美国学生世界地理教材 第139期:极昼之地(4)

 Long years ago the men of Scandinavia were fierce fighters, who drank a strong liquor¹ called "mead²" and used the skulls³ of their enemies for cups. 很久以前，斯堪的纳维亚人是非常残暴的好斗者，他们喝一种叫“蜂蜜酒”的烈性酒，把敌人的头骨当酒杯用。

They believed in fairy-tale gods and goddesses. 他们信奉神话中的各种神。

Thor, they believed, was a god who made the thunder and lightning. 他们相信，托尔是掌管雷电的神，

Tiu was the god of war. 蒂乌是战神，

So they named some of the days of the week after their gods; Tiu's day, Thor's day, Woden's day, Fria's day. 所以，他们就用这些神的名字来命名一周中的某些天：“蒂乌的日子”（Tiu's day），“托尔的日子”（Thor'sday），“沃登的日子”（Woden's day），“弗里亚的日子”（Fria'sday）。

Strange to say, four of the seven days of our week are still named after these Scandinavian gods, 奇怪的是，我们一周7天仍然有4天是按照斯堪的纳维亚人信奉的神的名字来命名的，

for those wild people who believed in those gods are the great-great-grandfathers of many of us. 因为信奉这些神的野蛮人是我们当中很多人的曾—曾—祖父。

Tuesday is Tiu's day, Thursday is Thor's day, Friday is Fria's day and Wednesday is Woden's day, 星期二是战神蒂乌的日子，星期四是雷神托尔的日子，星期五是和平之神弗里亚的日子，星期三是主神沃登的日子，

that's why we still have a "d" in Wednesday which we might forget in spelling, as we do not sound it now. 这就是为什么仍然在星期三中有“d”原因，这个“d”我们常常忘了将它拼出来，因为现在这个“d”不发音了。

Most people have forgotten that our week-days are named after heathen gods, but some think that we should not use such heathen names, 大多数人已经忘了一周中的日子都是根据异教徒的神来命名的，但有些人认为我们不应该使用异教信仰的名字，

so they use numbers instead of names for the days of the week, as in Bible⁴ times. 所以他们不用名字而用数字来表示一周中的这些日子，在《圣经》时代就是这样。

Dynamite⁵, you know, is something used to blow up things. 达纳炸药（又称黄色炸药）是用来炸毁东西用的。

It was invented by a man who lived in Sweden some years ago. 这种炸药是多年前住在瑞典的一个人发明的。

When he died he left a lot of money, 他去世的时候留下了大笔的钱，

and said that the interest from this money was to be given every year to the men or women who, no matter in what country they lived, had done the most for the World during that year. 他在遗言中交代，每年这笔钱的利息用来奖励那些在那一年里对世界作出最大贡献的人，不管来自哪个国家。

So each year judges go over all the things that have been done and choose those men or women who have done the most for the good of the World and give them the money. 所以，评奖委员每年都要仔细审核当年世界上的重大成就，然后挑选出对人类利益贡献最大的人，并授予他们奖金。

This man was named Nobel and the money is known as the Nobel Prize. 留下这笔钱的那个人名叫“诺贝尔”，这些奖金就被称为“诺贝尔奖”。

Two of our Presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—won the Nobel Prize for Peace and so did an American Negro⁶, Ralph Bunche. 美国有两位总统——西奥多.罗斯福和伍德罗.威尔逊——都获得过诺贝尔和平奖，还有一位美国黑人，拉尔夫.本奇，也获得过诺贝尔和平奖。

You yourself could win the Nobel Prize if you ever did something big enough and fine enough. 如果你做过什么贡献，只要极大，极卓越，就有可能获得诺贝尔奖。

Do you think you ever will? 你觉得你将来有这个可能吗？

1 liquor   

n.酒，烈性酒

参考例句：

• He keeps away from liquor and tobacco.他不喝酒，不抽烟。
• The liquor is not strong enough.这酒不够劲儿。

2 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

3 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

4 bible   

n.《圣经》；得到权威支持的典籍

参考例句：

• According to the Bible we are all the seed of Adam.根据《圣经》所说的，我们都是亚当的后裔。
• This dictionary should be your Bible when studying English.学习英语时，这本字典应是你的主要参考书。

5 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

6 Negro   

n./adj.黑人；黑人的

参考例句：

• It's impolite to call the black people Negro.称呼黑人为Negro是不礼貌的。
• He was the first Negro ever to enroll there.他是学院招收的第一个黑人学生。