美国人制作的40张地图让你真正读懂全世界(组图)

　　Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. So when we saw a post sweeping the Web titled "40 maps they didn't teach you in school," one of which happens to be a WorldViews original, I thought we might be able to contribute our own collection. Some of these are pretty nerdy, but I think they're no less fascinating and easily understandable. A majority are original to this blog (see our full maps coverage here), with others from a variety of sources. I've included a link for further reading on close to every one.

　　对于理解世界以及世界是如何运作的这两方面来说，地图是一种极其强大的工具。但是地图只能够解释你提出的问题。因此，当我们在看到一个名为“他们没有在学校里教给你的40张地图”的帖子席卷网络，其中之一恰巧源于WorldViews(译注：即此文章专栏)时，我觉得我们或许可以做一个我们自己的版本。有一些地图可能过于书呆子气，但是我觉得它们的迷人程度并没有少一点儿，也很易于理解。其中大部分都是这个博客原创的，另一些来源各异。

　　1. A political map of the world, circa 200 A.D.

　　1.世界政治地图，约公元200年

　　What's more amazing: how much things have changed over the last 1,800 years, a major chunk of the civilizational history of humanity, or how many of this map's divisions are still with us today?

　　哪一个更令人惊讶：在近1800年以来，人类文明史上有多少事情已经沧海桑田;还是有多少地图上的不同今天仍是如此?

　　2. Where people are the most and least welcoming to foreigners

　　2.在哪里人们最欢迎和最不欢迎外国人

　　群众对外国游客的态度

　　图标小解：蓝色越深欢迎，红色越深越不欢迎

　　Click to enlarge. Data source: World Economic Forum. (Max Fisher/Washington Post)

　　This might be useful in planning your next vacation, although there are some big surprises in the results.

　　这对计划你的下个假期会有帮助，虽然结果可能会非常让人吃惊。

　　3. The world's major writing systems

　　3.世界主要书写系统

　　图标从上到下依次为：拉丁文，斯拉夫字母，韩文，其他字母，阿拉伯文，其他希伯来字母，梵文，其他元音附标文字，音节文字，象形文字(译注：非语言学专业，有误请指教)

　　Click to enlarge. (Wikimedia Commons)

　　This map is a reminder that the world's divisions and commonalities go much deeper than national borders. It also helps to tell the stories of a few major events that still shape the globe, the echoes of which you can see in almost every map on this page: European colonialism, the Arabic-speaking Islamic conquests of the 7th century, the Russian expansions of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the (still-ongoing!) unifications of India and China.

　　这张地图提醒了我们世界的不同与共性，要比国界更加深远。它还协助讲述了依旧塑造着全球格局的一些主要事件。几乎在这一页每一张地图上，你都能看到这些事件的余威：欧洲殖民主义，7世纪讲阿拉伯语的伊斯兰的征服，19和20世纪俄罗斯的扩张，以及(依然持续着的!)印度以及中国的统一。

　　4. The best and worst places to be born

　　4.最佳与最糟出生地

　　图标小解：蓝色越深为越佳出生地，红色越深为越糟出生地

　　Click to enlarge. Data source: Economist intelligence unit. (Max Fisher/Washington Post)

　　Here's how they decided which countries are best to born in and what this map tells us about the world.

　　这里是他们怎么认为出生于那些国家最好，以及这张地图告诉我们的关于这个世界的信息。加拿大华人网 http://www.sinoca.com/