希腊神话故事 01

Pandora’s Box

When the gods created the earth, they made it a perfect place for man. Each of the gods gave man a gift, such as strength, intelligence¹, and skills, and they filled the earth with everthing that man nennded to live happily. Fruit tree grew everywhere, and beautiful flowers gave out a delicious drink called nectar that gave people energy. No people needed to work or hunt, and people never grew old or sick or died.

The only thing that the gods did not give man was fire. This they kept for themselves. They feared that giving man fire would make him as powerful² as the gods and would cause him to destroy the many wonderful things that the gods had put on earth.

One day, the Titan named Prometheus stole some fire from heaven and gave it to man. Though man knew that fire was the possession³ of the gods, they still accepted Prometheus’gift. Zeus was very angry at this and decided⁴ to punish man. He called on Hephaestus, the gods of metal and fire, ang asked him to build a woman out of stone. Aphrodire, the goddess of love, modeled for the statue so that it would be beautiful. When it was finished, Athena breathed life into the cold stone and it came alive. Then each of the gods gave the woman a gift. Aphrodite taught her how to dance and how to attract any man without even having to look at him. Athena gave her great wisdom⁵. Apollo taught her how to play many musical instrumenta, and the Muse’s taught her how to sing. Hermes taught her how to speak wonderful lies that made other people happy. The last gift was given to her by Hera, Zeus’ wife, and this was curiosity⁶.The gods then named her Pandora, which means⁷, “All-gifted” and placed her down on earth with all the common men.

1 intelligence   

n.智力，聪明，智能；情报

参考例句：

• He was a man of intelligence and of firmness of will.他是个聪明而又意志坚定的人。
• He equals me in strength but not in intelligence.他和我力气相等，但智力不同。

2 powerful   

adj.有力的，有权力的，强大的

参考例句：

• The UN began to get more and more powerful.联合国开始变得越来越强大了。
• Such are the most powerful voices of our times!这些就是我们时代的最有力的声音！

3 possession   

n.拥有，具有，占有，控制；所有物，所有权，财产；着魔，着迷

参考例句：

• According to facts in my possession he can't possibly be guilty.根据我所掌握的事实，他是不可能有罪的。
• The land is in the possession of the merchant.这块地为该商人所有。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 wisdom   

n.智慧，明智的行为，学识，名言，贤人

参考例句：

• Experience is the mother of wisdom.经验为智慧之母。
• Ancient Greece was a fountain of wisdom and philosophy.古希腊是智慧和哲学的发源地。

6 curiosity   

n.好奇心，新奇的事物，珍品

参考例句：

• He gave in to curiosity and opened my letter.他抑制不住好奇心，拆开了我的信。
• The children are dying of curiosity to see what's in the parcel.孩子们出于好奇，迫不及待地想看看包裹中是什么东西。

7 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。