世界小史(MP3+中英字幕) 第43期:尼布甲尼撒
日期:2016-03-23 14:04

(单词翻译:单击)

The last great Babylonian king was Nebuchadnezzar.

最后一个伟大的巴比伦国王是尼布甲尼撒。

He lived around 600 BC and is remembered for his feats of war.

他生活在公元前600年左右,他的几次战绩使他出了名。

He fought against Egypt and brought a vast number of foreign captives home to Babylon as slaves.

他曾与埃及人作战并把大批外族俘虏带到巴比伦当奴隶。

And yet his truly greatest deeds were not his wars: he had huge canals and water cisterns dug in order to retain the water and irrigate the land,

但是他真正最伟大的业绩并不是他的战绩,而是他为浇灌土地而修建的水渠和蓄水池,

so that it became rich and fertile.

因而这块土地变得富饶肥沃。

Only when those canals became blocked with silt and the cisterns filled with mud did the land become what it is today:

自从这些水渠被掩埋,蓄水池被淤塞,这地方才变成今天这样:

a desert wasteland and marshy plain with, here and there, one of those hills I mentioned.

到处都是荒漠或像沼泽似的平原,也就是我提到过的那些山。

So, whenever we are glad that the week is nearly over, and Sunday is coming round again,

当我们为一周就要结束、星期日就要来临而感到高兴时,

we must spare a thought for those hills of rubble in that hot and marshy plain, and for those fierce kings with their long, black beards.

我们应该花些时间想想那个炎热的沼泽地里的那些废墟,想到那些蓄着长长的黑胡子的国王。

For now we know how it all fits together.

因为我们现在知道,这一切与我们现在有着某种关联。

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重点单词
  • vastadj. 巨大的,广阔的 n. 浩瀚的太空
  • retainvt. 保持,保留; 记住
  • wastelandn. 荒地,未开垦地
  • spareadj. 多余的,闲置的,备用的,简陋的 v. 抽出,饶
  • irrigatevi. 进行灌溉 vt. 灌溉
  • plainn. 平原,草原 adj. 清楚的,坦白的,简单的,平坦
  • siltn. 淤泥 v. (使)淤塞
  • fertileadj. 肥沃的,富饶的,能繁殖的,多产的,(创造力)丰
  • marshyadj. 沼泽般的,湿软的