美国有线新闻 CNN 为什么许多古埃及雕像都没有鼻子?

The northern and southern kingdoms of what nation were unified¹ in 3100 B.C.? India, Egypt, Persia or Japan. Events around the year 3100 B.C. resulted in the unification of ancient Egypt.

下列哪个国家的南北两个王国在公元前3100年统一？印度、埃及、波斯还是日本？公元前3100年左右发生的事件使古埃及实现了统一。

One thing you might notice when looking at many statues from ancient Egypt is that they're missing their noses. Of course these artifacts are thousands of years old. Someone might think the noses would be the first things to fall or break off. But a museum curator in New York City was asked the question so many times that he started researching why the noses were missing, and he found out that the faces were defaced on purpose.

在看到许多古埃及的雕像时，你可能会注意到这些雕像都没有鼻子。当然，这些文物都有数千年的历史。有人可能认为鼻子会是最先脱落或断裂的部位。而纽约市一名博物馆馆长因为被问到这个问题太多次，所以他开始研究为什么雕像上的鼻子会不见，他发现，这些雕像的面部是被故意损坏的。

The reasons are complicated. Power struggles between rulers. Changes in or disagreements over religion, political division, personal grudges². All of these are likely reasons for the damage, the criminal acts, the vandalism.

原因很复杂。比如统治者之间的权力斗争。还有宗教、政治分裂以及个人恩怨方面的变化或分歧。所有这些都可能是造成损害、犯罪行为或故意毁坏的原因。

But why specifically the noses? The curators suggest that because the nose allows someone to breathe, removing it would make that impossible and effectively kill the statue that represents somebody. There are many other ways including natural ones. These relics³ decay or become damaged over the millennia⁴ and ahead of its opening this year, the Grand Egyptian Museum hired a number of experts to bring artifacts back to nearly original condition.

但为什么是鼻子呢？馆长认为，这是因为鼻子可以让人呼吸，而去除鼻子会令人无法呼吸，继而有效地杀死雕像代表的人。还有很多其他方法，包括自然方式在内。这些文物历经数千年，已遭受腐蚀或损坏，在今年开馆之前，大埃及博物馆聘请多位专家将文物恢复到接近原始状态。

1 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

2 grudges   

不满，怨恨，妒忌( grudge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never grudges money. 他从不吝惜金钱。
• They bear grudges against each other. 他俩有过节儿。

3 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

4 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。