2006年VOA标准英语-Pope Benedict XVI Visits Auschwitz
时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：2006年VOA标准英语（五月）
By Sabina Castelfranco
Oswiecim, Poland
28 May 2006
Calling himself a son of Germany, Pope Benedict XVI prayed at the former Nazi 1 death camp in Auschwitz. The visit was the most poignant 2 moment in the pope's four-day visit to Poland.
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Pope Benedict XVI with Poland's President Lech Kaczynski in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz
Pope Benedict XVI walked silently past the infamous 3 gate of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, under the metal arch reading "Arbeit Macht Frei", German for "Work sets you free".
He stopped in front of the Wall of Death where thousands of prisoners were executed during World War II. He was handed a lighted candle, which he placed before the wall.
Then Benedict XVI walked up to a long line of 32 elderly camp survivors 4 to greet them. He stopped to talk to each one of them. One and one half million people died in Auschwitz during the Nazi regime, most of them Jews.
Solemn music was played. Then the pope prayed in German, the first time he spoke 5 in his native language during this visit to Poland.
He addressed those present, saying it was almost impossible to speak in this place of horror, in this place, he said, where unprecedented 6 mass crimes were committed against God and man.
Words fail here, he said adding that he had to come to Auschwitz to implore 7 the grace of reconciliation 8 from the men and women who suffered here. Benedict said that in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau humanity walked through a valley of darkness.
Benedict XVI said he came to Auschwitz as a son of the German people. He said he could not fail to come here. He had to come as a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness.
The German pope said this is a place of living memory, and behind the inscriptions 9 he saw, is hidden the fate of countless 10 human beings. He said they show us the terrifying effect of hatred 11, and help us see evil as evil and to reject it.
- They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
- Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。
- His lyrics are as acerbic and poignant as they ever have been.他的歌词一如既往的犀利辛辣。
- It is especially poignant that he died on the day before his wedding.他在婚礼前一天去世了，这尤其令人悲恸。
- He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
- I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。
- The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
- survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
- The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
- A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。
- I implore you to write. At least tell me you're alive.请给我音讯，让我知道你还活着。
- Please implore someone else's help in a crisis.危险时请向别人求助。
- He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
- Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。
- Centuries of wind and rain had worn away the inscriptions on the gravestones. 几个世纪的风雨已磨损了墓碑上的碑文。
- The inscriptions on the stone tablet have become blurred with the passage of time. 年代久了，石碑上的字迹已经模糊了。
- In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
- I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。