英语听力：Byzantium-The Lost Empire 拜占庭：失落的帝国-9

 Just like the people of modern Istanbul, the Byzantines loved fresh bread and fresh vegetables. While the bread，at least the grain for it, they brought from their province of Egypt, the vegetables they grew themselves, in little plots beside their houses in the city, in fields in the great green swathe that ran for mile upon mile down the walls of the city, and here’s still a little bit of it today, growing more or less the same crops.

 

Look at the garlic, the onions, the dill, the dill they used to flavor fish especially those heavy, yellow fish soups they so loved. And this frolic ecological¹ Byzantine delight here, there’s three or four different sorts of crops, there is rocket for salad, there is chard and cabbage again, all sorts of these mint, all growing together in a great profusion².  

 

At the end of it all, lettuce³ to calm your stomach. So and the peasants in the fields, they stopped there for a moment, straightened their backs to watch the lords of Byzantium, those great history makers⁴ riding by, they too could  think, well, we’re not in such a bad time either.

 

The Byzantine economy was based on the classic Mediterranean⁵ diet: wine, grain, cheese, and vegetables and olives. Olive oil was a staple⁶. It was Byzantium’s fuel. It lit streets, and homes and lighthouses, it oiled carts and cured baldness （治愈秃头）①, and it was used for cooking.

 

In its first centuries, Constantinople’s oil came mostly from northern Syria. This is a wonderful thing. It’s a piece of Byzantine industrial archeology. It’s a factory for making olive oil. This is a marvelous little place. I’ll show you how it works, it’s very sensible very logical.

The olives were picked from the trees, they came down that little street in wagons⁷, they were tipped down through a window, and they fell into that trough down there, they were then scooped⁸ out of the trough and put into this mill, this is a great oil press for the berries. You see this drum, there were two of those, they fitted on end in here side by side, a bar went between them, and four or five men pushed around the outside and reduced the olives to skin and the stone into a sort of horrible messy pulp⁹. That then, was taken out of there, and laid in these circles here. Now this thing in the wall here, held a great beam that ran through the air. And hanging above this was a huge cylinder¹⁰ of stone and that then was slowly dropped onto the massive olive paste and the oil dripped down into these tanks. Not the end, because this, after all, although is cold pressed 冷榨, is actually a very impure¹¹ oil at this moment. So they take it out of here.

1 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

2 profusion   

n.挥霍；丰富

参考例句：

• He is liberal to profusion.他挥霍无度。
• The leaves are falling in profusion.落叶纷纷。

3 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

6 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

7 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。

8 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

10 cylinder   

n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸

参考例句：

• What's the volume of this cylinder?这个圆筒的体积有多少？
• The cylinder is getting too much gas and not enough air.汽缸里汽油太多而空气不足。

11 impure   

adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的

参考例句：

• The air of a big city is often impure.大城市的空气往往是污浊的。
• Impure drinking water is a cause of disease.不洁的饮用水是引发疾病的一个原因。