时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:中世纪攻城战


英语课

Knights 1 in shining armor, charging each other in great pitched battles, that is the popular view of warfare 2 in the Middle Ages. In reality, most medieval conflicts involved the attacking of castles, and mounted knights were not much use against stone walls. A siege against a castle could take weeks, even months. The attacking army pitted against a well-defended garrison 3 within. By the end of the 13th century, the science of defensive 4 architecture had reached a peak. Stone walls were built thicker and taller than ever before, and archers 5 could easily pick off advancing attackers. To further frustrate 6 attempts at breaching 7 the walls, castles were situated 8 on rocky crags, or surrounded by water. But every advance in castle defense 9 drove attackers to devise better siege weapons.

"During the Middle Ages, castles kept improving, they kept improving as weapons of attack got better, and tactics was this eternal balance between attack and defense."

"Heave!"

Two hundred years before cannon 10 appeared in Europe, chroniclers make reference to what appears to be the ultimate 13th century's siege weapon: an ingenious new form of heavy artillery 11 that flung huge stone balls with such destructive power that castle walls were reduced to rubble 12. But no ancient weapon of this type has survived. Were such claims gross exaggerations, or did such a weapon really exist?

To answer these questions, NOVA brings together a team of experts in medieval warfare, who believe they know the secret.

"It's chaos 13, it's Wednesday I think, I don't have a clue whether or not we'll finish."
Their task, to build siege machines capable of destroying a castle wall at a range of about 200 yards.

"Well, I think that the thing will smash it up, nicely yeah."

With just two weeks to meet the challenge, a siege mentality 14 quickly sets in. No modern builders have ever managed to do this before.

"...balance. Once I got it in, the whole thing could twist and tip quite alarmingly."

"one more draw, one more draw."

This interplay between defenders 15 and siegers, it's still up in the air, we could still take it, then again we could fail. It's sort of "in the lap of the gods".



1 knights
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马
  • stories of knights and fair maidens 关于骑士和美女的故事
  • He wove a fascinating tale of knights in shining armour. 他编了一个穿着明亮盔甲的骑士的迷人故事。
2 warfare
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突
  • He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
  • Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。
3 garrison
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防
  • The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
  • The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。
4 defensive
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的
  • Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题,使她警觉起来。
  • The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。
5 archers
n.弓箭手,射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 )
  • The next evening old Mr. Sillerton Jackson came to dine with the Archers. 第二天晚上,西勒顿?杰克逊老先生来和阿切尔家人一起吃饭。 来自辞典例句
  • Week of Archer: Double growth for Archers and Marksmen. 射手周:弓箭手与弩手(人类)产量加倍。 来自互联网
6 frustrate
v.使失望;使沮丧;使厌烦
  • But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心,他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
  • They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。
7 breaching
攻破( breach的过去式 ); 破坏,违反
  • The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。
  • Third, an agency can abuse its discretion by breaching certain principles of judge-made law. 第三,行政机关会因违反某些法官制定的法律原则而构成滥用自由裁量权。
8 situated
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的
  • The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
  • She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。
9 defense
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
10 cannon
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮
  • The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
  • The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。
11 artillery
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队)
  • This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
  • The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。
12 rubble
n.(一堆)碎石,瓦砾
  • After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后,花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
  • After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。
13 chaos
n.混乱,无秩序
  • After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后,城市一片混乱。
  • The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。
14 mentality
n.心理,思想,脑力
  • He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
  • Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。
15 defenders
n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者
  • The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众,只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
abhinayas
acoustic recognition input
Adenocaulon himalaicum
Al-Si alloy
alternative futures
altitude air valve
amerigo vespuccis
aquametry apparatus
auxiliary capacitor
baby dick
be like sisters
Benedict's solution/Benedict's reagent
blahblahs
brainers
builder's cleavage
business departments
carbonaceous fuel
CDP-diacylglycerol
ceepryn
centrifugal-force tachometer
chicken pot pie
cinchonometry
closed clause
conioscinella intrita
convection mass transfer
cryature
dialytic
dithorium
Dougga
drafting standard
drummondia clavellata hook.
duples
E,e
electric steel sheets and strips
engine starting system
equatorial cleavage
equipotential region
external superheater
Fijian
firebuttons
flexible service
flip a switch
Formigny
full screen
Ganglia spinalia
gangs up on
genus hygrotramas
grandparent
hansels
Hutchinson-Gilford disease
in for perpetuity
in-plant test
Isaac Singer
james abbott mcneill whistlers
jigglings
kliegs
lochlan
low-frequency power amplifier
lower confidence limit
maser preamplifier
May wines
Mealy machines
Monactinellida
myotrophy
obligation fund
paradoxicality
pledge card
poor-me-one
portable hoisting jacks
protection addressing
pseudoplastics
put out of service
radiality
railway ticket
reserved page
risk free rate
self-indulgent
shallow footing
skew roller table
sloping control panel
spunbonded
stain etch
subgenital plate
swimmies
synagogue
TAREX
thermodynamic branch
thin-sheet metal
thirty-something
trendscriber
trichromatic colorimeter
Truphylline
two-phase
unclimactic
viallis
Waldstein, Albrecht von
Windows Task Manager
wire sonde
workhead transformator
yavuz
yielding arch