Today we're going to learn about thefamous explorer, Christopher Columbus.Christopher Columbus, most famous forhis historic voyages across the AtlanticOcean, was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy.The son of a weaver¹, Columbus begansailing as a young teen.WestAfriceand Spain. uga,In 1476 Columbus was shipwrecked offthe coast of Portugal.He swam to shore and settled in Lisbon.It was there that he was first married,and his first son, Diego, was born.In 1485, his wife died, and Columbusmoved to Spain.A few years later, his second son,Fernando, was born.It was about this time, that ChristopherColumbus began to be fascinated bythe idea that it might be possible to sail west from Europe to reach Asia.

今天我们要学习的是著名的探险家克里斯托弗哥伦布。克里斯托弗哥伦布于1451年出生于意大利热那亚,他以历史性横渡大西洋的航行而闻名。作为一个纺织工的儿子，哥伦布十几岁时就开始航海了。他航行过许多地方--希腊、英国、爱尔兰、冰岛、葡萄牙、西非和西班牙。1476年哥伦布在葡萄牙海岸遭遇海难。他游到岸边，在里斯本安顿下来。在那里，他第一 次结婚，并且他的第一 个儿子迭玄出生了。1485年，他的妻子去世了，哥伦布搬到了西班牙。几年后，他的第二个儿子费尔南多出生了。大约在这个时候，克里斯托弗.哥伦布开始对他这个想法的可能性着迷，即从欧洲出发向西航行到达亚洲。

Trade of spices and silk with India andChina was incredibly important. Andincredibly profitable.But the journey, whether overland or bysea, was long and dangerousdirectly from Europe to Asia by goinghe could make a lot of money andbecome very wealthy.It is a misperception that most peopleback then thought that the world wasflat.In fact, most people knew that theworld was round,but nautical² experts thought thatColumbus had estimated the distancefrom Europe to Asia to be much toosmall,They thought that he would only makeit halfway³ there before running out ofanyone to give him the money heHis idea was rejected in Portugal,Then he went to Spain in 1486 and triedto nersuade Kina Ferdinand and EoupenIsabella to finance his expedition⁴, but they were at war and did not havetime or money for exploration.

与印度和中国之间的香料和丝绸贸易非常重要,而且利润也非常丰厚。但是在旅途中，但无论是陆路还是海上的旅程,都漫长而危险。如果哥伦布可以成功地从欧洲直接向西航行到达亚洲，他可以赚很多钱，变得非常富有。我们误以为当时大多数人认为地球是平的。事实上，大多数人都知道地球是圆的,但航海专家认为哥伦布估计的欧洲到亚洲的距离太短了。他们认为他只航行到-一半路程时食物和补给就会用完。正因为如此，他无法说服任何人给他航行所需要,他的想法在葡萄牙、热那亚和威尼斯都遭到了拒绝。然后1486年他去了西班牙，试图说服国王费迪南德和王后伊莎贝拉资助他的远征,但是他们处于战争状态，没有时间和金钱进行探险。

Six years later in 1492, the war endedand the King and Queen agreed to giveColumbus the money he needed.On August 3, 1492, ChristopherColumbus sailed west from Spain withthree ships:the Nina, the Pinta, and the SantaMaria.Two months later, on October 12, theyreached the Bahamas, landing on anisland that Columbus named SanColumbus was convinced that he had southeast Asia,and so he called the people that he met. He didn't find very much gold on San Salvador. and so he sailed aroundexploring other islands.On Christmas day the largest ship, the Santa Maria, ran aground and had to beabandoned,so Columbus left 39 crewmen in what isnow Haiti to start a settlement andhopefully, find more gold.

