上北下南英文中怎么讲啊？ 这个问题很有趣，我找的下面这个故事更有趣。 on maps, why is north always up ? dear cecil: why is north up ? did the early explorers, mapmakers, astronomers, and the like gettogether and vote, or did it just sort of happen? does everyone on earth think of north asup , or could a northern hemispherian like myself travel south of the equator and buy aglobe with antarctica on top? --david j., chicago cecil replies: by cracky, david, i think you're on to something here. with a few minor exceptions, whichwe shall get to directly, mapmakers throughout the world invariably put north on top , evenif they were born and raised in tierra del fuego. what we are dealing with, in otherwords, is a case of blatant directionism, the unfairness of which cannot help but rankleany right-thinking person. why should the big n always be on top when there are hundredsof other directions--thousands, if you get down to seconds of arc--that have an equallylegitimate claim on our affections? i grieve to think of the shattered dreams of, say,south southeast. people who live in the southern hemisphere, notably our friends the australians, like togive the impression they could care less about how maps are oriented. but don't bedeceived. an aussie friend of mine once showed me a world map printed up by her countrymenthat had south on top, thereby putting australia, as she rather ominously phrased it,"in its rightful place." mark my words, someday the slogan "down withyankee imperialism" will have shocking new meaning. but getting back to your question. the notion that north should always be up and east atthe right was established by the egyptian astronomer ptolemy (90-168 ad). "perhapsthis was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, andon a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-handcorner," historian daniel boorstin opines. mapmakers haven't always followed ptolemy;during the middle ages, boorstin notes, maps often had east on top --whence the expression"to orient." but north prevailed over the long haul. by the time southernhemispheroids had become numerically significant enough to bitch, the north-side-up convention was too well established to change. --cecil adams查看更多
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