美国学生世界地理教材 第95期:你讲法语吗?(4)

 Before Christ¹ was born people believed there were many gods who were like good and bad fairies,  在基督诞生之前，人们相信世界上有很多神，这些神有的像善良的仙子，有的像邪恶的精灵，

and statues were made of them as they were supposed to look.  人们按照自己的想象，雕刻了很多神像。

Two of the greatest statues are in the Louvre. One is a marble figure of the goddess Venus.  世界上两座最著名的雕像就存放在卢浮宫。一座是女神维纳斯的大理石雕像。

Venus was the goddess of Love, and this statue of her was made more than 2,000 years ago,  维纳斯是爱神，她的这座雕像完成于两千多年前，

but was found not many years ago on an island called Melos, so it is called the Venus of Melos.  但是不久前才在一个叫做米洛斯岛的地方被人发现，于是就叫做“米洛斯的维纳斯”。

The other figure, like an angel with outspread wings, is called “Victory.”  另一座雕像似一个张开翅膀的天使，叫做“胜利女神”。

Victory too was made before Christ was born.  胜利女神像也完成于基督诞生前。

Venus has lost her arms and Victory has lost her head, but, in spite² of that,  维纳斯雕像失去了双臂，胜利女神雕像失去了头，但尽管如此，

both figures are more beautiful than most real people who have both arms and head. 这两个雕像还是比大多数并不残缺的真人要美。

The Capitol of France has neither a dome³ like our Capitol nor towers like the English Capitol.  法国的国会大厦既没有像美国国会大厦那样的圆顶，也没有英国国会大厦那样的塔楼。

There is, however, a building in Paris with a dome something like that of our Capitol and St. Paul’s in London,  然而巴黎有一个建筑物有圆顶，有点像美国国会大厦和伦敦圣保罗大教堂那样的圆顶，

but it is neither a church nor a Capitol.  但它既不是教堂也不是国会大厦。

It is the tomb of France’s two greatest soldiers.  它是法国两个最伟大士兵的陵墓。

One was named Napoleon, and he lived at the same time as our George Washington.  一位名叫拿破仑，他和美国的乔治 ?华盛顿生活在同一时期。

He was at one time emperor before France had presidents.  在法国有总统之前他曾有一个时期是法国的皇帝。

His bones are in a large marble chest under this dome.  他的遗骸放在圆顶下一个很大的大理石箱子里。

The other soldier is General Foch—the leader of the armies in World War I. 另一位士兵是福煦将军——他是第一次世界大战中军队的首领。

The tallest tower in the World is in Paris near the banks of the Seine. It is called the Eiffel Tower and it is about a thousand feet high.  世界上最高的塔位于巴黎塞纳河畔，叫埃菲尔铁塔，大约有1000英尺高。

It is made of iron and stands on four tall iron legs.  整个塔都是铁造的，立在四只长长的铁腿上。

You can look between its legs and see whole buildings as if the tower were a giant straddling them. 你可以从它的腿之间望过去，看到整座建筑，就好像铁塔是个跨立在它们之上的巨人。

1 Christ   

n.基督，救世主，耶稣

参考例句：

• I regarded him as the Christ.我把他当作救世主。
• Christ preached that we should love each other.基督在布道中说人们应该互爱。

2 spite   

n.（用于短语）虽然，不顾，尽管

参考例句：

• He has modern ideas in spite of his great age.尽管他年事很高，但思想观念却很入时。
• In spite of his anger,his remarks were restrained.他尽管生气，说的话还是有节制的。

3 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。