世界小史 第35期:辽阔的平原

 　　Picture a vast plain, crossed by these two rivers.

　　你想象一个极其辽阔的平原，这两条河流经这个平原。

　　A land of heat and swamp and sudden floods.

　　这个平原上的土地又热又湿，有时洪水突如其来。

　　Here and there tall hills rise out of the plain.

　　在这个平原上到处都可以看到高大的山丘。

　　But if you dig into them you find that they aren't hills at all.

　　如果你挖掘它们，你会发现它们不是真正的山丘。

　　First you come across a lot of bricks and rubble¹, and when you dig deeper you meet stout², high walls.

　　首先你会找到一堆砖头和瓦砾，当你越挖越深时，你会看到高大、坚固的城墙。

　　For these hills are really ruined towns and great cities laid out with long, straight streets, tall houses, palaces and temples.

　　因为这些山丘其实是衰败的城市遗迹，有又长又笔直的街道，有高大的房屋、宫殿和庙宇。

　　But unlike Egypt's stone temples and pyramids, they were built with sun-baked bricks which cracked and crumbled³ over time, and eventually collapsed⁴ into great mounds⁶ of rubble.

　　它们不像埃及的庙宇和金字塔是用石头建成的，而是用砖瓦建成，它们在阳光照射下渐渐碎裂并最终崩坍成庞大的瓦砾堆。

　　One such mound⁵, standing⁷ in the desert, is all that remains⁸ of Babylon,今天在一个荒漠地区的一个这样的瓦砾堆，就是历史上的巴比伦，once the greatest city on earth, a city swarming⁹ with people who came there from every part of the world to trade their wares¹⁰.

　　它曾是世界上最大的城市，来自世界各地的大批人群聚集在这里，他们把他们的商品送到这里并进行交换。

　　Upstream, at the foot of the mountains, sits another. This was Nineveh, the second greatest city in the land.

　　逆流而上，如今在山边的一个这样的瓦砾堆是这个国家的第二大城市：尼尼微。

　　Babylon was the capital of the Babylonians–that's easy enough to remember–Nineveh was that of the Assyrians.

　　巴比伦是巴比伦人的首都——这容易记住——而尼尼微曾是亚述人的首都。

 

1 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

2 stout   

adj.强壮的，粗大的，结实的，勇猛的，矮胖的

参考例句：

• He cut a stout stick to help him walk.他砍了一根结实的枝条用来拄着走路。
• The stout old man waddled across the road.那肥胖的老人一跩一跩地穿过马路。

3 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。

4 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

5 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

6 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

10 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。