巴西，一个距离中国近30个小时航程的国家，一个与我们季节刚好相反的地方，一片拥有着神秘莫测的亚马逊森林、狂热桑巴舞的土地。这里的人们既热情友好，又自然随意，个个洋溢着激情；这里的自然环境既博大壮丽，又不乏精致，处处蕴含着生命力。虽然与我们相距几万公里，但这也许是我们可以找到的最近的净土和乐土。

   
        圣保罗这个城市虽然名气很大，但没有太多激动人心的景点，而且世界上也不只一个城市以"圣保罗"命名。当然，这名字和圣经多少有些关系。如果通过网络查询"圣保罗"，甚至还会得到"巴西首都"这样的错误答案。实际上，巴西的首都是巴西利亚，它位于巴西的中东部，只是一个很小的城市。巴西将首都从里约•热内卢迁往巴西利亚，只是为了拉动内地的经济，但这并没有收到任何效果，那里只是成了政客们的聚集地。

        圣保罗共有人口1600万，却拥有700万辆汽车，城市拥挤不堪，机场里也经常看到由于交通不畅误了飞机的人。再加上地处热带，城市的建筑缺乏规划和统一，让人不禁联想起泰国曼谷的街头。而就是这样一个城市，空中交通的开放度却是世界领先，据说这里有400架以上私人直升飞机，以至于在上下班的高峰期常能见到盘旋在头顶的那些巨富们的"坐骑"。

        圣保罗的皇家花园算得上是闹中取静。巴西本是葡萄牙的殖民地，后来法国攻克葡萄牙，葡萄牙的皇室逃亡到这里，等到法国撤兵后，皇室返国，国王的儿子留在了巴西，结果没两年，这个王子带着一帮人将巴西独立了，这就叫"老子英雄儿好汉"，爷俩都满怀野心与抱负。可惜的是帝国历史只有短短67年，救国军队与共和党人联合推翻了统治政权，所以帝国留下的遗迹不是很多。葡式的皇宫现在有一半成了圣保罗大学的实验室，皇宫后面的花园一派热带生机，可以看到紫薇、咖啡树、竹子、树上的鸟窝和懒洋洋散步的狗。

Brazil is a country which is 30 hours flight away from China, a country which has the exact opposite seasons with us, and a country which has the mysterious Amazon forests and passionate samba. People in Brazil are friendly, casual and full of passion. The natural environment here is splendid and grand but also full of subtlety and vitality. Although it is thousands of kilometers away from us, maybe it is the nearest pure land and paradise we can find.

Although São Paulo is a famous city, it does not have too many exciting sights. Besides, more than one city in the world has the name São Paulo. The name has something to do with the Bible, and if you search São Paulo in internet, you may get a wrong answer like "São Paulo is the capital of Brazil." In fact, the capital of Brazil is Brasilia. Brasilia is a small city located in the middle east of Brazil. The government of Brazil changed its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in order to accelerate the development of local economy. However, this decision was not so fruitful. Brasilia only became a place full of politicians.

There is a population of 16,000,000 in São Paulo, but 7,000,000 cars. The city is really crowded. You can see people miss their planes in the airport because of the heavy traffic. With the tropical weather and the lack of a unified planning, it reminded me of the streets of Bangkok in Thailand. However, in such a city, the openness of air traffic leads the world. It is said that there are more than 400 private helicopters here. During the heavy traffic times when people go to work or get off from work, you can see the private vehicles of the rich flying above your head.

The royal park in São Paulo is a quiet place in the rustling and bustling city. Brazil was once a colony of Portugal. Later, when France conquered Portugal, the royal family of Portugal escaped here. When the French army withdrew, the royal family returned to Portugal. The prince stayed in Brazil. However, after a few years, this prince led an army and separated Brazil as an independent country from Portugal. It can be said as "like father, like son." Both the father and the son were ambitious. However, the empire only lasted 67 years. The Republic Party and the Salvation Army allied to overthrow the throne. Therefore, there are not much left from the empire. Half of the Portuguese style palace has been converted to labs of University of São Paulo. The garden behind the Royal Palace is full of tropical vitality. You can see crape myrtles, coffee trees, bamboos, and bird nests in the trees and lazy strolling dogs.

