英语听力：探索发现 2012-08-05 爱尔兰的故事 Story Of Ireland—10

 This type of inscribed¹ stone is usually found only in Ireland or the far western fringes of Britain. These lines represent the oldest form of the Irish language.

 

Michael, what is this stone?

 

Well, it is a small Roman column, but what's very different about it is it's got this inscription² on it in Ogham. And this transliterates to a man's name, Tepicatus. And here on this line, he is beginning to describe his lineage, just as you’d find on any Ogham stone. 

 

I mean I have seen this, you know, tucked away graveyards³ in Ireland or in the middle of fields surrounded by trees. But there it is, an hour’s drive from London.

 

Yes, away away away from other finds of such stones. 

 

It's extraordinary to me, this idea that you have an Irishman who sets out, settles among people from everywhere, from all corners of the empire. 

 

It truly was a multi-cultural, multi-lingual world you have lived. 

 

And it’s not just the one person, but it's a group, it's a family, and it's other people supporting a community. Now it may be he was big figure. He was a local king, I mean who knows?  Because we have another Celtic man from another end of Roman town story up in Wroxeter who did describe himself as a king. So you may have had an Irishman who had his domain⁴ here in those sort of end days of the Roman world in the fifth, sixth century. 

 

The Roman Empire in which Tepicatus lived was already in decline. But its impact was still profound. Christianity had become the state religion. Clerics were dispatched all over the Europe to spread the word.

 

The faith that would come to be seen as a core part of Irish identity was brought to an island steeped in the worship of pagan gods. Roman's first bishop⁵ to Ireland was dispatched in A.D. 431. He was Palladius, the son of a Roman general who found by one account that the fierce and cruel man did not receive his doctrine⁶ readily.

1 inscribed   

v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接

参考例句：

• His name was inscribed on the trophy. 他的名字刻在奖杯上。
• The names of the dead were inscribed on the wall. 死者的名字被刻在墙上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 inscription   

n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文

参考例句：

• The inscription has worn away and can no longer be read.铭文已磨损，无法辨认了。
• He chiselled an inscription on the marble.他在大理石上刻碑文。

3 graveyards   

墓地( graveyard的名词复数 )； 垃圾场； 废物堆积处； 收容所

参考例句：

• He takes a macabre interest in graveyards. 他那么留意墓地，令人毛骨悚然。
• "And northward there lie, in five graveyards, Calm forever under dewy green grass," 五陵北原上，万古青蒙蒙。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学

4 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

5 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

6 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。