英语听力：探索发现 2014-03-28 Sex for Sale -5

 Water cooler lowdown1. A fair of prostitutes say St.Thomas Acquinas was quite famous for saying Give me chastity just not yet. He wasn't alone. 

2. 20 percent of clergy¹ regularly enjoyed a church brothel visit.

3. But prostitutes weren't just getting lucky with the clergy. They were also used as models for painting angels and saints² in religious art. Providing a valuable service that guaranteed a sizable profit, even the Catholic³ church couldn't deny the value of sex for sale.

The sex business wasn't always so controversial. In ancient Rome, prostitution was legal. Though paying for sex was common, the story behind Theodora, one of Constantinople's most famous prostitutes, is anything but ordinary.

In the early Middle Ages, Rome was in decline⁴ and with no longer the place that all the roads led to. The place was to be with Constantinople, the new seat of the Eastern Rome Empire, otherwise konwn as the Byzantium Empire.

-It was the crossroads of the world, and you could get any sort of fabrics⁵ and spices and drugs and anything that your heart desired.

One thing that was always for selling in Constantinople was sex.

1 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

2 saints   

圣人般的人（指特别善良、仁爱或有耐性的人）( saint的名词复数 )； 圣…（冠于人名、地名之前）； （因其生死言行而被基督教会追封的）圣人； 圣徒

参考例句：

• The children were all named after saints. 这些孩子都取了圣徒的名字。
• In 1461, the bishop of Saints, Louis de Rochechouart, saw only a plain wall. 1461年Saints主教，LouisdeRochechouart主教看到只剩一堵朴质的墙。

3 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

4 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。

5 fabrics   

织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地

参考例句：

• cotton fabrics and synthetics 棉织物与合成织物
• The fabrics are merchandised through a network of dealers. 通过经销网点销售纺织品。