英语听力:自然百科 真实的庞贝—10(在线收听

So this is how it begins. The 17 years between the earthquake and the final eruption are, on a geological scale, just a blink of an eye. But in the world in which the Romans live, a natural disaster is the action of an angry god. So instead of heeding the warning and abandoning a doomed city, the people of Pompeii do just the opposite. They try to appease their gods, remaking the temples of the forum bigger and grander than before, cladding white marble on the eve of the eruption, it appears indestructible. 

 
2000 years later at the ruins, the forum is now the focus of a surprising piece of research. For decades, this building has puzzled archaeologists. It's one of the largest here, but no one has ever determined its purpose. 
 
We stand in some kind of colonnaded porch with a special feature which is a raised platform, the sort of space which could be used for giving speeches, making public announcements, and almost certainly for auctions. The question is, what was actually auctioned here?
  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/zrbaike/2015/313919.html