英语听力：Byzantium-The Lost Empire 拜占庭：失落的帝国-14

 Squares become circles, circles octagons, and all around a single central point. Space spins into ever smaller spaces. It's as perfectly¹ mysterious as the finest natural crystal. The walls, the columns, seem to be nothing more than an illusion, and simply fade away.

 

Just look at that great, big, glorious dome², like a huge melon, divided into 16 sections, and held by 8 wonderful swinging arches on those extraordinary V-shape pillars and 28 columns through the church. It's like a vast net of stone and brick slung³ over this central space, this strange, mysterious space for the imperial communion.

 

It's a wonderful piece of architecture. And it's so... also it's a problem that you can't even see. You see those low domes⁴ exert tremendous pressure and there is a force in this building to push the bottom of it out, so the whole thing comes crashing down.

 

Now, Anthemius, like every other architect, has used stone here as lintels and beams, as stress and strain, the old way of doing things. He's come up with a brilliant idea to hold the church together, and it's this cornice. This huge beautiful marble cornice with inscription⁵ to Justinian and Theodora, this isn't just here for decoration, this links the church in a chain. It binds⁶ the stones together. A great necklace for the church brought from a shining island in a bright blue sea.

 

Throughout Justinian's long reign⁷, the Marmara quarries⁸ were hard at work, shipping⁹ stone for a new crop of imperial churches. This was building on a grand scale, churches for every country in the empire. But the biggest of them all was a new church for the imperial communion in Constantinople. Through this, the quarry¹⁰ masters were cutting larger and yet larger versions of Anthemius's clever interlocking cornice.

 

Here is a piece of one of those stone chains under construction, and here's its secret. Each block was held to the next block by a great iron bracket held in lead run between the two stones. Anthemius's engineers used rather a lot of iron in their buildings. It's part of a whole new series of techniques that allow them to think more daringly, more bravely than any other architects have done before. Above all, it enabled Justinian himself to have the ambition to conceive of the greatest dome the world has ever seen.

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

3 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

4 domes   

n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场

参考例句：

• The domes are circular or ovoid in cross-section. 穹丘的横断面为圆形或卵圆形。 来自辞典例句
• Parks. The facilities highlighted in text include sport complexes and fabric domes. 本书重点讲的设施包括运动场所和顶棚式结构。 来自互联网

5 inscription   

n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文

参考例句：

• The inscription has worn away and can no longer be read.铭文已磨损，无法辨认了。
• He chiselled an inscription on the marble.他在大理石上刻碑文。

6 binds   

v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕

参考例句：

• Frost binds the soil. 霜使土壤凝结。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Stones and cement binds strongly. 石头和水泥凝固得很牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

8 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

9 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

10 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。