听播客学英语 59 宝藏

 　　Before beginning today’s podcast, I need to explain a few words. The first word is “treasure”. Treasure means things which are very valuable; generally, “treasure” means things made of gold or silver or precious stones. The second word is “hoard¹”. If someone collects a lot of valuable things, and then hides them or keeps them secret, we call that a “hoard”. And finally, a “find” is of course something which you find – but normally² it means something very special or unusual or valuable which you find.

　　But that’s enough vocabulary practice. On with today’s podcast.

　　Terry Herbert is 55 years old. He lives in a small town called Bloxwich, about 16 kilometers north-west of Birmingham. His hobby is metal-detecting. A metal-detector³ is a tool which tells you when there is metal in the ground. You move the metal detector slowly over the ground, and it goes ‘bleep’ if it finds anything made of metal.

　　In July this year, Terry went metal-detecting in a field in Staffordshire owned by a friend of his, and found something completely amazing. He discovered a large number of gold and silver objects. He told the authorities⁴ what he had found, and a team of archaeologists then explored the site carefully and found more objects. When they started to clean and examine the discovery, they realised that Terry Herbert had found over 1500 objects dating from about 700AD. It was the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found in England.

　　The Anglo-Saxons were people who invaded⁵ and settled in England as the Roman Empire collapsed⁶ in about the 4th century. They came from northern Germany and the language which they spoke⁷ – which we call Anglo-Saxon or Old English – was the ancestor of modern English. They were skilled⁸ metal craftsmen⁹; they made delicate¹⁰ and intricate¹¹ designs on gold and silver, and often inlaid the metal with precious stones, such as garnet, which is a dark red stone. After they arrived here, the Anglo-Saxons divided England into a number of kingdoms and spent most of the next several hundred years fighting each other, and the Danes and the Scots. The largest and most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was called Mercia. It covered all of central England, including the area where the Staffordshire Hoard was found.

　　Gold inlaid with garnets, from the Staffordshire Hoard.

　　Almost everything in the hoard is connected with the Anglo-Saxons’ favourite hobby, fighting. There are gold decorations from swords and knives, from shields¹² and helmets, from belts and buckles¹³. There are no “women’s things”, like personal jewellery, and no household things like plates or cups. So what is the hoard? Many experts think that the treasure was collected after a battle. Quite simply, the victors went around and took all the gold and precious metal from the weapons and clothes of the enemies they had killed. Who were these victors and who were their enemies? We do not know. And afterwards, the victors hid what they had collected. Why? Again, we do not know. Nor do we know what happened later, and why the victors did not come back and collect the treasure which they had hidden.

　　In England, if you find gold or silver objects which are more than 300 years old, they belong to the Queen. Normally, however, a reward based on the value of the find is paid to the person who found it and to the owner of the land. Often a museum buys the treasure, and in this case the Museum in Birmingham together with other local museums want to acquire the Staffordshire Hoard so that it remains¹⁴ in the area where it was found.

　　We English are not generally very interested in museums or art galleries. We prefer zoos, pubs¹⁵, theme parks and beaches. But there has been a lot of interest in the Staffordshire Hoard. Perhaps popular archaeology¹⁶ programmes on television have made people more aware of the importance of things from our history. There is a temporary exhibition of a few of the most important objects from the Staffordshire Hoard at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until the middle of October. Yesterday, together with hundreds of other people, I stood in a queue for over an hour to see the exhibition. It is quite fascinating. Many of the objects still have dirt from the field in Staffordshire on them, because there has not been time yet to clean them. Suddenly, Anglo-Saxon England, 1300 years ago, seems much closer and more real.

1 hoard   

n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积

参考例句：

• They have a hoard of food in the basement.地下室里有他们贮藏的食物。
• How many curios do you hoard in your study?你在你书房里聚藏了多少古玩？

2 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

3 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

4 authorities   

n.当局，权力，权威；权威( authority的名词复数 )；权力；学术权威；[复数]当权者

参考例句：

• They interceded with the authorities on behalf of the detainees. 他们为被拘留者向当局求情。
• At his instigation we conceal the fact from the authorities. 我们受他的怂恿向当局隐瞒了事实。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 invaded   

v.侵入，侵略( invade的过去式和过去分词 )；涌入；侵袭；侵犯

参考例句：

• Troops invaded on August 9th that year. 军队是在那年的8月9日入侵的。
• The diseased tissue can be easily invaded by these microorganisms. 有病的组织容易被微生物侵袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 skilled   

adj.(in)熟练的，有技能的；需要技能的

参考例句：

• Unskilled workers usually earn less money than skilled workers.无技能的工人通常比有技能的工人挣钱少。
• She was skilled enough in French to translate a novel.她法语娴熟，足以翻译小说。

9 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

10 delicate   

adj.巧妙的，敏感的；易损的，娇嫩的

参考例句：

• Be careful with those wine cups — they are very delicate.当心那些酒杯—它们很容易碎。
• The delicate handicraft works will not bear rough handling.精致的手工艺品经不起粗鲁的摆弄。

11 intricate   

adj.错综复杂的，复杂精细的

参考例句：

• We were able to thread but slowly through the intricate reports.我们能弄懂这些复杂的报告，只是很慢。
• The plot of the novel is intricate and fascinating.这部小说的情节错综复杂，引人入胜。

12 shields   

n.盾( shield的名词复数 )；护罩；盾形奖牌；保护人v.掩护( shield的第三人称单数 )；庇护；给…加防护罩

参考例句：

• Spears hurtled against shields. 矛猛击在盾上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Radiation shields are commonly used to reduce radiation errors. 辐射屏蔽罩一般用于降低辐射误差。 来自辞典例句

13 buckles   

搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She gazed proudly at the shiny buckles on her shoes. 她骄傲地注视着鞋上闪亮的扣环。
• When the plate becomes unstable, it buckles laterally. 当板失去稳定时，就发生横向屈曲。

14 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

15 pubs   

酒店，酒馆( pub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I don't like pubs.They're noisy, smelly, and what's more, expensive. 我不喜欢酒吧。那里又吵，气味又难闻，更重要的是，花费太多。
• We did/went the rounds of all the pubs in town. 我们逐一光顾了城里所有的酒店。

16 archaeology   

n.考古学

参考例句：

• She teaches archaeology at the university.她在大学里教考古学。
• He displayed interest in archaeology.他对考古学有兴趣。