以是从当时起，我挑选了别的一个职业，我学会了开飞机。我几近飞遍了天下的每个角落。的确，地理学对我非常有效。飞过天下各地的我一眼就能辩白出中国和亚利桑那州。如果夜里丢失了航向，如许的知识是很有代价的。
他们答复我说：“一顶帽子有甚么惊骇的呢？”
But they answered: "Frighten Why should any one be frightened by a hat"My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
每当碰到一个在我看来脑筋略微清楚的大人时，我就拿出随身带着的我那第一号作品来测试他。我想晓得他是否真的有了解才气。但是，不管我测试的人是谁，他或者她都会说：“这是顶帽子。”是以，我也就反面他们谈大蟒蛇啊、原始丛林啊，或者星星之类的事。我会把本身降落到他们的程度，和他们谈些桥牌啊、高尔夫球啊、政治啊、领带啊这些。因而大人们就非常欢畅能熟谙我如许一个通情达理的人。
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
我想了很多热带丛林的冒险，几经思考，我拿起彩色铅笔终究胜利地完成了我人生中的第一幅绘画。我的第一号作品，它是如许的：
小时候，当时我还只要6岁，看到一本描述原始丛林壮观气象的书，名叫《实在的故事》。书里有一幅很出色的插画，画的是一条大蟒蛇正在吞食一只植物，上面就是那幅插画的复成品。
The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.