听力文本

There are three most famous places in Palestine. The first is the place where Christ was born, the second isthe place where Christ lived, and the third is the place where Christ died.

Christ was born in Bethlehem, which is a dirty little village, not at all like the heavenly place with angels hovering over it that you see in pictures and on Christmas cards. Christ’s father and mother were traveling and happened to stop in Bethlehem over night when Christ was born. A church was built over the place where Christ was supposed to have been born, and a silver star is in the floor to mark the exact spot." The factis that no one knows "the exact spot," but we do know that the church over the supposed spot is the oldest church in the World.

Though Christ was born in Bethlehem, He spent most of His early life in another town in Palestine called Nazareth, for Nazareth was His home town and there His father, Joseph, lived and worked. Joseph was a carpenter, and in Nazareth guides point out Joseph’s carpenter shop, the work-bench where Christ worked with the sawand hammer and other tools He used. They also point out the kitchen where Christ’s mother, Mary, cooked themeals for the family. But just as we cannot believe what the guides tell us about the "exact spot" in Bethlehem, so we cannot believe what they tell us about most of the "exact spots" in Nazareth. There is, however, one exact spot which we can believe. That is a well where they say Mary went to get water, and this may actually be the same well, for there never has been any other place in Nazareth where one could get water. Therewas no such thing as running water in each house.

参考译文

在巴勒斯坦，有三个最有名的地方。第一个是耶稣出生的地方，第二个是耶稣生活的地方，第三是耶稣去世的地方。

耶稣出生在伯利恒，那是一个又小又脏的村庄，完全不像我们在图画或圣诞卡片中看到的那种情景：天堂般的样子，还有天使在空中飞来飞去。耶稣的父母外出旅行，途中在伯利恒过夜，就在那天晚上，耶稣出生了。人们在据说是耶稣出生的地方修建了一座教堂，地板上现在有一颗银制的星星标明“耶稣出生的确切地点”。事实上，没有人知道哪里是“确切地点”，但有一点我们可以肯定，那个建在所谓“耶稣出生地”的教堂是世界上最古老的教堂。

耶稣虽然出生在伯利恒，但是他童年的大部分时光是在巴勒斯坦的另一个城镇度过的。这个城镇名叫拿撒勒，因为拿撒勒是耶稣的家乡，是他父亲约瑟生活和工作的地方。约瑟是一个木匠，所以，在拿撒勒，导游会给旅游者指出约瑟的木匠店，还有一个工作台，那是耶稣拿着锯子、锤子以及其他工具干活的地方。导游还会指出耶稣母亲玛莉亚为全家烧饭的厨房。但是，在拿撒勒，导游所说的那些“确切地点”，大多数我们都不全相信，就像在伯利恒我们不相信导游说的“确切地点”一样。然而有一处“确切地点”，我们可以相信，那是一口井，据说那就是玛莉亚打水的井，而这很可能真是那井，因为在拿撒勒没有其他地方可以打到水。那时每户人家里也没有自来水这样的东西。