合法所有权授予树本身，以及这样的契约是否具有法律约束力。

H) Well, to begin with, it turns out Jackson only spent about three years of his life in Athens, starting at the age of 43 from 1829 to 1832, sort of dismissing the idea that he loved the tree from spending time under it as a child and watching it grow, and then worrying about what would happen to it after he died. Further, an extensive search of land ownership records in Athens does not seem to indicate Jackson ever owned the land the tree sits on.

首先，事实证明杰克逊只在雅典度过了大约三年时间，从43岁开始，从1829年到1832年，这在一定程度上否定了他小时候在树下度过时光、看着它长大然后担心它死后会发生什么的想法。此外，对雅典土地所有权记录的广泛搜索似乎并未表明杰克逊曾拥有树所在的土地。

I) He did live on a lot of land directly next to it for those three years, but whether he owned that land or not isn't clear. Whatever the case, in 1832 a four acre parcel, which included the land the tree was on and the neighboring land Jackson lived on, among others, was sold to University professor Malthus A Ward. In the transaction, Ward was required to pay Jackson a sum of $1,200 (about $31,000 today), either for the property itself or simply in compensation for improvements Jackson had made on the lot. In the end, whether he ever owned the neighboring lot or was simply allowed to use it while he allegedly worked at the University, he definitely never owned the lot the tree grew on, which is the most important bit for the topic at hand.

在那三年里，他确实住在紧挨着它的一块土地上，但是否拥有那块土地并不清楚。无论如何，在1832年，一块四英亩的土地，包括树所在的土地和杰克逊居住的邻近土地等，被卖给了大学教授马尔萨斯·A·沃德。在交易中，沃德需要向杰克逊支付1200美元（约合今天的31,000美元），无论是为了财产本身还是仅仅作为杰克逊在地块上所做改进的补偿。最终，无论他是否拥有邻近地块，还是仅仅被允许在他在大学工作期间使用它，他肯定从未拥有树生长的地块，这是当前话题最重要的一点。

J) After Professor Ward purchased the land, Jackson and his family purchased a 655 acre parcel a few miles away and moved there. Ten years later, in 1844, Jackson seemed to have come into financial difficulties and had his little plantation seized by the Clarke County Sheriff's office and auctioned off to settle the mortgage. Thus, had he owned some land in Athens itself, including the land the tree sat on, presumably he would have sold it to raise funds or otherwise had it taken as well.

在沃德教授购买土地后，杰克逊和他的家人在几英里外购买了一块655英亩的土地并搬到了那里。十年后，1844年，杰克逊似乎遇到了财务困难，他的小种植园被克拉克县治安官办公室查封并拍卖以清偿抵押贷款。因此，如果他拥有雅典本身的一些土地，包括树所在的土地，他可能会卖掉它来筹集资金，或者也会被拿走。

K) And whatever the case there, Jackson would have known property taxes needed to be paid on the deeded land for the tree to be truly secure in its future. Yet no account or record indicates any trust or the like was set up to facilitate this.

无论情况如何，杰克逊应该知道需要为契约土地支付财产税，以确保树的未来真正安全。然而，没有任何账目或记录表明为此设立了任何信托或类似机构。

L) On top of all this, there is no hard evidence such a deed ever existed, despite the fact that deed records in Athens go back many decades before Jackson's death in 1876 and that it was supposed to have existed in 1890 in the archives according to the original anonymous news reporter who claims to have seen it.

除此之外，没有确凿证据表明这样的契约曾经存在过，尽管雅典的契约记录可以追溯到杰克逊1876年去世前几十年，并且根据最初声称见过它的匿名新闻记者，它应该在1890年的档案中存在。

M) As you might imagine from all of this, few give credit to this side of the story. So how did all of this come about then?

正如你从这一切中可能想象的那样，很少有人相信故事的这一面。那么，这一切是如何发生的呢？

N) It is speculated to have been invented by the imagination of the said anonymous author at the Athens Weekly Banner in the aforementioned 1890 front page article titled "Deeded to Itself", which by the way contained several elements that are much more easily proved to be false. As to why the author would do this, it's speculated perhaps it was a 19th century version of a click-bait thought exercise on whether it would be legal for someone to deed such a non-conscious living thing to itself or not.

据推测，它是由前述1890年头版文章《转让给自己》中匿名作者的想象力虚构的，顺便说一句，这篇文章包含几个更容易被证明是虚假的元素。至于作者为何这样做，据推测，这或许是19世纪版本的点击诱饵思维练习，探讨某人是否合法地将这样一个无意识的生物转让给自己。

O) Whatever the case, the next known instance of the Tree That Owns Itself being mentioned wasn't until 1901 in the Centennial Edition of that same paper, the Athens Weekly Banner. This featured another account very clearly just copying the original article published about a decade before, only slightly reworded. The next account was in 1906, again in the Athens Weekly Banner, again very clearly copying the original account, only slightly reworded, the 19th century equivalent of re-posts when the audience has forgotten about the original.

无论如何，下一次提到“拥有自己的树”的已知实例直到1901年才出现在同一份报纸《雅典每周旗帜报》的百年纪念版上。这期报纸刊登了另一篇报道，很明显只是复制了大约十年前发表的原文，只是稍微改写了一下。下一次报道是在1906年，再次在《雅典每周旗帜报》上，再次很明显地复制了原始报道，只是稍微改写，相当于19世纪当观众已经忘记原文时的重新发布。