(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
A 525-year-old copy of a letter by Christopher Columbus, stolen from the Vatican, was returned this week. An investigation by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Vatican located the letter.
We are returning it to its rightful owner, said U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Callista Gingrich, at a ceremony in the Vatican Library.
Columbus wrote the letter to the king and queen of Spain after discovering "The New World." He described what he had found and requested money for another trip.
His original letter was written in Spanish. But several copies of a Latin translation were made to spread news of his discovery to the royal courts of Europe and the Pope.
One of the Latin letters, copied by Stephan Plannack in 1493, was put in the Vatican Library. Known as the Columbus Letter, it has eight pages, each about 18.5 cm by 12 cm.
In 2011, an American expert in rare manuscripts received a similar looking letter. After reviewing it, he decided that it was real.
The year before, the same expert had studied a Columbus Letter in the Vatican Library and suspected that it was a fake. One reason was that the stitching marks on the letter were not the same as those on the cover.
The letter in the United States, however, had the exact same stitching marks as the leather cover of the fake letter he had studied in the Vatican.
The expert, who was not identified, contacted Homeland Security art investigators, who began working with Vatican inspectors and rare book experts.
They believed that someone took the real letter out of its cover at the Vatican Library and replaced it with a fake one.
Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues is the Vatican's chief librarian. He said, We do not know exactly when the substitution took place. We will probably never know who the forger was.
Their investigations found that Marino Massimo De Caro, a well known Italian book thief, had sold the real letter to a New York book dealer.
De Caro is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Italy for stealing about 4,000 ancient books and manuscripts from Italian libraries and private collections.
The late collector David Parsons bought the letter for $875,000 in 2004. After the investigations, his widow agreed to return the letter to the Vatican Library.
Officials said the letter is now worth about $1.2 million.
I'm Mario Ritter.
重点解析
1.return sth to sb 将……还给……
One day you see the dog escape and return it to her.
有一天你看到了这条狗并把它交还给了邻居。
2.the New World 新大陆
It was a huge celebration for a hard-earned harvest in the first year after the first group of immigrants arriving in the New World.
来源于美洲新大陆第一批移民为庆祝到达新大陆之后第一年的辛苦劳作获得的丰收而举行的盛大宴会。
3.the same as 跟……一样
I deal with people there, the same as what I would do here.
但是在那里我是分管人事工作的，这一点与我将在这里工作一样。
4.begin doing sth 开始做某事
I still got up at 5am this morning, and then I'll begin doing the naps every 4 hours starting this afternoon.
我依然早上5点起床，下午就开始每4个小时打一次盹。
5. who began working with Vatican inspectors and rare book experts.
work with 与……合作/共事
You have to work with him.
你得和他一起工作。
No one wants to work with someone like that.
没有人愿意与这样的人一起工作。
6.After the investigations, his widow agreed to return the letter to the Vatican Library.
agree to do sth 同意做某事
If it is a stock (or other security, including a bond), you can borrow it and agree to sell the stock to someone at some specified date in the future at a specified price.
如果是一支股票（或者其他证券，如债券），你可以从别处融券（借股票），并同意在未来某个指定日期、以某个指定价格卖给某人。
Imagine your neighbour asks you to water their plants while they're on holiday Socially, it looks good for you if you agree to do it.
试图想象一下你的邻居友好地请你在他们出去度假的时候给他们的植物浇水，看上去同意他们是不错的选择。
通常，最初的拓扑结构并不要求另外的中介，因此这成为了一个好的选择。
参考译文
525年前，克里斯多弗 哥伦布(Christopher Columbus)写了一封信。这封信的副本从梵蒂冈被盗，而本周，这个副本得到归还。美国国土安全部与梵蒂冈在携手进行调查后确认了这份手书的位置。
我们准备将这份手书物归原主，美国驻梵蒂冈大使卡莉丝塔 金瑞契(Callista Gingrich)在梵蒂冈宗座图书馆的一个仪式上如是说道。
哥伦比亚在发现了“新大陆”后就向西班牙国王和王后写信。他描述了自己的发现成果，并请求资金支持，让他可以开启另一次旅行。
这封信的原件是用西班牙语写的，但也有几份拉丁语译本，目的是要将他的发现传播给欧洲皇室和罗马教皇。
其中一份拉丁语副本于1493年为史蒂芬(Stephan Plannack誊抄，随后放置在了梵蒂冈宗座图书馆。这封家喻户晓的信也作《哥伦布书简》，共8页，每页长18.5厘米，宽12厘米。
2011年，一位美国专家在稀有的书稿中发现了一封十分相似的手书。在检查后，他断定这封信是真手书。
而就在2010年，这位专家曾在梵蒂冈宗座图书馆研究过《哥伦布书简》，并猜测这封手书是假的。其中一个原因是信上的线迹跟封皮上的不一致。
但他在美国发现的那封信，其线迹跟他曾在梵蒂冈研究过的假信的牛皮信封一模一样。
这位无名氏专家随即联系美国国土安全部的艺术侦查员。后者便开始与梵蒂冈的检查员和为数不多的书籍专家合作。
他们认为，有人曾在梵蒂冈宗座图书馆把真信从信封中抽出，以狸猫换太子。
大主教布鲁格斯(Jean-Louis Brugues)是梵蒂冈的图书馆馆长。他表示，我们不知道以假换真是什么时候发生的事。我们可能永远也抓不到真凶。
他们经过调查发现，马里诺(Marino Massimo De Caro)这个知名的意大利偷书贼将真信卖给了纽约的一个书商。
马里诺正在意大利服刑7年，因为他曾盗取近4000本古籍和手稿，这些古籍和手稿都来自意大利图书馆和私人藏书。
2004年，已故收藏夹大卫(David Parsons)以87.5万美元的价格购得这封信。在真相大白后，大卫尚在世的妻子同意将这封信归还给梵蒂冈宗座图书馆。
有多位工作人员表示，这封信现在的价值近120万美元。
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译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
