听播客学英语 29 是马还是狗

 　　A long time ago, I made a podcast about graffiti, and the graffiti artist called Banksy. ‘Graffiti’ means pictures or writing painted illegally on a wall or a building, or the side of a train or a bus. Many people think that graffiti are unsightly.

　　We have a very special sort of rural graffiti in England. Over a large part of southern England, the rock underneath¹ the ground is chalk. Chalk is a sort of limestone². It is made of the bodies of tiny sea creatures which lived millions of years ago. If you take away the grass and other plants from a chalk hillside, you will reach the white chalk rock underneath. Someone, a long time ago, discovered that you can remove the grass to make a picture or pattern on the chalk hillside.

　　We call a picture on the side of a chalk hill a “hill figure”. A “figure” here just means the shape of a body of a man or an animal. There is also a scientific term “geoglyph” which means a hill figure. “Geoglyph” is not a word we use every day, but you might like to remember it to impress your English teacher! There are nearly 60 surviving hill figures in England. Many of them are horses, though there are also human figures and military badges. There was also at one time a hill figure in the shape of a map of Australia, but it has now disappeared. Among the human figures are the Long Man of Wilmington, and the Cerne Abbas Giant. There is a picture of the Cerne Abbas giant on the website – he is naked, and .. oh, children, look away now!

　　The Cerne Abbas Giant

　　Some people like to think that the hill figures are very ancient. You will find web sites which say that they were made by the Celts, the people who lived in this country 2000 and more years ago, and that they were part of the Celts’ magical religion. However, the truth is that most hill figures are quite recent. Many date from the 19th century, and often we know the name of the person who made them. Some are older, but with one important exception which I will talk about in a minute, experts think that they are not more than about 400 years old.

　　Hill figures need to be maintained. In time, the grass grows over them and they disappear. We know of at least 57 more hill figures which existed at one time but are now lost. Hill figures have survived only because local people have been willing, every few years, to repair the figure and remove the grass which has grown on it.

　　The hill figures are fun and interesting, but they are not generally great works of art. They look as if a horse or a man has laid down on the side of the hill while people cut away the grass around them. They are a bit like children’s drawings. The White Horse at Uffington is different. There is a picture of it on the website. It has lines which suggest the shape of the horse – its back, its legs, its head. The horse looks as if it is moving – galloping³ across the hillside. The person who made it was obviously a talented artist. Perhaps it will not surprise you to know that the Uffington White Horse really is old. We think it was created in the Bronze Age, between 2,500 and 4,000 years ago. Why did the Bronze Age people make the horse? Does it have a religious meaning? Or did the artist just look at the empty hillside and say – like a graffiti artist today – “I want to fill that empty space with a really big horse!”

　　But is it a horse? Recently, a retired⁴ vet⁵ called Olaf Swarbrick has argued that the figure cannot be a horse, because it is too long and thin. Mr Swarbrick says that it is probably a dog, perhaps a hunting dog. This has caused a fuss in the press. We English have fixed⁶ ideas about our history and we do not like it when someone has new ideas. The National Trust, who own the land on which the horse or dog is situated⁷, say it is definitely a horse. But what do you think? Horse or dog? You can vote on the website.

1 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

2 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

3 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

6 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

7 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。