        沿着皇宫正对面的大道一直下行，就到达了中心广场。广场上有三五成群的孩子打着赤脚在踢足球，尽管他们的身体还很稚嫩，可那一盘一带，一个转身，一次过人，都透着巴西足球特有的流畅与韵律。见到来了观众，孩子们更踢得起劲：猛得一脚抽射，皮球从两只鞋中间滑进了"大门"，进球的孩子高兴得在地上翻了个跟头！虽说南美人做事一向悠闲，但他们骨子里的那份激情就这样毫不掩饰又恰如其分地流露出来了。

I walked down along the avenue facing the Royal Place and soon reached the central square. Bare footed boys were playing football in the square. Although their bodies were really young, their gestures of turning, dribbling and passing were full of the smoothness and rhythm of Brazil football. When they saw some audiences coming, they felt even more energetic in playing. With one sudden shooting, the ball rolled into the goal between two shoes. The boy who successfully shot the ball was so happy that he turned a somersault on the ground! Although people in the South American normally do something in a leisurely and carefree way, the passionhidden in their body can just outpour like this without any disguise.

  本文转载自Scotty的个人空间，要阅读更多作者文章，请移步作者个人空间 http://i.myechinese.com/index.php?s=/space/1251 。

• flight [flait]   n.逃走；飞行；班机   (初中英语单词)
• mysterious [mi´stiəriəs]   a.神秘的；难以理解的   (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən]   n.激情；激怒；恋爱   (初中英语单词)
• paradise [´pærədais]   n.天堂；乐园   (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi]   n.经济；机制；组织   (初中英语单词)
• traffic [´træfik]   n.交通，运输   (初中英语单词)
• prince [´prins]   n.王子；亲王；君主   (初中英语单词)
• ambitious [æm´biʃəs]   a.有雄心的；热望的   (初中英语单词)
• republic [ri´pʌblik]   n.共和国；共和政体   (初中英语单词)
• allied [´ælaid]   a.联合的；联姻的   (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:]   ad.&conj.因此；所以   (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n]   hide 的过去分词   (初中英语单词)
• disguise [dis´gaiz]   vt.假装；隐瞒 n.伪装   (初中英语单词)
• passionate [´pæʃənit]   a.易动情的；易怒的   (高中英语单词)
• brazil [brə´zil]   n.巴西   (高中英语单词)
• casual [´kæʒuəl]   a.偶然的；临时的   (高中英语单词)
• environment [in´vaiərənmənt]   n.郊区；周围；条件   (高中英语单词)
• fruitful [´fru:tfəl]   a.成功的；丰富的   (高中英语单词)
• crowded [´kraudid]   a.充(拥)满了的   (高中英语单词)
• tropical [´trɔpikəl]   a.热带地区的   (高中英语单词)
• portugal [´pɔ:tjugəl]   n.葡萄牙   (高中英语单词)
• withdrew [wið´dru:]   withdraw的过去式   (高中英语单词)
• salvation [sæl´veiʃən]   n.救助；拯救   (高中英语单词)
• overthrow [´əuvəθrəu]   n.推翻；打倒   (高中英语单词)
• throne [θrəun]   n.宝座；王位   (高中英语单词)
• successfully [sək´sesfəli]   ad.成功地   (高中英语单词)
• outpour [aut´pɔ:, ´autpɔ:]   v.使流出 n.泻出(物)   (高中英语单词)
• amazon [´æməzən]   n.女战士   (英语四级单词)
• vitality [vai´tæliti]   n.活力；生命力；效力   (英语四级单词)
• portuguese [,pɔ:tʃu´gi:z]   a.葡萄牙的 n.葡萄牙人   (英语四级单词)
• rhythm [´riðəm]   n.(诗的)韵律；格律   (英语四级单词)
• energetic [,enə´dʒetik]   a.精力旺盛的；有力的   (英语四级单词)
• leisurely [´leʒəli]   a.从容地，慢慢地   (英语四级单词)
• subtlety [´sʌtlti]   n.敏锐；巧妙；微妙   (英语六级单词)
• accelerate [ək´seləreit]   v.加速；变快；促进   (英语六级单词)
• normally [´nɔ:məli]   ad.正常情况下；通常   (英语六级单词)