六年后的1492年，战争结束了，国王和王后同意给哥伦布所需的钱。1492年8月3日，克里斯托弗哥伦布带着三艘船从西班牙向西航行:尼娜号、平塔号和圣玛丽亚号。两个月后，10月12日，他们到达巴哈马，在哥伦布命名为圣萨尔瓦多的岛上登陆。哥伦布确信他已经到达了印度群岛，即东南亚的一系列岛屿，所以他把他在那里遇到的人叫做”印第安人”。他在圣萨尔瓦多没找到多少金子，所以他四处航行探索其他岛屿。圣诞节那天，最大的一艘船“圣玛利亚号”搁浅了，不得不被遗弃，所以哥伦布留下了39名船员在现在的海地开始定居，希望找到更多的黄金。

Columbus took some of the nativepeople with him and returned to Spainin March of 1493.Besides the people and a little gold,Columbus brought back things likepineapples,turkeys, parrots, and tobacco to provethat there were riches to be foundacross the ocean.He was rewarded by being namedAdmiral of the Ocean Sea and wasappointed Viceroy and Governor of thenew lands.Word of his discovery spread quicklythrough Europe, and before the way was out, Columbus set sail leading amuch larger expedition.With 17 ships and more than 1,000 men,they were ready to begin colonizing⁵ theislands Columbus had found.When they arrived,they found that the original settlementhad been destroyed and everyone leftbehind had been killed by the native. They established a new settlement andbegan to search for gold,but when little was found Columbusenslaved the native people and forcedthem to help search for more riches.

哥伦布带着一些当地人， 于1493年3月回到西班牙。除了这些人和一些金子之外，哥伦布还带回了菠萝，火鸡、鹦鹉和烟草等东西，这证明大洋彼岸有丰富的资源。作为回报，他被任命为海洋舰队司令,并被任命为新大陆的总督和地方行政长官。哥伦布发现新大陆的消息很快传遍了欧洲，不到一年，哥伦布又率领第二支船队起航，进行更大的探险。他们有17艘船和1000多人，准备对哥伦布发现的岛屿开始进行殖民。当他们到达的时候,他们发现原来的定居点已经被破坏了，所有留下来的人都被当地人杀死了。他们建立了一个新的定居点， 开始寻找黄金,但是，当发现的东西很少时，哥伦布就奴役当地人，强迫他们帮助寻找更多的财富。

On his third voyage, Columbus finallyreached the continental⁶ mainland whenhe landed in Venezuela.Unfortunately, conditions at thesettlement were very bad and thesettlers blamed Columbus.In 1500 he was arrested and forced toreturn to Spain.He was eventually freed, but he lost histitles and much of his money.In 1502 he made a fourth and finalvoyage to the new world, still searching for a passage to India orChina. He returned to Spain in 1504,and on May 20th, 1506, at the age of54, Christopher Columbus died,probabely still believing that he hadsuccessfully sailed to Asia.It is true that Christopher Columbuswas not the first person to discover theThat would be the ancestors of the native inhabitants.And !he wasn't even the first Euroto reach the New World.

在他的第三次航行中，哥伦布终于到达了大陆,他在委内瑞拉登陆。不幸的是,殖民地的条件非常糟糕，殖民者将其归咎于哥伦布。1500年，他被捕了，并被迫返回西班牙。他最终被释放,但他失去了头衔和大部分的钱。1502年，他第四次也是最后一次航行到新大陆，仍然在寻找去印度或中国的路。1504年，他回到西班牙,1506年5月20日，54岁的哥伦布去世了，他可能仍然相信曾经成功地航行到了亚洲。的确，克里斯托弗哥伦布不是第一个发现美洲的而是当地居民的祖先。他甚至不是第一个到达新世界的欧洲人。

A voyage by Leif Erikson about 500years earlier succeeded in reachingCanada.However, the voyages of ChristopherColumbus had a huge impact in thehistory of the world.Because he brought back word of thesenew lands to Europe and begana newperiod of trade and colonization⁷.Plants, animals, people and diseaseswent back and forth⁸ across the ocean,and had a lasting⁹ impact on almostevery culture on the planet.Because of this, we commemorateColumbus's first landing everyOctober - On Columbus Day.

列夫.埃里克森约500年前就成功航行到达加拿大。然而，克里斯托弗哥伦布的航行在世界历史上产生了巨大的影响。因为他把这些新大陆的消息带回了欧洲，并开启了一个新的贸易和殖民时期。植物、动物、人类和疾病跨越海洋来回穿梭,对地球上几乎每一种文化都产生了持久的影响。因此，在每年10月的哥伦布日,我们都会纪念哥伦布的首次登陆。