更美的世界09-盐一样的智慧

[00:00.00]Salted Wisdom 盐一样的智慧
[00:04.53]A story tells about a senior villager
[00:08.34]who led other villagers carrying salt day and night to a town
[00:11.98]in order to trade barley¹ as food for the winter.
[00:15.24]One night they camped in a wilderness² with a starry³ sky above.
[00:19.39]The senior villager, obeying the tradition passed down from ancestry⁴,
[00:24.01]took out three blocks of salt and threw them into the campfire,
[00:28.06]presumably to foretell⁵ the changes of weather in the mountains.
[00:31.65]All eagerly awaited the old man’s “weather report”:
[00:35.59]if the salt in the fire produced crackling sound,
[00:38.99]they would have good weather in store;
[00:41.28]if no sound was produced,
[00:43.15]it then meant the good weather would soon end
[00:45.97]and a storm would come at any moment.
[00:48.40]The senior villager looked serious.
[00:51.34]The salt in the campfire made no sound at all.
[00:54.19]Convinced by this bad omen⁶,
[00:56.59]he urged the whole team to set out immediately after daybreak.
[01:00.85]A young man in the group, however,
[01:02.94]insisted that they should not depart in such a hurry,
[01:05.55]deeming it absurdly superstitious⁷ to
[01:08.74]“forecast the weather by using salt”.
[01:10.80]It was not until the next afternoon
[01:13.44]that the young man caught up on the wisdom of the old man
[01:16.38]when the weather suddenly changed,
[01:18.47]with cold winds blowing and a snowstorm raging.
[01:21.96]In fact, the method employed by the clan⁸ head
[01:25.79]could be well explained by modern science:
[01:27.87]whether or not salt produces sound in campfire depends on air humidity.
[01:33.56]That is to say, when a storm approaches,
[01:36.73]due to high humidity,
[01:38.16]the dampened salt blocks will not produce any sound in fire.
[01:41.53]Young people often look down upon the philosophy of the old,
[01:45.60]regarding their ideas as obsolete⁹ and useless.
[01:48.87]In reality, however,
[01:50.72]some beliefs in life are just like salt blocks
[01:54.12]that are distilled¹⁰ from the sea;
[01:55.66]old as they are, they remain crystals,
[01:58.38]and carry with them profound memories of the sea.

1 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

2 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

3 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

4 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

5 foretell   

v.预言，预告，预示

参考例句：

• Willow trees breaking out into buds foretell the coming of spring.柳枝绽青报春来。
• The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。

6 omen   

n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示

参考例句：

• The superstitious regard it as a bad omen.迷信的人认为那是一种恶兆。
• Could this at last be a good omen for peace?这是否终于可以视作和平的吉兆了？

7 superstitious   

adj.迷信的

参考例句：

• They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。
• These superstitious practices should be abolished as soon as possible.这些迷信做法应尽早取消。

8 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

9 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

10 distilled   

adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• The televised interview was distilled from 16 hours of film. 那次电视采访是从16个小时的影片中选出的精华。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil. 汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。 来自《简明英汉词典》