英语听力：Byzantium-The Lost Empire 拜占庭：失落的帝国-10

 And they put it into this tank here. Now this tank has already got water in it. So as they pour the olive oil in, it flows to the surface, all of the impurities¹ go down to the bottom. And see this little trench² here? A vital piece of gourmet³ equipment, because this is where the very finest oil ran from that impurity⁴ tank down into this tank to make fine, clear olive oil for the tables of Byzantium.

 

This is Sagila, one of 300 ancient Syrian villages the Byzantine olive grows. Provincial⁵ Byzantium preserved in fine-cut stone. Just off the main square is the public bathhouse, forerun of the Turkish bath.（取基督教“要敬神，先污身”之义）① Saint John cast whores and devils under one of these. This is Sagila’s cafe coming along all down on Main Street. Old soldiers and half-mad saints got drunk in bars like this. Money lenders, magistrates⁶, and merchants, did their business here, can you hear the farmers, tough independent homesteaders, chuckling⁷ about the prices that the city folk were paying for their olive oil? Life was very good. There was time for both a devil and his buds （魔鬼的随从，指异教徒） and for the church and all its works.

 

If you’d come up this path fifteen hundreds years ago on the first of September, you’d have been accompanied by thousands of people shouting and singing  praises to the lord, it was the feast day of Saint Simon of the pillar.

 

The first place these processions came through is this great baptistery. Ten thousand people, whole city is full, have been baptized in this room in a single day. And then out there they all went praising the lord onwards to the church, the saint.

 

It's Roman architectures in the course, arches, vaults⁸, and column tops, but now these Christian⁹ crosses too. The ancient forms are turning into something else. See, the wind of faith （指基督教信仰） is bending all those ancient pagan patterns. This is the star that would become Byzantium. And at the church’s hub, the remains¹⁰ of the fifty-foot column on which Saint Simon lived. So was this weird¹¹ man who lived up a pillar and half the world had come to see him, when he died, they built this beautiful dancing church in his honor. Well, as a young man, Simon had worn cloth so rough that made men bleed, many dreamt up the idea of chaining his left leg to a large rock, that before he went on the column.

1 impurities   

不纯( impurity的名词复数 )； 不洁； 淫秽； 杂质

参考例句：

• A filter will remove most impurities found in water. 过滤器会滤掉水中的大部分杂质。
• Oil is refined to remove naturally occurring impurities. 油经过提炼去除天然存在的杂质。

2 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

3 gourmet   

n.食物品尝家；adj.出于美食家之手的

参考例句：

• What does a gourmet writer do? 美食评论家做什么？
• A gourmet like him always eats in expensive restaurants.像他这样的美食家总是到豪华的餐馆用餐。

4 impurity   

n.不洁，不纯，杂质

参考例句：

• The oxygen reacts vigorously with the impurity in the iron.氧气与铁中的杂质发生剧烈的化学反应。
• The more general impurity acid corrosion faster.一般来说杂质越多酸蚀速度越快。

5 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

6 magistrates   

地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to come up before the magistrates 在地方法院出庭
• He was summoned to appear before the magistrates. 他被传唤在地方法院出庭。

7 chuckling   

轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him chuckling to himself as he read his book. 他看书时，我能听见他的轻声发笑。
• He couldn't help chuckling aloud. 他忍不住的笑了出来。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

8 vaults   

n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴

参考例句：

• It was deposited in the vaults of a bank. 它存在一家银行的保险库里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

10 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。

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。