奥运知识—Olympia和Olympiad:它们有区别么

 The Olympic Games as we know them taday have a long history which goes back to ancient times. Everything started in the Peloponnese, in Greece, some 3000 years ago.

Sports competitions were organised at Olympia and were named after their location, hence¹ their name of Olympic Games. Nobody knows exactly when they began, but the first written mention of the competitions is dated to 776 BC.

Theses² Games were held at the same place every four years. This four-year period acquired the name Olympiad, and was used as a date system: time was counted in Olympiads, rather than years.

重点词汇

Peloponnese  n. （希腊南部）伯罗奔尼撒半岛
Olympia  n. 奥林匹亚，（希腊）伯罗奔尼撒半岛西部的平原
Olympiad  n. (四年一次的)奥林匹克世界运动大会, 四年周期

1 hence   

adv.因此，所以；从此，今后

参考例句：

• It's handmade and hence expensive.这是手工做的，因此很贵。
• It is very late; hence you must go to bed.时间已经很晚了，因此你必须睡觉去。

2 theses   

指挥棒的朝下挥动； 论题( thesis的名词复数 )； 命题； 论文； 毕业（或学位）论文

参考例句：

• Two Ph. D. theses attest to the results of his work. 有两篇哲学博士论文论证了他的研究结果。
• The collection of the theses is ready for publication. 这本论文集已准备好可以出版了。