英语听力：自然百科 圣城麦加（在线收听） |
Mecca sits in the western mountains of Saudi Arabia, in a sanctuary roughly 100 mile square. Since long before Islam, it has been considered sacred territory where no one could hunt, cut trees or fight. At the heart of the city is a great mosque called Masjid al-Haram(麦加圣寺) and at its center is the Kaaba（恺阿白清真寺）. Muslims don’t worship the Kaaba. They worship what it represents -- the One God. Hajj(哈吉，即朝圣) takes place in and around Mecca. It is the series of rituals, performed between the 8th and 13th days of the last month of the Islamic calendar. While surfing(不确定) the Kaaba is the final act of the pilgrimage, it is also the top priority for pilgrims when they first get to Mecca.
For Muslims who’ve prayed in this direction every day for years, seeing the Kaaba for the first time is almost overwhelming.
Now to the valley of Mina, where the prophet Muhammad stopped and rested on his Hajj nearly 14 centuries ago. This is a town that grows from virtually zero to two million people overnight.
At dawn on the next day, the camps stir with anticipation for the greatest day of the Hajj. Two million people are off to the Plain of Arafat（阿拉法特平原）.
Some 50,000 vehicles crowd the roads. Arafat is eight miles east of Mina. It’s the place Muslims believe Adam and Eve found each other after exile from Eden. And it’s seen by many as a rehearsal for the Day of Judgment.
“It’s Judgment Day. All the trappings of lives sort of fall away, and you see these people in front of God Almighty. And that’s all there is.”
A strange choir descends in the afternoon as people turn inward. It’s called “the Standing at Arafat”. Only when the sun has set can pilgrims leave Arafat. Nearly two million people stand poised to move as soon as the sun dips below horizon.
The pilgrims move back toward the white tents of Mina where tomorrow they will engage in the symbolic battle with the devil. Here Muslims believe God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, but the devil challenged him not to. One story says, Abraham pelted（砸向，掷向） the devil with stones, three separate times, chasing him away.
Three stone pillars marked the spots where Abraham stood his ground. At a place called Muzdalifah, on the way to the pillars, pilgrims pick up pebbles to stone Satan themselves. The ritual is called the "Jamarat"(贾马拉大桥,投石驱魔仪式所在地).
With all other rights complete, pilgrims return to Mecca for a grand party visit. They have all earned an honorific title, Haji for the men, Hajjah for the women. Pilgrims arrive along amid a current of million strangers and go home riding a spiritual wave of rebirth. |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/zrbaike/2010/256418.html |