英语听力：Byzantium-The Lost Empire 拜占庭：失落的帝国-7

 Southwest of Istanbul, three days’ sailing on an ancient slave ship, is the Isle¹ of Marmara, its very name in stone.

 

In the first centuries of Byzantium, slaves in their tens of thousands worked in these marble hills. How the Byzantines love marble! In marbles, says a priest, God trapped fields of flowers and mountain forests, and fish and fruit, and melting snows. The ancient blocks still strew² across the kies, hint at the frantic³ energy that was once used to move their precious stone. Still inside the modern quarries⁴, a ancient stone that weighs around a hundred tons, part of an enormous column, to memorialize the military victories of Byzantium. If it were finished, we'd have had a spiral staircase cutting in, and roses sculpture of soldiers on its turning surface. Still here though, it cracked as it was quarried⁵.

 

In ancient times, these quarries were called the quarries of the mother of God. They might just as well being called the quarries of the mother of Constantinople. The whole city was made here, and it was prefab city. Wasn’t just sent off in blocks, every thing was finished, these have been finished, and gone to Constantinople, each one had been lettered. They had exact place in every one of the ancient buildings of the city. This, for example, is the very tip of a building that would have looked like a Roman temple.

 

Modern quarry⁶ masters tell me that they found the best new scenes of marble in the hills, beside the ancient stones. This is a bare good spot then, a giant lonely column shaft⁷. I’ve seen that same shape, so-called peacock’s feather pattern, cut on a broken column lying right on the main streets of old Istanbul.

 

1 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

2 strew   

vt.撒；使散落；撒在…上，散布于

参考例句：

• Their custom is to strew flowers over the graves.他们的风俗是在坟墓上撒花。
• Shells of all shapes and sizes strew the long narrow beach.各种各样的贝壳点缀着狭长的海滩。

3 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

4 quarries   

n.（采）石场( quarry的名词复数 )；猎物（指鸟，兽等）；方形石；（格窗等的）方形玻璃v.从采石场采得( quarry的第三人称单数 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石

参考例句：

• This window was filled with old painted glass in quarries. 这窗户是由旧日的彩色菱形玻璃装配的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They hewed out the stones for the building from nearby quarries. 他们从邻近的采石场开凿出石头供建造那栋房子用。 来自辞典例句

5 quarried   

v.从采石场采得( quarry的过去式和过去分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石

参考例句：

• The workmen quarried out a huge block of marble. 工人们从采石场采得一块很大的大理石。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The large limestone caves are also quarried for cement. 同时还在这些大石灰岩洞里开采水泥原料。 来自辞典例句

6 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

7 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。