听力文本

Some people, called Veneti, were troubled by a wild tribe from the north. So they moved to these islands to get away from these annoying tribes. The Veneti cut posts made of cedar wood, which does not easily rot, and drove them down into the water, and on top of these posts they built their houses. The Veneti lived chiefly on fish, which they caught in large numbers, because all they had to do was to drop a line or net out of the front door. In fact, they caught so many fish they could not eat them all. So they gathered salt by drying seawater and salted the fish so that they would keep.

As the Veneti lived on the water they had to be good sailors, and they were. So they sailed to all corners of the Mediterranean Sea, selling their salt fish and selling salt too, and bringing back in payment silk gowns and rugs and jewels. Then people from all over Europe came to Venice to buy these things which the Veneti had brought back in exchange for this fish and salt, and Venice became the greatest shopping-place, the greatest market, in Europe. So the Venetians, as the Veneti came to be called, kept on getting richer and richer. They built beautiful palaces along the canals, and as they believed a certain saint had brought good luck to them and their city, they built a beautiful church to him. This saint was St. Mark. They found his bones and buried them in this church underneath the altar. St. Mark’s Church is different-looking from any of the churches I have told you about so far. It has five domes, one on each side and one big dome in the center, but these domes are not like those of St.Paul’s or the Capitol—they are shaped like an onion.

Pictures are usually painted with paint, and you have probably never seen colored pictures made without paint. But the inside of St. Mark’s, and the outside too, is covered with hundreds of pictures, not made with paint but out of bits of colored stone and gold and colored glass. Such pictures are called mosaics. They will not fade nor peel off, nor wash off, as painted pictures might do.

As you might have a dog for a pet, St. Mark was supposed to have had a lion for a companion, so on top of a column, out in front of his church, the Venetians put a bronze statue of a lion with wings. Over the door of the church there are four horses.

参考译文

一个叫做威尼西亚的民族，受到北方一个野蛮部落的不断侵扰，于是来到这些小岛上，避开这些讨厌的部落。威尼西亚人把不易腐烂的雪松木削成木桩，把木桩敲进水底，然后在木桩上建起房屋。威尼西亚人的主食是鱼，他们能捕到大量的鱼，因为他们只要从房屋前门向水中丢下一根钓鱼线或者撒下一张渔网，就能逮住鱼。甚至，他们捕的鱼多得吃不完。他们就蒸发海水获得盐，用盐腌鱼，鱼就能保存下去了。

由于威尼西亚人住在水上，他们就必须擅长海上航行，实际上也确实如此。他们航行到地中海的每个角落，把咸鱼和盐卖掉，换回丝绸外袍、小毛毯和珠宝。然后欧洲各地的人都到威尼斯购买威尼西亚人用鱼和盐换来的这些好东西，威尼斯因此就发展为欧洲最大的商场和最大的市场。威尼西亚人也被称为威尼斯人了，他们变得越来越富有。他们在运河沿岸建造了一些美丽的宫殿。威尼斯人认为有个圣人给他们和他们的城市带来了好运气，于是就建了一个教堂纪念他。这位圣人叫圣马可。他们找到了他的遗骨，并把遗骨埋在这个教堂里的祭坛下。圣马可教堂的外观和我以前介绍过的任何一个教堂都不一样。它有五座圆顶，四边各有一座，中间是一座大圆顶，但是这些圆顶和圣保罗大教堂或国会大厦的圆顶不一样——它们的形状像洋葱头。

画通常是用颜料画的，你也许从未见过不是用颜料画的彩色画。但是在圣马可教堂里面和外面布满了许许多多画，都不是用颜料画的，而是用彩色石头、黄金和彩色玻璃一小片一小片镶嵌而成的。这种画叫做“马赛克”。不会像颜料画那样褪色或脱落，也不会被水洗掉。

就像你可能会养条小狗做宠物那样，据推断圣马可也养了个狮子做伴，于是在圣马可教堂前的圆柱上威尼斯人放了一头长翅膀的狮子青铜雕像。在教堂门的上方有四匹马。