The Lost Continent 遗失的大陆-5

It took Columbus a very long time to convince Isabella and Ferdinand that he ought to be able to find something because for the most part his ideas were ridiculed and this was of course during the Inquisition, so that people who had strange or antithetical ideas were not only ridiculed¹, they were sometimes burned at the stake. Mocked and abused even by children, it had taken Columbus 8 long years to persuade Ferdinand and Isabella to finance his voyage. They did so for trade.

Muslim conquest of the holy lands had reduced their valuable commerce with the Far East to a trickle². A new route to the riches of the Indies had to be found.

Up until the mid-fifteenth century, all of these precious goods got to Europe by way of overland caravan³s. But in 1453, when the Turks invaded, they cut off these trade routes, so if the nations of Europe wanted to get these goods, they had to find an alternate way and that would have to be a sea route.

Above all, maps were the key.

To a European king, a map was treasure beyond anything else in the world because it gave him access to the new world, to treasure, to the future, and everybody kept their maps under lock and key, and to, to steal a map from another country was a great coup⁵.

Armed with the most recent maps of Europe’s best cartographers, Columbus had a better picture of the world than most of his contemporaries. His maps were much like our own, save for one all-important exception, the undiscovered continent of America was entirely⁶ absent. These maps also suffered from another dangerous defect: No one knew what lay in the Atlantic itself. The ocean was a…
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ridicule: v. 嘲笑，奚落
caravan: n. 商队，大棚车
coup: n. 政变，突然的行动
cartographer: n. 地图绘制员
save for: n. 除了...

1 ridiculed   

v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Biosphere 2 was ultimately ridiculed as a research debade, as exfravagant pseudoscience. 生物圈2号最终被讥讽为科研上的大失败，代价是昂贵的伪科学。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ridiculed his insatiable greed. 她嘲笑他的贪得无厌。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

3 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

4 caravans   

（可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队）

参考例句：

• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles that are pulled by horses. 旧式的吉卜赛大篷车是由马拉的涂了颜色的木质车辆。
• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles. 旧时的吉普赛大篷车是涂了颜色的木质车辆。

5 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。