英语听力：探索发现 2012-07-25 爱尔兰的故事 Story Of Ireland—5

 -You always ask me difficult questions.

 

-Well, that's my job.

 

-Well, this does at least tell us somebody comes from Northern Europe here with this material in quite considerable amounts.

 

-Well, somebody may not have come. Somebody may have been handing it on and they have come through many different hands before it reaches Ireland. What we do know is that a lot of it came and a lot of it has been preserved because of this tendency to deposit these hoards¹ in bogs³. 

 

There is a surface landscape which offers immediate⁴ clues to our past. And there is the Irish story concealed⁵ beneath our bog² land. One sixth of Ireland, more than any other European country, lies under bog formed after early farmers began to clear the upland forest 2,500 years Before Christ (B.C.). 

 

This is a patch of bog in North Kerry that's been dug by my family for fuel for the fire for several generations. The poet Seamus Heaney described the men who worked the bogs as “our pioneers driving inwards and downwards”. Every layer they strip seems camped on before. And as today's farmers have dug deeper, they've found evidence of our earliest ancestors and links with a wider world.

 

This is Clonycavan Man, a 2000-year-old Irishman whose body was preserved by the unique chemistry of the bogs. 

 

-Then do we know anything about this man: who he was? Where he came from?

 

-Well, we know he was found in a bog on the West Meath border. We know that he was killed ritually more than 2,000 years ago. 

 

-How was he killed?

 

-He was struck first in the face, which broke his nose, and when he fell down, his head was split with an axe⁶. His stomach was cut across. He was probably disemboweled as well.

 

-Why would they have done that?

 

-We think that this man was probably a king who was killed and a number of means of execution were employed because the goddess to whom he was being sacrificed appears in a number of forms, so they had to sacrifice in all her forms.

1 hoards   

n.（钱财、食物或其他珍贵物品的）储藏，积存( hoard的名词复数 )v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She hoards her money - she never spends it. 她积蓄钱，但从来不花钱。 来自辞典例句
• A squirrel hoards nuts for the winter. 松鼠为过冬贮藏坚果。 来自辞典例句

2 bog   

n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖

参考例句：

• We were able to pass him a rope before the bog sucked him under.我们终于得以在沼泽把他吞没前把绳子扔给他。
• The path goes across an area of bog.这条小路穿过一片沼泽。

3 bogs   

n.沼泽，泥塘( bog的名词复数 )；厕所v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的第三人称单数 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• Whenever It'shows its true nature, real life bogs to a standstill. 无论何时，只要它显示出它的本来面目，真正的生活就陷入停滞。 来自名作英译部分
• At Jitra we went wading through bogs. 在日得拉我们步行着从泥水塘里穿过去。 来自辞典例句

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

6 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。