听力文本

They are not live horses, yet they have traveled far. They were made about the time of Christ, out of bronze, and they have been carried away by one ruler and another from one place to another, and finally back again to Venice.

The largest piece of land in Venice is a paved square in front of St. Mark’s. In this square there are flocks of pigeons, and they are so tame they will alight on your hand or shoulder to be fed. People have pictures taken of themselves with pigeons on their head and shoulders and at their feet.Once upon a time Venice was saved from an enemy by a message brought by a carrier-pigeon, and ever since then Venetians treat pigeons as sacred, and they would arrest and punish any one who harmed a pigeon. Did you know that a pigeon discovered America? Yes, that’s a fact, for in Italian “Columbus” means “pigeon.” So his real name is Christopher Pigeon.

Venice is now only a city, but it used to be like a little country all by itself. It made its own money and it had its own ruler, who was called a Doge (dozhe), which means Duke. A Doge ruled like a president and lived in a palace like a king, and punished people who had done wrong, like a judge. Just across the water street from the Doge’s palace was the prison, and connecting his palace with the prison was a covered bridge. When a man was sent to prison by the Doge he crossed over this bridge, sighing and groaning, so it came to be called the “Bridge of Sighs.”

Theaters are sometimes named “The Rialto,” but The Rialto is not a theater. It is a bridge in Venice over the Grand Canal. It has shops along its sides. Venice was the shopping-place of Europe, and the Rialto was the department store of Venice, where every kind of thing was sold. There is a play written by William Shakspere, the English author, called “The Merchant of Venice.” The story is about a man who had a shop on the Rialto.

参考译文

它们不是活马，但却走过了很远的路。这四匹马大约是在耶稣在世时用青铜制作的，被一个又一个统治者从一个地方带到另一个地方，最终又回到了威尼斯。

威尼斯最大的一块空地是圣马可教堂前一个铺了砖石的广场。广场上有成群的鸽子，它们非常温顺，总是飞落到你的手上或肩上等你喂食。人们把鸽子在他们头上、肩上和脚边的情景拍摄下来。很久以前，一只信鸽送来了重要的情报，才使威尼斯免受敌人的袭击，保全下来，从此以后威尼斯人把鸽子奉为神圣之物，任何人伤害鸽子，都会被拘捕并受到惩罚。你知道“一只鸽子发现了美洲”这一说法吗？是的，那是真的，因为在意大利语中，“哥伦布”就是“鸽子”的意思。所以他真正的名字是克里斯托弗·鸽子。

威尼斯现在只是一个城市，但过去就像一个独立的小国家，自己造货币，也有自己的统治者，叫做总督，就是君主的意思。总督像总统一样统治国家，像国王一样住在宫殿里，像法官一样惩罚做坏事的人。总督府的水道对面就是监狱，连接总督府和监狱的是一座有篷的桥。被总督判刑送到监狱去的犯人跨过这座桥，总是一边叹息一边呻吟，因此这座桥后来就被叫做“叹息桥”。

城市的剧院区有时被叫做“里阿尔托”，但“里阿尔托”并不是剧院，而是威尼斯大运河上的一座桥，两边有商店。如果说威尼斯是欧洲的商场，那么里阿尔托则是威尼斯的百货商店，里面有各种各样的商品。英国作家莎士比亚写过一部戏剧叫做《威尼斯商人》，故事讲的就是一个在里阿尔托开店的人。