Long Bow Village lies in the southeast quarter of Shanxi Province on the high plateau country that butts against the back of the Taihang Mountains. It is 400 miles through which the Yellow River flows out onto the North CHina plain.
The South Shanxi plateau, known as the Shangtang(associated with heaven)because of its elevation, is itself creased with barren mountains, but between the ranges are wild valleys containing considearable areas of fertile soil. In the heart of one of these valleys lies the old county town of Changchih. The road running north from villages, and then climbs gently over a long hill. Just beyond the hill, where the land levels out again, is the village of Long Bow.
For hundreds of years, andy tired traveler who paused to rest at the crest of the hill and look out over the flat to the north saw substantially the same sight- a complex of adobe walls under a canopy of trees set in the middle of a large expanse of fields. These fields were barren, brown and desolate in winter, while in summer they were green, yellow and clothed with diverse crops.
If the traveler, reated at last, walked on down the hill, he found that the village street was but the continuation of the long gully that had brought him from the heights. Duing the heavy July rains the run-off from all the higher ground to the south rushed down the gully, poured along the village street and emptied into the village pond, a supply of soft water for washing clothes was periodically replenished, and in the shade of the willows by the water's edge a few women and girls could always be found scrubbing away on the flat rocks that served as washboard.
Both sides of this gully-like main street were lined with mud walls six to eight feet high, broken here and there by covered gateways that led into the courtyards of the people. Beside each gate was the family privy, hopefully placed at the edge of the public road in anticipation of a contribution to the domestic store of fertilizer from any traverler who might be in need of relief.
Running off at right angles from the main road were several smaller lanes, also lined with walls set at intervals with courtyard gates. From these lanes, still smaller alleys ran off in turn to other entrances so that the whole villiage was rather like a maze, regular in outline, yet haphazardly filled in with lanes, alleys, walls enclosing couryards, and low mud houses built against these walls.
不要用翻译软件，翻译请精准。我已经译好了一篇，只是有些地方不是很肯定，希望高人指点。如果翻译的很好可以附加分，谢谢：）
字数有限，没办法把我的翻译写上来