VOA慢速英语2014 盐不仅仅是个四字母的单词

 

Salt Is More Than a Four-Letter Word 盐不仅仅是个四字母的单词

On today’s Words and Their Stories we talk about a common word, a small word, but a word that is completely necessary for human life. In fact, without this simple, everyday material, all humans would die.

Scientists know it as sodium¹ chloride. We know it as salt.

You may think, salt is just a simple cooking element we shake on our food for a little extra taste. But salt is much more than that.

Without salt our muscles would not move. Our nervous systems would not operate. Our hearts would not beat. Salt means life.

But do not think rubbing salt in a wound will help. Doing that would be painful and not heal the wound. To rub salt in a wound is an idiom that means to purposefully make a bad situation worse.

Early humans got the salt they needed to stay alive from the animals they killed. But advances in agriculture led to a diet low in salt. So, humans needed to find others sources.

Those who lived near the ocean or other natural sources for salt were lucky. Those who did not had to trade for salt. In fact, people used salt as a method of payment in many parts of the ancient world. The word “salary” comes from the word “salt.”

Salt also played an important part in population movement and world exploration. Explorers understood that if they could keep food fresh, they could travel longer distances. So they used salt to preserve food and explored the world.

Salt meant movement.

Salt also changed the way nations fought. With preserved food on ships, nations could sail to distant lands … and then attack them.

Salt meant power.

Salt was so important that, according to food historians, it was traded pound-for-pound for gold. Today, people still use the expressions to be worth one’s salt or worth one’s weight in salt. The expressions describe a person who is useful, a person of value.

A person might also be called salt of the earth. That description means he or she is dependable and trustworthy. The phrase comes from the Christian² Bible. Jesus called his loyal group of followers³ -- or disciples⁵ -- the salt of the earth.

But one of these disciples was not so loyal. The disciple⁴ Judas betrayed Jesus. In his famous painting “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci shows Judas spilling a bowl of salt. Spilled salt is a sign of bad luck and trouble. And trouble is exactly what Judas gave Jesus.

Even today, some people throw salt over one shoulder if they spill it. They believe throwing salt behind them scares any devil that has been following them -- or at least blinds it for a second while they run away.

But these stories about bad luck should be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, listen to a story or an explanation with suspicion and distrust.

But you don’t have to take the information you find on VOA Learning English with a grain of salt. We do our research.

And this research led to some interesting facts about salt in other cultures and religions.

In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Xia Yu created one of the first known taxes. He taxed salt. And Egyptians preserved dead bodies with salt, creating mummies.

The Catholic Church uses salt in many of its rituals. Buddhists⁶ use salt to prevent evil. In Japan, the Shinto religion uses salt to clean an area of evil. In the U.S. Southwest, the Pueblo⁷ people worship the Salt Mother.

And in 1933, the Dalai Lama was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. Today in India, salt is still a symbol of good luck.

What about your culture? Do you have any idioms or expressions about salt? In the comments section, share a story of salt from your culture.

1 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

2 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。

3 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

4 disciple   

n.信徒，门徒，追随者

参考例句：

• Your disciple failed to welcome you.你的徒弟没能迎接你。
• He was an ardent disciple of Gandhi.他是甘地的忠实信徒。

5 disciples   

n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一

参考例句：

• Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. 犹大是耶稣十二门徒之一。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "The names of the first two disciples were --" “最初的两个门徒的名字是——” 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

6 Buddhists   

n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Jesuits in a phase of ascendancy, persecuted and insulted the Buddhists with great acrimony. 处于地位上升阶段的耶稣会修士迫害佛教徒，用尖刻的语言辱骂他们。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The return of Saivite rule to central Java had brought no antagonism between Buddhists and Hindus. 湿婆教在中爪哇恢复统治后，并没有导致佛教徒与印度教徒之间的对立。 来自辞典例句

7 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit