世界小史 第34期:星期

 　　There are seven days in a week.

　　一星期有七天。

　　I don't need to tell you their names because you know them already.

　　我不必告诉你他们的名字因为你已经知道了。

　　But have you any idea where and when it was that the days were each given a name?

　　但你知不知道在哪里，从什么时候起日子被取了名字?

　　Or who first had the idea of arranging them into weeks, so that they no longer flew past, nameless and in no order, as they did for people in prehistoric¹ times?

　　谁第一个将日子归纳为星期，日子就不再像对于原始时期的人类那样一天接着一天地过，没有名字，没有顺序？

　　It wasn't in Egypt, but in another country which was no less hot,这件事并非发生在埃及，而是发生在另一个国家，那里的天气也很炎热，but where, instead of just one river, there were two: the Tigris and the Euphrates.

　　但那里不是有一条河，那里有两条河：底格里斯河和幼发拉底河。

　　And because the important part of that country lay between two rivers,由于那个的国家的重要部分位于两条河流之间，it was called Mesopotamia, which is Greek for the land "between the rivers".

　　它被称为美索不达米亚，这个词来源于希腊语，意思是“河流之间”的土地。

　　Mesopotamia is not in Africa, but in Asia,美索不达米亚不在非洲，而在亚洲，

　　though still not so very far from our part of the world, in a region² called the Middle East, in the country we know as Iraq.

　　但是离我们的地区并不太远，在一个称作中东的地方，在我们知道的伊拉克境内。

　　The Tigris and the Euphrates join together and then flow out into the Persian Gulf³.

　　幼发拉底河和底格里斯河汇合，然后流入波斯湾。

 

1 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

2 region   

n.地区，地带，区域；范围，幅度

参考例句：

• The students went to study the geology of that region.学生们去研究那个地区的地质情况。
• It is unusual to see snow in this region.这个地区难得见到雪。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。