2015-12-09 History Channel:西恩宾回顾滑铁卢战役-16

Napoleon loved his cannons². He'd risen through the ranks as an artillery³ officer and he knew how brutally⁴ effective his so-called beautiful daughters could be. -What Napoleon actually wants to do is use these cannons to wear down the enemy. Yes, literally⁵ b*, hmm? There is a problem he's got on the day of the battle of Waterloo, and this is the clue to the problem. You can just have a look ahead of me here, Shown. I mean, look at this, completely waterlogged. This soil has taken an aweful lot of rain in the last 24 hours or so. And it's pretty much identical to what had happened prior to Waterloo, because for the 24 hours or so before it, it's just been non-stop rain. And the problem with soil like that is you can't manoeuvre⁶ guns in it. I've been roped in to help move a repilca of cannon¹ to position.

-You can see the problem you can move this gun on a relatively⁷ dry day.

This is Jim P*. He was a major in the royal artillery, and he is an expert on Waterloo cannons.

-It's heavy. It's hard work.

Waterloo artillery was much heavier than this and harder to move through the mud, So Napoleon faced an agonising way for the ground to dry before he could get his cannons up and running. But the clock was ticking. 

1 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

2 cannons   

n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cannons bombarded enemy lines. 大炮轰击了敌军阵地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One company had been furnished with six cannons. 某连队装备了六门大炮。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

4 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 manoeuvre   

n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动

参考例句：

• Her withdrawal from the contest was a tactical manoeuvre.她退出比赛是一个战术策略。
• The clutter of ships had little room to manoeuvre.船只橫七竖八地挤在一起，几乎没有多少移动的空间。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。