Tower of London 伦敦塔

The script of this programme 本节目台词

	Beefeaters have guarded the Tower of London for hundreds of years

Finn: The call of a raven¹.

Jean: 大乌鸦? A raven. 我们中国人可不太喜欢乌鸦，因为它有点不吉利。

Finn: Yes, but don’t worry, today we’ve come to a special place in London where the sound of ravens² is actually a good thing.

Jean: Really? Why is that?

Finn: You’ll find out later. Today we’ve come to the Tower of London for this edition of ‘On the Town’ from BBC Learning English.

INSERT

Tour guide talking

Finn: That’s our guide Michael – he’s a guard at the Tower.

Jean: 是的，我们今天还有幸请到了一个特别好的导游…

Finn: The Tower of London is a very old castle in the centre of London. It was founded 900 years ago.

Jean: 创立、建立就是 founded. So what happened here?

Finn: Well it is often thought the Tower of London has had a dramatic and bloody³ history.

Jean: 一个充满戏剧和血腥色彩的历史。

Finn: It has seen executions...

Jean: executions 死刑…

Finn: prisoners...

Jean: prisoners 囚犯…

Finn: and ghosts!

Jean: 啊？还有鬼呀！

Finn: And people often think it was full of dungeons⁵.

Jean: 有地牢的吗? Dungeons are dark scary places… 说得我可有点不敢走下去了 Quick, let’s catch up with the tour. 我们的导游正在给我们讲解伦敦塔里这座叫白塔的地方The White Tower. 看上去就给人一种敬畏的感觉。

INSERT

Tour guide talking

Finn: He says the royal family...

Jean: The Royal Family 皇室家庭…

Finn: lived on the top floor, and their knights⁶ and ladies...

Jean: knights and ladies 骑士和贵妇…

Finn: lived on the floor below, kitchens were on the next floor down, but...

Insert

There is however, another floor... (audience gasp)

Yes, this one is partly below ground... (audience ooh)

The walls there are fifteen feet thick, there are no windows, it’s dark! (audience ooh)We’re close to the river, it’s always damp and cold! (audience oooh)

This was the ideal place for...

(audience: a dungeon⁴?)

Wine! Wine, it’s a palace hello!

Jean: Haha… 听众们以为他在讲恐怖的地牢，实际上他介绍的是酒窖 – 看来就连英国皇室贵族也是爱喝酒的！

Finn: The guide used some interesting words, he said that the wine was kept in a place partly below ground...

Jean: 一部分, partly，不是全部。就是说这个酒是一部分埋在地里的。

Finn: And the walls were fifteen feet thick.

Jean: 墙是够厚的。Feet就是英尺。15英尺差不多有四米多长了。

Finn: And that the place was always dark, damp and cold.

Jean: 哎呀听起来可是够难受的，又暗又冷又damp, 就是潮湿…实在不是个舒服的地方，不过确是储藏酒的理想场所。

Jean: Well I’ve learned a lot about the castle, but there’s one thing I still need to find out. Finn你记得在咱们节目一开始的时候我们看到的大乌鸦吗？为什么他们在伦敦塔这里养乌鸦呢？

Finn: Well I asked one of the guards called Michael to find out:

Insert

There is a legend that says, should the ravens leave the Tower of London, the tower will collapse⁷, the monarchy⁸ will disappear, and a great disaster will befall the nation.

Jean: 原来这些乌鸦是养在这里保护伦敦塔的。他说在这里有一个传说…

Finn: a legend...

Jean: 如果这些乌鸦离开了伦敦塔，塔就会塌掉的…

Finn: the tower will collapse, or fall down...

Jean: 而皇室君主制度就会自动消失…

Finn: the monarchy, or royal family, will disappear...

Jean: 儿一场巨大的灾难…

Finn: a great disaster...

Jean: 就要降临到这个英国…

Finn: will befall the nation! Befall means ‘to happen to’, especially when it is something bad.

Jean: So could I ask ‘what befell you at work today?’

Finn: Well no, ‘befall’ is a literary word, you wouldn’t normally use it in everyday conversation.

Jean: 原来是书面语言，不是日常生活的对话里面用的词语。看来照顾好这些乌鸦也是一项相当重要的工作 – 而且听起来这些乌鸦其实也没什么可怕的。看来英国人对皇室的感情还是挺深的，不希望这种制度的灭亡。

Finn: That’s about it from this week’s ‘On the Town’ from BBC Learning English.

Jean: 希望大家和我们一样度过了一次在伦敦塔的精彩旅程，也学到了一些有用有趣的英语词汇和用语。

 

1 raven   

n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的

参考例句：

• We know the raven will never leave the man's room.我们知道了乌鸦再也不会离开那个男人的房间。
• Her charming face was framed with raven hair.她迷人的脸上垂落着乌亮的黑发。

2 ravens   

n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Wheresoever the carcase is,there will the ravens be gathered together. 哪里有死尸，哪里就有乌鸦麇集。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A couple of ravens croaked above our boat. 两只乌鸦在我们小船的上空嘎嘎叫着。 来自辞典例句

3 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

4 dungeon   

n.地牢，土牢

参考例句：

• They were driven into a dark dungeon.他们被人驱赶进入一个黑暗的地牢。
• He was just set free from a dungeon a few days ago.几天前，他刚从土牢里被放出来。

5 dungeons   

n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The captured rebels were consigned to the dungeons. 抓到的叛乱分子被送进了地牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He saw a boy in fetters in the dungeons. 他在地牢里看见一个戴着脚镣的男孩。 来自辞典例句

6 knights   

骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马

参考例句：

• stories of knights and fair maidens 关于骑士和美女的故事
• He wove a fascinating tale of knights in shining armour. 他编了一个穿着明亮盔甲的骑士的迷人故事。

7 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

8 monarchy   

n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国

参考例句：

• The monarchy in England plays an important role in British culture.英格兰的君主政体在英国文化中起重要作用。
• The power of the monarchy in Britain today is more symbolical than real.今日英国君主的权力多为象徵性的，无甚实际意义。