英语听力：Byzantium-The Lost Empire 拜占庭：失落的帝国-12

 The man there is Justinian, the emperor who 200 years after Constantine completely remade the Roman Empire, the man who made Byzantium. He was a man, they said, who was gentle and approachable, a man who never showed his anger, a man who in the quietest voices could order the death of thousands.

 

He didn't organize the empire completely by himself though. His great strength was as a manager. Those strong faces that surround him were the faces of a great team of men he picked together. And he didn't really care whether they were Roman patricians¹ or from the humblest, roughest backgrounds. He himself actually come(s) from a completely illiterate² peasant family in Serbia.

 

Justinian though, was only half the picture. The other half was that most remarkable³ woman over there, the Empress Theodora. They'd married each other for love and they stayed together for 25 years. And look at the young ladies of the court there. They're looking sideways and a bit nervous, since it's not proper for young girls to look straight at you, not unless you're a woman of power like Theodora. But that is actually a portrait the woman dying of cancer.

 

Within two or three months of this mosaic⁴ being finished, Theodora was dead. Justinian ruled for another 20 years, and never remarried and he went to her grave with a candle until he was a very old man.

 

Though Justinian and Theodora restored the Roman Empire, this was no longer that ancient classical world. They lived in a different age, spoke⁵ eastern Greek instead of Roman Latin and viewed the world in very different ways.

 

Look at these sculptures. They are probably the last classical figures ever made. They were made actually in the generations just before Justinian. Now, first glance, you might think they are just powers of those usual classical things you see hanging around museums, big stony⁶ Alexanders and Caesars all strutting⁸ their stuff.

 

But they are not like that at all. They're new, they're different. Something else is going odd. It's very simple work, very realistic in a way. Little light cut lines, and a day old beard lightly chiseled⁹ on the hard marble as if to emphasize its transience, its insubstantiality.

 

These people look pensive¹⁰, sad, and rather wise. After all, having the saints and bishops¹¹ told them that this life, this material world, was only an illusion, so naturally these statues don't strut⁷ their stony stuff like Alexander or the emperors of Rome. They are not heroic descriptions of skin and bone and straining muscle.

1 patricians   

n.（古罗马的）统治阶层成员( patrician的名词复数 )；贵族，显贵

参考例句：

• There was a conflict between plebs and patricians in ancient Rome in 494BC. 在公元前494年，罗马发生了一次平民反对贵族的斗争。 来自互联网

2 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

5 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。

6 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

7 strut   

v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆

参考例句：

• The circulation economy development needs the green science and technology innovation as the strut.循环经济的发展需要绿色科技创新生态化作为支撑。
• Now we'll strut arm and arm.这会儿咱们可以手挽着手儿，高视阔步地走了。

8 strutting   

加固，支撑物

参考例句：

• He, too, was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle. 他也是非常自大，在城堡里大摇大摆地走。
• The pompous lecturer is strutting and forth across the stage. 这个演讲者在台上趾高气扬地来回走着。

9 chiseled   

adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Woltz had chiseled the guy, given him peanuts for the book. 乌尔茨敲了这个作家的竹杠，用了他的书，却只给微不足道的一点点钱。 来自教父部分
• He chiseled the piece of wood into the shape of a head. 他把这块木头凿刻成人头的形状。 来自辞典例句

10 pensive   

a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的

参考例句：

• He looked suddenly sombre,pensive.他突然看起来很阴郁，一副忧虑的样子。
• He became so pensive that she didn't like to break into his thought.他陷入沉思之中,她不想打断他的思路。

11 bishops   

（基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象

参考例句：

• Each player has two bishops at the start of the game. 棋赛开始时，每名棋手有两只象。
• "Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like. “他劫富济贫，抢的都是郡长、主教、国王之类的富人。