我的第一号、第二号作品的不成功，使我泄了气。 I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. 这些大人们，靠他们自己什么也弄不懂，还得老是不断地给他们作解释。这真叫孩子们腻味。 Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. 后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机， So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. 世界各地差不多都飞到过。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。 I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. 我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑那。 At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. 要是夜里迷失了航向，这是很有用的。 If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable. 这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多严肃的人有过很多的接触。 In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. 我在大人们中间生活过很长时间。 I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. 我仔细地观察过他们，但这并没有使我对他们的看法有多大的改变。 I have seen them intimately, close at hand.And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them. 当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时， Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, 我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一号作品来测试测试他。 I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. 我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。 I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. 可是，得到的回答总是：“这是顶帽子。” But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say: “That is a hat.” 我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。 Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. 我只得迁就他们的水平，和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。 I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge,and golf, and politics, and neckties. 于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。 And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.