书城外语看古希腊神话故事学英语
32078000000022

第22章 希腊神话故事(20)

7.preparation[,prep?re??n]n.(常用作复数)准备工作;准备措施

例句 The country is ****** preparations for war.

该国正在进行备战。

8.mast[mɑ?st]n.船桅

例句 The mast was broken off.船桅断了。

9.wax[w?ks]n.蜡

例句 The box had been sealed with wax.盒子被封上了蜡。

10.fatal[fe?tl]adj.致命的

例句 A mistake now would be fatal to our success.

现在的任何一个错误对我们的成功都将是致命的。

11.attractive[?tr?kt?v]adj.有吸引力的;诱人的;使人愉快的

例句 I dont find him at all attractive.

我觉得他一点儿也不讨人喜欢。

12.despair[d?spe?(r)]n.失去一切希望;绝望

例句 He gave up the struggle in despair.他绝望地放弃了斗争。

13.flowery[昀au?ri]adj.花的;华丽的;多花的

例句 Flowery carpets became the vogue.

花卉图案的地毯变成了时髦货。

14.straight[stre?t]adj.直的;向一个方向延伸或运动的

例句 The hawk dived straight at the chicken.

鹰俯冲而下,直扑那只鸡。

15.free[fri?]v.释放,使自由,解放

例句 He freed the animal from a trap.

他把那只动物从陷阱中释放出来。

神话背后的习语

siren song 致命的诱惑;有诱惑力但不能听信的理论、事物

在英语中siren常用来指那些迷人的女人,妖妇。而siren song则用于指那些致命的诱惑;或者有诱惑力但不能听信的理论、事物。

例如 It is said that she is a siren.据说她是个妖艳女人。She played the siren in the movie.她在那部电影中扮演一位妖艳的女人。

The siren song of the land to adventures is irresistible.去那块ti地探险的诱惑是无法抵挡的。

Management educators need to resist the siren song of professionalism.教育管理工作者需要抵制专业化的诱惑。

22.Hecuba

Hecuba was the second wife of Priam,king of the city of Troy,and mother of 19 children by him,the most famous being Hector,Cassandra and Paris.She saw the death of her husband and most of her children,as well as the sack of her home-Troy.

Hecuba 赫克犹巴

While pregnant with Paris,Hecuba had a dream in which she gave birth to a fiery torch.The prophets of Troy told her that this was a bad omen and predicted that if the child lived,he would be responsible for the fall of Troy.Therefore,upon Parisbirth,Hecuba ordered two servants to kill the child.Unable to perform such a terrible act,the servants left Paris on a mountain,and he was found and raised by a shepherd.

Years later,Paris returned to Troy,and as predicted,he caused the citys destruction.He began the Trojan War by taking away Helen,wife of King Menelaus of Sparta.

After the fall of Troy,Hecuba became a slave to the Greek hero Odysseus.On his way back to Greece,Odysseus went through Thrace.Before the war,Hecuba had asked the king to protect her youngest son Polydorus.However,upon reaching Thrace,she found that the king had killed the boy.The enraged Hecuba tore out the kings eyes and murdered both of his sons.As Odysseus was trying to control her,she turned into a dog.Unable to endure the misery,she threw herself into the sea,and ended her unfortunate life.

22.赫克犹巴

赫克犹巴是特洛伊国王——普里阿摩斯的第二任妻子,她为国王生了19个孩子,其中最有名的有:赫克托耳,卡珊德拉和帕里斯。她既亲眼目睹了自己的丈夫和大部分孩子的死亡,也目睹了特洛伊城被洗劫一空。

当怀着帕里斯的时候,她梦到自己生了一只燃烧着的火把。特洛伊的预言家告诉她这是一个坏的征兆,预示着如果这个孩子活着,他会招致特洛伊城的沦陷。所以,帕里斯一出生,赫克犹巴就命令两位仆人杀掉这个孩子。仆人们不忍心做这么残忍的事,他们便把帕里斯丢弃到了山中,一位牧羊人发现了帕里斯,并把他抚养大。

