纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 040银色霍克森胡椒瓶(2)

Today, I'm back with the Romans, in what they might have called the Far West, what we think of as Suffolk.

我们如今称为萨福克的地区，对罗马人来说算是远西，它是罗马的西部边陲。

We are around the year 400, and in England centuries of unprecedented¹ peace and prosperity are about to end in chaos². Across Western Europe the Roman Empire is fragmenting into a series of failed states, and in Britain the Roman leadership is conducting a phased withdrawal³. At moments like this it is tricky⁴ to be rich. There was no longer any organised military or civil force to protect them or their possessions, and as they fled, they left behind them some of the finest treasure ever found. Our object belongs to a fabulous⁵ collection of gold and silver buried in a field at Hoxne, Suffolk, around 410, and found nearly 1,600 years later...in 1992.

公元400年左右，不列颠几百年来的和平与繁荣即将结束于一场混乱。罗马帝国在西欧四分五裂，在英格兰的影响力也逐渐减弱。在动荡时期，富人的处境十分危险，不再有军队来保护他们的财产，因此，他们逃亡时留下了极为珍贵的宝藏。本文中的物品便是在公元410年左右埋藏在萨福克霍克森地区的金银财宝中的一件，1992年，它在藏1600余年后终于重见天日。

I'm holding a small statue of the upper half of a Roman matron, wearing very elaborate clothes and long dangly⁶ earrings⁷. Her hair is fantastically complicated, it's twisted and plaited in an elaborate "up-do", and she is obviously a seriously 'grande dame⁸' and very, very fashionable. She's about three inches high, so the size of a silver pepper pot - and indeed that is exactly what she is-a silver pepper pot. When I pick it up I can see that on the underside there is a clever mechanism⁹ which allows you to determine how much pepper will come out. You turn the handle and you can either close it completely, have it fully¹⁰ open, or in a kind of sprinkling mode.

我手里拿着的就是这样一尊看起来就像是一位罗马夫人的半身雕像，眼饰华美，挂着长耳环，发式精巧繁复，发辫盘在头顶。一望即知，这是位庄重的贵妇，衣着入时。雕像高约8厘米，大小如同一个胡椒罐。而它也恰恰就是一个银制胡椒罐，底部有精巧机关，可以控制胡椒的倒出量。只要扭动把手，就可以选择全开、全闭或半开。

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

3 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

4 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

5 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

6 dangly   

悬摆的，摆晃的

参考例句：

7 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

9 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。