旅游者成群结队地涌进华盛顿。他们挤满了快餐店,在国会大厦和白宫门外毫无秩序地排着队,购买T恤衫作纪念。这些人在事后也许会说他们在华盛顿过得挺不错。但他们大部分人看来过得相当糟糕。城里天气炎热,他们成群结队,也是暑热难当,汗流浃背地到处游逛。外国旅游者(从他们比较讲究的衣服就可能一眼认出来)秩序井然。日本人都跟在举小旗的导游身后,欧洲人围拢在讲德话或法语的导游周围,而美国人——父母亲穿着无袖衬衫,孩子们把棒球帽反扣在头上——则是三五成群地穿过满是灰尘的草地广场,从白宫向太空博物馆艰难跋涉。 我有时真想把一些拖儿带女的游客拉到一边,对他们讲:“瞧,没必要这么费劲儿。”当欧洲或亚洲的朋友到华盛顿来看望我,要我提供一些有关观光游览的建议时,我的这种希望就可以成真了。 如果来访者是日本人,我便建议他们春季来华盛顿。对任何人而言,春季都是游览这座城市的最佳时节,虽然有学 Travelers flocked to Washington in droves. They packed a fast food restaurant, lined up outside the Houses of Parliament and the White House in disorderly fashion, and bought T-shirts as souvenirs. These people may say after the fact that they fared well in Washington. But most of them seem pretty bad. The city hot weather, they are in droves, but also hot summer, sweat wandering around. Foreign tourists (as may be recognized from their more prestigious clothes) are in order. The Japanese are following behind the flag-giving tour guides, surrounded by European-speaking guides or French guides, and Americans - parents wearing sleeveless shirts and kids buckling their baseball caps - Thousands of people walk through the dusty lawn square in small groups and make trek from the White House to the Space Museum. Sometimes I really want to pull aside some drag-and-go tourists and tell them: “Look, it does not have to be so laborious.” When friends in Europe or Asia visit me in Washington, asking me to provide some information on sightseeing tours My suggestion could come true when I suggested it. If the visitors are Japanese, I would advise them to come to Washington in spring. For anyone, spring is the best time to visit the city, though it is learned