最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3 Unit15-Part2（在线收听）

[00:00.00]The ancient Olympic games, 

[00:02.94]which began in 776 BC, 

[00:05.67]lasted for over 1100 years. 

[00:08.84]In 394 AD, the Christian 

[00:13.00]Roman Emperor Theodosius abolished 

[00:16.50]the games, as pagan festivals. 

[00:19.35]At that time the Roman Empire 

[00:22.19]was in decline. The modern 

[00:24.49]Olympics have been around 

[00:27.00]for only a little 

[00:28.43]over 100 years, since 1896. 

[00:32.26]The Olympics of 776 BC 

[00:34.34]was the first,for which 

[00:38.17]there is a written record, 

[00:40.03]but it is believed that 

[00:41.55]these events existed before this. 

[00:44.07]There is evidence to show 

[00:46.70]that athletic contests took place 

[00:48.67]in Ancient Egypt, and 

[00:50.86]in the ancient Minoan civilization 

[00:53.05]on the island of Crete.

[00:55.45]A plain called Olympia, 

[00:57.75]in the small citystate 

[00:59.72]of Elis was the site 

[01:01.47]of the original Greek games. 

[01:03.11]At the beginning of

[01:05.62]every four years, a period 

[01:07.70]called an olympiad, 

[01:09.35]a major religious festival 

[01:11.42]with athletic competition, 

[01:12.84]took place at Olympia. 

[01:14.70]In ancient Greece, the early 

[01:18.43]Olympics did not rotate 

[01:20.35]from city to city, 

[01:22.48]but were permanently hosted 

[01:24.77]at Olympia,the place 

[01:26.63]from which the name 

[01:27.36]Olympics originated. If wars

[01:29.55]were taking place at the time, 

[01:32.18]as there usually were, a truce 

[01:34.37]would be made during 

[01:36.88]the military conflicts, soldiers 

[01:39.07]would drop their swords and 

[01:40.60]shields and accompany their opponents 

[01:42.57]on a safe passage to Olympia, 

[01:45.20]to enthusiastically participate 

[01:47.39]in the games. After the games, 

[01:51.76]the athletes would return 

[01:53.62]to the battlefields with 

[01:55.37]their companions, pick up 

[01:57.67]their weapons and resume 

[01:58.77]military engagements with their enemies, 

[02:01.17]often fighting to the death, 

[02:03.14]the athletic competitors

[02:05.33]whom they confronted only 

[02:06.97]a few days or weeks before.

[02:10.14]In the beginning, only free 

[02:13.09]Greekspeaking male athletes 

[02:15.61]could participate in the games, 

[02:18.12]women, slaves, and foreigners 

[02:20.97]were banned from competition. 

[02:23.38]Women were even barred 

[02:25.90]as spectators, not for 

[02:27.87]sexual reasons, but for 

[02:29.72]from 720 BC the male athletes 

[02:33.34]were usually naked down to 

[02:35.41]their bare feet when 

[02:37.38]they participated. Olympia was 

[02:40.01]a sacred place for men only, 

[02:42.41]a place to worship Zeus, 

[02:45.04]the principal Greek god. 

[02:47.45]However, women were not 

[02:49.74]completely excluded from competitive sports, 

[02:53.14]as they had their own games, 

[02:55.11]every four years as well, 

[02:57.40]called the Heraea, after Hera, 

[03:00.25]the wife of Zeus.