听力文本

A pickled man is called a mummy, and the mummies of many such rulers of Egypt are now in museums.
One of the Seven Wonders of the World was these mountains of stone called pyramids, which the kings built when they were alive, to be tombs for themselves when dead. Each king tried to build a bigger and better pyramid than the king before him. The largest pyramid was built by a king called Cheops, who died nearly three thousand years before Christ was born. It is said that it took one hundred thousand people ten years to build his tomb.
The outsides of the pyramids used to be smooth slanting walls, but people have taken out stone from the sides to build other buildings, so that now the outsides of the pyramids are as rough as piled-up heaps of stones and you can climb from stone to stone on up to the top. Cheops’s tomb and most of the other tombs or pyramids are of solid rock, with just a small room in the center, which was left for the body of the king and the things he had used when he was alive. The old Egyptians thought they must keep their furniture and other things around them, so that on the Judgment Day, when they should be awakened from their long sleep, they would be all ready to go on housekeeping. After Cheops’s body was put into the tomb the passageway leading to it was filled up tight with stone, and all traces of the opening were hidden so that no one could find it and steal his body away. But, nevertheless, some one did find it out, stole his mummy and all the things that had been left there for his use in the next World, and if his soul ever returns it will find nobody.
The ancient Egyptians worshiped fairy-tale gods and even animals. Bulls and beetles were sacred and they made mummies of them.

参考译文

一个用防腐剂处理后的人叫做“木乃伊”。许多这样的木乃伊——埃及曾经的统治者——现在就存放在博物馆里。
“世界七大奇观”之一就是这些被称作“金字塔”的石山。埃及国王生前就把金字塔建好，作为死后的陵墓。每一位国王都想建一座比前一位国王更大、更好的金字塔。最大的金字塔是一位叫“胡夫”的国王建造的，他是在耶稣诞生前三年去世的。据说十万人用了十年的时间才建成了他的陵墓。
金字塔的外表本来是光滑的斜墙，但是，后来人们从中取出石头去建造其他建筑，于是，金字塔的外侧现在像是堆积起来的石头堆那样参差不齐，你可以踩着一块一块的石头往上爬到顶部。胡夫的墓和其他大多数的墓或金字塔都是由坚固的岩石建成的，只在金字塔的中心部位留了一小块地方，用来存放国王的尸体和他生前使用过的一些东西。古代埃及人认为，死后必须把一些家具和其他东西放在身边，这样，在最后审判日，当他们从漫长的睡眠中被唤醒后，就一切准备就绪，继续居家过日子了。胡夫的尸体被放进陵墓之后，就把通向内部的通道用石头填满了，封口处没有缝隙，不留下任何痕迹，这样就能防止别人发现并偷走他的尸体。但是，仍然有人发现了通道，偷走了木乃伊和所有留在那儿准备让胡夫在另一个世界使用的东西。假如他的灵魂回来的话，也找不到自己的身体了。
古代埃及人崇拜神话中的各种神，甚至动物。公牛和甲虫在当时是神圣的，人们还把它们制成木乃伊。