听力文本

The Land of the Gods

THE first book I ever read was sop's Fables. Æsop was a slave who lived in a little country called Greece. sop the slave wrote such famous fables that his master set him free. The book I read was in English, but the Fables were first written in Greek.

Greece is so small that if I pointed to it on the map down at the corner of Europe it would be entirely covered by the tip of my finger. But small as it is, it was at one time the greatest country, its people were the greatest people, and its language the greatest language in the World. When the rest of the people in Europe were ignorant savages the people in Greece were writing the greatest books, building the most beautiful buildings, making the most beautiful statues, and teaching the most famous schools that have ever been. There is one Book that was first written in Greek but is now printed in over eight hundred languages, and more people have read it than any other book in the World. It's the Bible—the New Testament part.

But the people of Greece didn't at first believe in the Bible or Christ. They didn't believe in only one god but in many gods, who they said lived above the clouds on the top of a mountain called Olympus. The mountain is still there, but if you should climb to the top you wouldn’t find any gods. When the sun shone the Greeks said that the god Apollo was driving his golden chariot across the sky. When the rain fell they said another god, Jupiter, was watering the earth, and when the lightning flashed they said he was angry and throwing thunderbolts.

参考译文

众神之国

我读过的最早一本书是《伊索寓言》。伊索曾经是一个奴隶，生活在一个叫“希腊”的小国。身为奴隶，伊索却写了很多著名的寓言故事，于是他的主人就给了他自由。我读的那本书是英译本，但是《伊索寓言》最初是用希腊文写的。

希腊是个很小的国家，在地图上，它位于欧洲下方一个角落里，如果我用手指着它，指尖就会把它完全盖住。但是，尽管很小，这个国家曾经有一个时期却是世界上最伟大的国家，希腊人民是世界上最伟大的民族，希腊语是世界上最伟大的语言。当其他欧洲人还是愚昧无知的野蛮人的时候，希腊人正在创作世界上最伟大的著作，建造最漂亮的建筑，制作最美丽的雕像，创办迄今为止最著名的学校。有一本书最初是用希腊文写的，现在这本书以800多种语言出版发行，是世界上拥有读者最多的一本书，这本书就是圣经—《新约》部分。

然而，希腊人最初并不信奉《圣经》或基督。他们不相信只有一个神，而是相信有很多神。根据他们的说法，这些神居住在一座名叫“奥林匹斯山”山顶的云上。奥林匹斯山依然屹立在那儿，但是，如果你爬上山顶，就会发现根本没有神。当太阳照耀大地的时候，希腊人说太阳神阿波罗正驾着他的金色双轮战车驶过天空；下雨时，他们说是另一位神，主神朱庇特，正在给地球浇水，当闪电划过天空的时候，他们说是因为他愤怒了而正在轰击雷霆。