英语听力：自然百科 真实的庞贝—12

 Archaeologists have found cavities that they can fill with plaster to create molds. They are able to see, hundreds of years later, exactly how the dead lay when the volcano struck. They have also found bones. So far, the remains¹ of 1100 people have been pulled from the ground. But one recent find stands out because of what was discovered next to the body.

 

"When we excavated², we found this shackle³. There are two of them, so both ankles would’ve been locked up inside the iron ring. When we found these two objects, we definitely knew that the first skeleton we found was a slave."

 

Not (only) everybody’s households slaves come in, but slaves are also going to be gladiators, they are forced to fight to the death in a huge amphitheater in the city. 

 

The slave skeleton shows he is likely one of the lucky ones, probably well treated, well fed, and not forced into hard labor⁴. He may have been a domestic slave, many Roman families have them. In a wealthy household, they perform all of the menial tasks.

 

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 shackle   

n.桎梏，束缚物；v.加桎梏，加枷锁，束缚

参考例句：

• He's too young to shackle himself with the responsibilities of a family.他还太年轻，不能用家庭责任来束缚自己。
• This issue always is a shackle which confines the brand building of industry product.这个问题一直是限制工业品品牌塑造的桎梏。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。