英语听力：探索发现 2012-07-20 爱尔兰的故事 Story Of Ireland—3

 -I remember one kid said, “Sir, that doesn't make any sense?” I said, “How do you mean it doesn't make any sense?” I said, “Carson wanted the union of Ireland and Britain, he wanted what, for him, was the best thing for Ireland. Now can you say that he is not a patriot¹ because he doesn't agree with you?” I was trying to do that kind of thing.

 

-And telling the true history is key to that, isn't it?

 

-It is. But you see, you come back then, “what's truth”. 

 

Walking the streets of Cork² now, I find the city proud of its links with the world beyond and willing to acknowledge a history made of many influences in which Irishness embraced different allegiances. 

 

Our story of Ireland begins by going back through a landscape marked by the change of centuries, through the scattering³ of tribes, the rise and fall of kings, through prosperity and war, and a revolution of faith. 

 

The first waves of settlers are thought to have come from Europe about 10,000 years ago. This ancient burial site at Newgrange is the oldest known building in Ireland. 

 

Across the ancient world, men built monuments to their dead. But this structure at Newgrange predates some of the most famous. It was built 500 years before the Pyramids of Giza, a thousand years before Stonehenge. But what can it tell us about the lives of some of the earliest inhabitants of this island?

 

People first came into Ireland about 8,000 B.C., after the end of Ice Age. Farming comes into Ireland about 4,000 B.C., and Newgrange is built in the centuries just about 3,000 B.C.

1 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

2 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

3 scattering   

n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散

参考例句：

• The child felle into a rage and began scattering its toys about. 这孩子突发狂怒，把玩具扔得满地都是。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The farmers are scattering seed. 农夫们在播种。 来自《简明英汉词典》