12岁男孩给《大英百科全书》挑错英语美文

　　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.

　　《大英百科全书》中有几处明显错误。

　　12岁的卢西恩·乔治是伦敦北部海格特小学的学生，他在钻研波兰和中欧野生动植物卷时注意到这些错误。

　　第一处错误是这本受到国际认可的百科全书中说，波兰与奥斯曼帝国曾经两度交战的小镇霍希姆位于摩尔多瓦。

　　“错了，霍希姆在乌克兰。”卢西恩说。

　　每发现一处错误，卢西恩都会仔细标注错误的页码和卷数，他像一位勤奋的助理编辑一样孜孜不倦地研究这部32卷的大作。

　　《大英百科全书》第25卷934页第2栏中写到，欧洲野牛仅在波兰比亚沃维耶扎森林生活，这一点也是错误的。

　　卢西恩说：“欧洲野牛还分布于波兰南部山区﹑俄罗斯﹑立陶宛﹑白俄罗斯、乌克兰、东斯洛伐克及罗马尼亚境内的咯尔巴阡山区。”

　　卢西恩并非一个刻苦读书的孩子，晚上他经常看《辛普森一家》，并上网聊天。他能够有如此发现归功于他的波兰渊源。他母亲伊丽莎白是波兰人。每年他都要在波兰西南部亚弥的农场住上一个月。

　　“他对波兰历史十分着迷。在农场时，他会和90岁的曾祖母长时间闲谈有关她是如何从纳粹大屠杀中生还的事情。”

　　10天前，《大英百科全书》致函卢西恩。该书由苏格兰绅士协会于1768至1777年间在爱丁堡出版。

　　《大英百科全书》资深编辑安尼塔·沃尔夫(在信中)感谢卢西恩“指出了严重的错误和令人误解的陈述”，并允诺一位地理编辑正在对“波兰卷做大修订”，并将按(卢西恩的)要求改正。

　　卢西恩说尽管百科全书中出现了一些错误，他仍然认为这部书是唯一最好的信息来源。