美国学生人类历史 第93期:罗马帝国的故事(3)
时间：2019-01-18 作者：英语课 分类：美国学生人类历史
英语课
They crouched 1 together in filthy 2 hovels in the suburbs of the large cities. They were apt to get sick and die from terrible epidemics 3. They were all profoundly discontented. They had fought for their country and this was their reward. They were always willing tolisten to those plausible 4 spell-binders who gather around a public grievance 5 like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a grave menace to the safety of the state.
他们聚居在大城市郊区肮脏污秽的棚屋里，糟糕的卫生条件使他们极易患病，而一旦染上瘟疫便必死无疑。他们个个心怀不满，怨气冲天。看看吧，他们都曾为祖国而战，可祖国竟如此回报他们！因此，他们很愿意倾听演说家们的煽动言辞。这些野心家别有用心地把这群饿鹰似的人们聚集在自己身旁，很快便成为了国家的严重威胁。
But the class of the newly-rich shrugged 6 its shoulders. "We have our army and our policemen," they argued, "they will keep the mob in order."And they hid themselves behind the high walls of their pleasant villas 7 and cultivated their gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which a Greek slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters.
新兴的富人阶级看到这种情形，只是轻描淡写地耸耸肩膀。"我们拥有军队和警察，"富人们争辩道，"他们能使暴徒们保持安静。"随后，他们便躲进自己高墙环绕的舒适别墅，惬意地修花剪草，或是读上几行希腊奴隶为其主子译为优美拉丁文的荷马史诗。
In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish service to the Commonwealth 8 continued. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, had been married to a Roman by the name of Gracchus. She had two sons, Tiberius and Gaius. When the boys grew up they entered politics and tried to bring about certain much-needed reforms. A census 9 had shown that most of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by two thousand noble families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been elected a Tribune, tried to help the freemen. He revived two ancient laws which restricted the number of acres which a single owner might possess. In this way he hoped to revive the valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. The newlyrich called him a robber and an enemy of the state.
不过在几个贵族世家里，古老共和国时代的质朴品德和无私的服务精神还保持着。科内莉亚是阿非利加将军西皮奥的女儿，她嫁给一位名为格拉古的罗马贵族。她生下两个儿子，一个叫提比略，一个叫盖约斯。长大后，两人都进人了政坛，并努力实施了几项急需的改革措施。提比略·格拉古当选为保民官，他想帮助处于困境自由 民。为此，他恢复了两项古代的法律，把个人可以拥有的土地数量限制在一定的范围内。他希望通过此项改革，复兴对国家极有价值的小土地所有者阶层。可他的行动遭到了富人们的仇视，暴发户们称他为"强盗"和"国家公敌"。
v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )
- He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
- The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。
adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的
- The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
- You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。
n．流行病
- Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
- The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。
adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的
- His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
- Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。
n.怨愤，气恼，委屈
- He will not easily forget his grievance.他不会轻易忘掉他的委屈。
- He had been nursing a grievance against his boss for months.几个月来他对老板一直心怀不满。
vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）
- Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
- She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅
- Magnificent villas are found throughout Italy. 在意大利到处可看到豪华的别墅。
- Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build sea-side villas. 有钱人从富有的罗马来到这儿建造海滨别墅。
n.共和国，联邦，共同体
- He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
- Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。