(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Rare Piece of Chinese Art Found at US Home Sale
A small bowl bought for $35 at a home in Connecticut turned out to be a rare piece of ancient Chinese art.
The bowl is worth between $300,000 and $500,000. It will soon go up for sale at an auction – an event at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most.
The white bowl has blue paintings of flowers and other designs. It is about 16 centimeters across.
The company holding the auction, Sotheby's, says the object was found at a yard sale in the New Haven area last year. A yard sale is a sale of used objects held at the seller's home.
A collector of old objects, or antiques, saw the bowl at the sale and thought it could be something special.
The piece is one of only seven such bowls known to exist in the world. It will go up for sale in New York on March 17 as part of Sotheby's Auction of Important Chinese Art.
The unidentified buyer paid $35 for the bowl and later emailed information and photos to Sotheby's asking for an estimate of its value. Angela McAteer and Hang Yin, the auction house's experts on Chinese art, get many such emails every week. But this one was the kind they dream about.
McAteer, Sotheby's senior vice president and head of its Chinese Works of Art Department, said it was clear "that we were looking at something really very, very special."
McAteer added, "The style of painting, the shape of the bowl, even just the color of the blue is quite characteristic of that early, early 15th century period of porcelain."
Porcelain is a hard, white substance made by heating clay, a kind of heavy, sticky material.
The two experts confirmed the bowl was from the 1400s when they were able to look at it in person. There are no scientific tests, only the trained eyes and hands of experts. The bowl was very smooth to the touch, and the color and designs were clearly from the period.
McAteer said all the information helped them "identify it as a product of the early Ming period."
McAteer said only six other such bowls are known to exist, and most of them are in museums. No others are in the United States.
How the bowl ended up at a Connecticut yard sale remains a mystery. McAteer said it is possible the bowl was passed down through generations of the same family who did not know how special it was.
"It's always quite astounding to think that it ... still happens, that these treasures can be discovered," McAteer said. "It's always really exciting for us as specialists when something we didn't even know existed here appears seemingly out of nowhere."
I'm John Russell.
重点解析
1.treasure n.财富
This book is a treasure chest of information.
这本书是一个信息的宝库。
2.information n.信息
We pooled ideas and information.
我们汇集了意见和信息。
3.astounding adj.令人震惊的
The results are quite astounding.
这些结果非常令人震惊。
4.mystery n.秘密
The meeting was cloaked in mystery.
会议笼罩着神秘的气氛。
5.A small bowl bought for $35 at a home in Connecticut turned out to be a rare piece of ancient Chinese art.
turn out 结果是
You never know how your children will turn out.
很难说子女将来的发展怎样。
I was positive things were going to turn out fine.
我当时就确信事情最终会好起来。
6.The two experts confirmed the bowl was from the 1400s when they were able to look at it in person.
in person 亲自
You can vote either in person or by proxy.
你可以亲自投票或请人代理。
He didn't even have the decency to tell them in person.
他很没礼节，居然没亲自告诉他们。
参考译文
美国旧货摊惊现明朝文物
在美国康涅狄格州一户人家花35美元买到的一只小碗，原来是一件罕见的中国古代艺术品。
这只碗的价值在30万到50万美元之间。它将很快在拍卖会上出售——一种“价高者得”的交易活动。
白色的瓷碗上有青花和其他图案。碗的直径约16厘米。
举办这次拍卖的苏富比公司表示，这件古董是去年在纽黑文地区的一次旧货摊甩卖中发现的。旧货摊甩卖就是在卖家家里出售二手物品。
一位古董收藏家在旧货摊上看到了这只瓷碗，觉得它可能是一件特殊的物件。
这是世界上已知仅存的7只该类型的瓷碗之一。这只碗将于3月17日在纽约苏富比拍卖行(Sotheby’s) 中国重要艺术品拍卖场上亮相。
这位身份不明的买家以35美元的价格买下了这只碗，后来通过电子邮件向苏富比拍卖行发送信息和照片，要求对其价值进行评估。该拍卖行的中国艺术品专家安吉拉·麦克特尔(Angela McAteer)和尹航(Hang Yin)每周都会收到很多这样的邮件。但这次他们收到了梦寐以求的邮件。
苏富比高级副总裁兼中国艺术作品部主管麦克特尔(McAteer)表示，很明显，“我们看到的是非常非常特别的物件。”
麦克特尔补充说：“绘画风格、瓷碗形状，甚至只是蓝色的色彩，都极具（中国）15世纪早期瓷器的特点。”
瓷器是一种坚硬的白色物体，由黏土烧制制成，黏土是一种厚重而粘稠的材料。
两位专家表示，当时亲眼看到这只瓷碗时确信，这件文物可追溯到14世纪。没有经过科学的测试，只靠专家“阅物无数”的眼睛和双手。这只碗摸起来非常光滑，颜色和图案也很明显地与那个时代相吻合。
麦克特尔表示，所有的信息都帮助他们“确认这只碗是明代初期的产物。”
麦克特尔指出，目前已知的这类瓷碗只有6件，大多数都位于博物馆里。美国其他地区也没有这类瓷碗。
这只瓷碗是如何在康涅狄格的旧货摊上被发现的仍然是个谜。麦克特尔表示，这只碗可能是一个家族世代传下来的，他们不知道它有多特别。
“一想到这一点就觉得震惊……这些宝物仍然可以被发现，” 麦克特尔说道。“对于我们这些专家来说，当我们甚至不知道有什么宝贝会横空出世时，我们总是会感到异常兴奋。”
约翰·罗塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