许多年后,帕里斯回到了特洛伊城,如所预测的一样,他导致了特洛伊城的毁灭。他拐走斯巴达国王——墨涅拉俄斯的妻子海伦,引起了特洛伊战争。

特洛伊城沦陷后,赫克犹巴成为希腊英雄奥德修斯的奴隶。在回去希腊的路上,奥德修斯经过色雷斯。在战争爆发前,赫克犹巴让色雷斯国王保护自己最小的儿子波里德诺斯。然而,一到达色雷斯,她就发现国王已经杀掉了自己的儿子。被激怒了的赫克犹巴把国王的眼睛拔了出来,并杀掉了他的两个儿子。正当奥德修斯努力控制她的时候,她变成了一只狗。不堪忍受痛苦的赫克犹巴跳进海里,结束了自己不幸的生命。

单词短语透视

1.sack[s?k]n.洗劫

例句 She saw the sack of Rome.她目睹了罗马城被洗劫一空。

2.pregnant[pregn?nt]adj.(指妇女或雌性动物)怀孕的

例句 She got pregnant by another man.

是另一个男子使她怀孕的。

3.fiery[fa??r?]adj.含火的;燃烧着的

例句 Would you see the fiery torch?你能看见那燃烧着的火把吗?

4.omen[?umen]n.预兆

例句 It seemed like a good omen.这似乎是一个好的征兆。

5.predict[pr?d?kt]v.预言(某事物)将发生

例句 The earthquake had been predicted several months before.

这次地震早在几个月以前就发布了预报。

6.be responsible for 应归咎于

例句 Whos responsible for this mess?是谁弄得这么乱?

7.perform[p?f??m]v.做;施行(某事)

例句 The doctor performed the operation yesterday.

昨天大夫做了一例手术。

8.raise[re?z]v.养育(孩子等)

例句 I was raised by my aunt on a farm.

我是在农场由姨妈抚养大的。

9.destruction[d?str?k?n]n.破坏;摧毁;毁灭

例句 He was lured to destruction.他受到诱惑而走向了毁灭。

10.enrage[?nre?d?]v.使(某人)非常愤怒;激怒;触怒

例句 His arrogance enraged her.他很傲慢,她为此十分恼怒。

11.tear out 撕掉,扯开;拔出

例句 He tore out the sore tooth.他拔出了那颗痛牙。

12.murder[m??d?(r)]v.谋杀某人

例句 He murdered his wife with a knife.他用刀杀害了妻子。

13.misery[m?z?r?]n.(精神或肉体的)痛苦,难受

例句 Fame brought her nothing but misery.

名声只给她带来了痛苦。

23.The Flood

Around the end of the Age of Bronze,the human world became very cruel.Men grew greedy,impolite and ungodly.

Zeus dressed up in human form and visited Arcadia and Thessaly.But the king of Arcadia,Lycaon,not only unfriendly but also cruel to his people.He didn‘t believe Zeus was god when he showed god's theurgy(神术)and laughed at the peoples religious pray(虔诚)to Zeus and said:“lets test you are a human or god.”He killed a slave and cut his arms and legs to cook and toasted the rest to treat Zeus.Zeus saw all of these in his eyes,so he conjured his angry fire of revenge to turn the king into an atrocious wolf.

After this experience,Zeus decided to end the Bronze Age with the great flood to revenge the people.Deucalion and his wife,Pyrrha,were the only survivors.

Deucalion,son of Prometheus,had been warned beforehand by his father of the coming flood and made himself a huge chest.When the roaring flood came,the couple hid themselves in it and floated for nine days until it touched land again on Mt Parnassus.

When the deluge was over,the world was deserted.There were no plants,no animals and no sounds,either.Deucalion consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth.He was told to throw the bones of his mother behind his shoulder.Deucalion and Pyrrha understood the mother to be Gaia,the mother of all living things,and the bones to be rocks.Then,they threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the rocks formed people.Pyrrha‘s became women,and Deucalion's became men.

23.大洪水

到了青铜期末代,人类世界变得非常残忍。人变得贪婪、粗鲁且不虔诚。

宙斯装扮成凡人的样子查看了阿卡迪亚和色萨利两地。阿卡迪亚的国王吕卡翁不仅待客冷淡,而且对人们非常残暴。宙斯展示神的神力,表明自己是个神,吕卡翁不相信,并嘲笑人们对宙斯虔诚的祈祷。“让我们考证一下,”他说,“看看他到底是凡人还是神。”他杀了一个奴隶,剁下四肢,扔进水里煮,其余部分放在火上烤,拿来招待宙斯。宙斯把这一切都看在眼里,他念咒召唤一团复仇的怒火,把国王变成了一只恶狼。