美国小学英语教材6:第243课 伟大的英雄永生

GREAT HEROES LIVE FOREVER

伟大的英雄永生

In the pages of books great heroes live forever. Men who were famous centuries ago are known today to millions of people.

在本书的“伟大的英雄永生”内容中，几个世纪之前著名的人物如今依旧被数百万人所了解。

Many of these heroes lived long before men knew how to print books, but their deeds were kept alive by wandering story-tellers, called minstrels.

许多伟大的英雄生活在人类印刷书籍之前，但流浪的讲述者让他们的事迹保持生命力，这些人被称之为游方艺人。

You are probably already acquainted with some of these famous heroes. Do you remember Beowulf, Sigurd, and Roland?

你或许已经认识了一些著名英雄，你还记得贝奥武夫，齐格鲁德还有罗兰德吗？

Now you are going to read of three more great heroes of adventure: Robin¹ Hood², Achilles, and Ulysses.

接下来你将阅读三名英雄的探索事迹，罗宾汉，阿喀琉斯和尤利西斯。

The legend of Robin Hood goes back at least five hundred years in the history of England.

罗宾汉的传奇至少可以追溯到英格兰历史的500年之际。

Probably the tales about him were told for many, many years before that. No one knows who first told them.

或许他的故事在那之前的很长一段时间就被传颂，没人知道谁告诉了他们。

So famous is Robin Hood that an entire opera of beautiful music has been written about him,

罗宾汉非常著名，甚至有关于他的一整部歌剧，

and a moving picture has been made of his stirring deeds.

还有关于他精彩事迹的电影。

Achilles and Ulysses were two great heroes of ancient Greece. The stories about them go back probably three thousand years,

阿喀琉斯和尤利西斯是古希腊两名伟大英雄，他们的故事可以追溯到3000年以前，

and they have come down to us in the writings of a blind, wandering, minstrel poet named Homer.

我们是通过一个名叫荷马的游方诗人的文字知道的他们，荷马是一名失明的游荡诗人。

His name is famous the world over because of two great poems he wrote, the Iliad and the Odyssey³.

他的名字家喻户晓，因为两首关于他们的著名诗词，《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》。

Homer probably first wandered from town to town with his harp⁴, singing these long song-stories of great heroes.

荷马或许首先在城镇中游荡，拿着竖琴，吟唱与伟大英雄有关的故事歌曲。

If Homer had not written these tales in verse, we should know very little about the Greeks of ancient times.

如果荷马没有将这些故事通过诗歌传递出来，我们很少会知道关于古希腊的历史。

It is often true that such old, old stories are almost the only means we have of knowing how the people of those times lived.

老故事几乎就是我们了解当时人生活的唯一方法，这种说法通常是正确的。

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

2 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

3 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

4 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。